Details
333/0/10101 CHURCH GATE
16-MAR-07 All Saints Fulham Churchyard
Tomb of Granville Sharp, All Saints ch
urchyard
II
Chest tomb commemorating Granville Sharp (1735-1813) and later members of his family. Portland stone chest tomb with a gently pitched plain capstone, all set on limestone landing stones. On the long north face is a lengthy tribute to Sharp, written by the Reverend John Owen of Paglesham, Essex, and framed with simple roll mouldings:
"Here by the Remains
of the Brother and Sister whom he tenderly loved
lie those of
GRANVILLE SHARP Esqr
at the age of 79 this venerable Philanthropist
terminated his Career
of almost unparalleled activity and usefulness
July 6th 1813
Leaving behind him a name
That will be Cherished with Affection and Gratitude
as long as any homage shall be paid to those principles
Of JUSTICE HUMANITY and RELIGION
he promoted by his Exertion
and adorned by his Example"
The inscription on the east face was mostly illegible at the time of inspection (2007) and those on the south and west faces are only partly legible, all these relating to other members of Sharp's family. The tomb was formerly surrounded by iron railings but these have been removed.
HISTORY: Granville Sharp (1735-1813) was born in Durham into a religious family, his father was archdeacon of Northumberland, his grandfather Archbishop of York. At the age of 15, he was apprenticed to a Quaker linen draper in London and he developed an awareness and skill in theological discussion and research. Sharp's interest in the abolition of slavery developed in the 1760s, when at the house of his brother, an Anglican clergyman, he met Jonathan Strong, a slave who sought medical help after being brutally beaten by his owner, David Lisle. Sharp took on Strong's case, having been arrested for escape and accused of violating his owner's property rights, and he meticulously researched the legal status of slaves in Britain. Sharp took up the cases of other slaves in England, most notably that of James Somerset in 1772, another runaway slave whose owner tried to take him back to Jamaica. The case was overseen by Lord Chief Justice William Mansfield whose ruling, while not going so far as to outlaw slavery, was a key ruling that disallowed 'tak(ing) a slave by force to be sold abroad'. Sharp was a founding member of the London committee of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787, and he and Thomas Clarkson were the only Anglicans amongst the strongly Quaker committee. Although less radical than he had hoped, Sharp endorsed the motions for the abolition of the British slave trade introduced by William Wilberforce into the House of Commons, as well as the ill-fated Sierra Leone resettlement project in 1787. He went on to play an active role in the anti-slavery movement until his death in Fulham in 1813, six years after the 25 March 1807 passing of the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade which effectively abolished the slave trade in the British Empire and led to the total abolition of slavery. Sharp also published a number of anti-slavery texts in the 1760s and 1770s, eventually publishing 61 works, including the first major work on anti-slavery by a British author.
The tomb says that Sharp died aged 79, his date of birth reveals that he was actually 77. An additional monument marking his achievements is in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey.
The tomb has group value with the Grade II* Church of All Saints, the four Grade II monuments in the churchyard and the Grade II Sir William Powell's Almshouses.
SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: This chest tomb has two claims to special interest, one is architectural, for its early-C19 restrained neo-Classical form, with fluted corner pilasters, moulded cornice and shallow pitched plain top slab. The second is its association with the nationally significant abolitionist Granville Sharp, who through his work with the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the African Slave Trade, was seen by the committee as 'the father of the movement'. The tomb stands in the churchyard of the Grade II* Church of All Saints where there are a number of listed significant monuments in the front range. It was listed in March 2007, which marks a national commemoration of the Bicentenary of the 1807 Anti-Slavery Act.
SOURCES: GM Ditchfield, 'Sharp, Granville (1735-1813)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Oct 2005.
Full inscription held in the All Saints vestry.
