Cuthbert Sharp

Sir Cuthbert Sharp (1781–1849) was an English soldier, official and antiquary.

The son of Cuthbert Sharp, shipowner, and of Susannah, sister of Brass Crosby, he was born at Hartlepool, Durham, England in 1781, and received his education at Greenwich under Charles Burney. There he formed a lasting friendship with Lord Lake and with Sir Edward Blakeney. When he was eighteen years of age he served in Ireland during the rebellion as an officer in the fencible cavalry.

When his regiment was disbanded, Sharp went to Edinburgh, and in 1803 visited Paris. There he was stranded by the resumption of hostilities at the conclusion of the Peace of Amiens, and detained, with other English visitors, as a prisoner of war. But by the influence of Claude Ambroise Régnier, the Minister of Justice, whom he knew, he was released on parole, and after a few years was allowed to leave for England.

Sharp settled at Hartlepool and took up the study of local antiquities. In 1816 he acted as mayor, and was knighted on the occasion of a visit of the Prince Regent. In 1823 Sharp was appointed collector of customs at Sunderland. In 1845 he was promoted to the post of collector of customs at Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he resided until his death on 17 August 1849.

In 1816 appeared his first book, The History of Hartlepool (2nd ed. 1851), which made his reputation as an antiquarian. Sharp came to know Robert Surtees, the historian of County Durham, and helped him with local genealogies. His contributions to Surtees's History of Durham were distinguished by the initials C. S. surmounted by a rose. In 1840 appeared his Memorials of the Rebellion of 1569, based on the Bowes Manuscripts.

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