SHARP, John I

It is possible that Sharp was originally from Powick, Worcestershire, for John Sharp of Powick was party to at least two conveyances of property at Worcester in 1416.2 CP25(1)/260/27/4; Worcester Chs. (Worcs. Historical Soc. 1909), 77. It is not known whether John of Powick was the John Sharp of Worcs. who acted as a surety for Constance, wid. of Sir John Sutton of Dudley and mother of the courtier and diplomat John, Lord Dudley, in 1407, or whether the MP should be identified with the John Sharp of King’s Norton, ‘gentleman’ active in the early 1440s: CFR, xiii. 83; Oxf. DNB, ‘Sutton, John (VI)’; CCR, 1441-7, p. 122. So far as is known, he never held any of the major municipal offices in the city, in spite of representing it in two consecutive Parliaments. During the second of these assemblies, the Commons complained to the Crown about the activities of certain ‘Welshmen’ and others who impeded the free transport of goods to Worcester, Gloucester, Bristol and other towns by the Severn. Given that the petition concerned a matter directly affecting Worcester, it is possible that Sharpe and his fellow burgess Richard Vely* played a part in preparing or promoting it.3 PROME, x. 361-2. After leaving the Parliament of 1427, Sharp served the Crown as a tax collector at Worcester, and in November 1431 he was a member of a jury in the city which gave evidence to the commissioners for the subsidy on lands granted by the Parliament of that year to the King.4 Feudal Aids, v. 325.

In April 1430 Thomas Swyney*, the other MP for Worcester in 1426, conveyed lands at Kempsey to Sharp and the clerk, William Hawkes. Fourteen years later, Sharp transferred his interest in the lands to Roger Gower, rector of All Saints, and another clerk, John Baker. In March 1446 Gower and Baker conveyed them to John Langeston, who immediately afterwards received a quitclaim from Sharp, probably acting as a feoffee on Swyney’s behalf.5 Birmingham Archs., Zachary Lloyd pprs., 3688/109, 113-14, 116. Sharp also possessed land at Leigh in Gloucestershire, as a tenant of the estates once held by the late Richard Ruyhale† (d.1408). In 1430 he began a suit at Westminster against Robert Twynnyng and Robert Walsall, both of Worcester, and Thomas Charlecote alias Prat, a ‘gentleman’ alias ‘yeoman’ of Gloucester and Saxon’s Lode, Worcestershire, accusing them of having disturbed his rightful possession of this land by forging deeds and other evidences relating to the former Ruyhale properties. According to Sharp, some of the forgeries were produced by Charlecote alone and dated from the early summer of 1427; while the others were the work of the three men acting together in late 1429. Charlecote claimed an interest in the Ruyhale inheritance through his wife, Isabel. In 1421 he had entered the manor of Dymock, Gloucestershire, in her name, only to be ejected by Richard Ruyhale’s widow Elizabeth and her then husband, Richard Oldcastle.6 CP40/678, rot. 427; 679, rot. 405d; 684, rot. 111; 713, rot. 313d; CPR, 1429-36, pp. 281-2.

The litigation arising from Sharp’s suit proved extremely protracted since Charlecote, evidently the principal defendant, was subsequently outlawed for not answering in court. He finally appeared at Westminster in Easter term 1439. Upon doing so, he was obliged also to answer the King, since he stood accused of forgery, a breach of statute law. In the following term he pleaded not guilty and the matter was referred for trial at the assizes held at Worcester in the spring of 1440. In the event, he failed to appear at the assizes, the jury found him guilty in his absence and Sharp was awarded a total of 60s. in damages, costs and expenses. This was not the end of the matter, for Charlecote was subsequently outlawed again for having not paid his opponent 40s. of this money, a sum still outstanding a decade and a half later. He also endured a long period of imprisonment for forgery and it was on account of this confinement that he was fined just 6s. 8d. when he compounded with the Crown in May 1455. The court also pardoned him the 40s. he owed Sharp, probably because the latter was no longer alive.7 CP40/713, rot. 313d; 714, rots. 112, 112d; CPR, 1436-41, p. 159; 1452-61, p. 232.

Whenever he died, Sharp is certainly not heard of after the mid 1440s. A Roger Sharp attested the election of the knights of the shire for Worcestershire to the Parliament of 1478 but his connexion, if any, with the onetime MP for Worcester is not known.