SHARP, John IV

Beyond Sharp’s election to Parliament, nothing certain is known of him. The Carlisle MPs for 1432 appear only on the endorsement of the electoral writ and in a hand different from the rest of that endorsement. This was probably because the city authorities were late in informing the sheriff of the identity of their representatives, rather than because the names were added only after the return had reached Chancery. The other MP, Thomas Cuthbertson*, is known to have been a local man, and the probability is that Sharp was also. It is possible that he is to be identified with the namesake who on 13 Nov. 1447 received an assignment in the Exchequer on behalf of Marmaduke Lumley, bishop of Carlisle, and former warden of the west march.1 C219/14/3; E403/769, m. 2.