Granville Sharp (10 November 1735 - 6 July 1813) was an British campaigner for the abolition of the slave trade. File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... November 10 is the 314th day of the year (315th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 51 days remaining. ... Events April 16 - The London premiere of Alcina by George Frideric Handel, his first the first Italian opera for the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. ... July 6 is the 187th day of the year (188th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 178 days remaining. ... 1813 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... This French poster depicting the horrific conditions on slave ships was influential in mobilizing public opinion against slavery. ...

He was the ninth of the fourteen children of Thomas Sharp (1693-1758), a prolific theological writer and biographer of his father, John Sharp, archbishop of York. Granville, who was born at Durham in 1735, was educated at Durham School, he was then apprenticed to a London draper, but obtained employment in the government ordnance department in 1758. Sharp's tastes were scholarly; he managed to acquire knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, and before 1770 he had published more than one treatise on biblical criticism. Events January 11 - Eruption of Mt. ... 1758 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... John Sharp (February 16, 1643 - February 2, 1714), English divine, archbishop of York, was born at Bradford, and was educated at Christs College, Cambridge. ... York is a city in northern England, at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss. ... Durham (IPA: locally, in RP) is a small city and main settlement of the City of Durham district of County Durham in northeast England. ... Events April 16 - The London premiere of Alcina by George Frideric Handel, his first the first Italian opera for the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. ... Durham School is an independent British boarding and day school in Durham. ... 1758 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Hebrew (עִבְרִית or עברית, ‘Ivrit) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Jewish communities around the world. ... 1770 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

His fame rests, however, on his untiring efforts for the abolition of slavery. In 1767 he had become involved in litigation with the owner of an enslaved African called Jonathan Strong, in which it was decided that a slave remained in law the chattel of his master even on English soil. Sharp devoted himself to fighting this judgment both with his pen and in the courts of law; and finally it was laid down in the case of James Somersett that a slave becomes free the moment he sets foot on English territory. The Zong incident of 1781 allowed the re-examination of how inhumane slavery was. This French poster depicting the horrific conditions on slave ships was influential in mobilizing public opinion against slavery. ... 1767 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... World map showing location of Africa A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second_largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. ... A ballpoint pen A pen is a writing instrument which applies ink to some surface. ... James Somersett or Somerset was a slave who was brought by his owner from Virginia to England. ... Zong is the name of a ship owned by James Gregson and was involved in the African Slave Trade of the eighteenth Century. ...

Sharp was an ardent sympathizer with the revolted American colonists, and at home advocated parliamentary reform and the legislative independence of Ireland, and agitated against the impressment of sailors for the navy. The American Revolution was an upheaval that ended British control of middle North America, resulting in the formation of the United States of America in 1776. ... The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the senior service of the British armed services, being the oldest of its three branches. ...

It was through his efforts that bishops for the United States of America were consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1787. In the same year he was the means of founding a society for the abolition of slavery, and a settlement for emancipated slaves at Sierra Leone. Granville Sharp was also one of the founders of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and of the Society for the Conversion of the Jews. Arms of the see of Canterbury The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior clergyman of the established Church of England and symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. ... 1787 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS; more commonly known as Bible Society) is a charity that was founded on March 7, 1804. ...

One of his tracts, entitled Remarks on the Uses of the Definitive Article in the Greek Text of the New Testament, Containing Many New Proofs of the Divinity of Christ, from Passages Which Are Wrongly Translated in the Common English Version, published in 1798, propounded the rule known as Granville Sharp's Rule: "When the copulative kai connects two nouns of the same case, if the article ho, or any of its cases, precedes the first of the said nouns or participles, and is not repeated before the second noun or participle, the latter always relates to the same person that is expressed or described by the first noun or participle . . . ." (Sharp, Remarks on the Uses of the Definitive Article, 2). 1798 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

Daniel B. Wallace, who accepts Sharp's rule as having some validity, has this to say about the man whose name it bears: "His strong belief in Christ's deity led him to study the Scriptures in the original in order to defend more ably that precious truth ... As he studied the Scriptures in the original, he noticed a certain pattern, namely, when the construction article-noun-και-noun involved personal nouns which were singular and not proper names, they always referred to the same person. He noticed further that this rule applied in several texts to the deity of Jesus Christ" (Wallace, page 61).

Daniel Wallace however claims that this rule is often too broadly applied. "Sharp's rule Number 1" doesn't always work with plural forms of personal titles. Instead, a phrase that follows the form article-noun-"and"-noun, when the nouns involved are plurals, can involve two entirely distinct groups, two overlapping groups, two groups of which is one a subset of the other, or two identical groups (Wallace, page 72-78). In other words, it is not always evident that anything significant for the meaning of the words happens merely by being joined by "and" and dropping the second article.

Granville Sharp's rule number one, concerning the SINGULAR nouns, is unique in it's consistency. After a century of scrutiny, this rule remains without exception. Concerning his Rule Number One and the PLURAL nouns, Mr. Sharp, on page 13 of his book, in explanation of his Rule Number One, also states that: "there are not wanting examples, even of PLURAL nouns, which are expressed exactly agreeable to this rule."

On account of this rule's bearing on Unitarian doctrine, it led to a 'celebrated controversy', in which many leading divines took part, including Christopher Wordsworth. Christopher Wordsworth (October 30, 1807 _ March 20, 1885), English bishop and man of letters, youngest son of Christopher Wordsworth, Master of Trinity, was born in London, and was educated at Winchester and Trinity, Cambridge. ...

Prince Hoare wrote: Memoirs of Granville Sharp (London, 1820). He died on 6th July 1813, and a memorial of him was erected in Westminster Abbey. Richard Colt Hoare (9 December 1758 - 7 May 1838) was an English antiquarian and archaeologist of the early nineteenth century. ... July 6 is the 187th day of the year (188th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 178 days remaining. ... 1813 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Abbeys western façade The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, which is almost always referred to as Westminster Abbey, is a mainly Gothic church, on the scale of a cathedral, in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. ...

External links

• Granville Sharp - Short Biography by Carey Brycchan
• The Granville Sharp Rule
• The complete Granville Sharp Rule Number 1 and examples of plural nouns that agree with Rule number 1
• Read or download Granville Sharp's Book

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.