St Valentines Day
The following source list was originally available only on paper in one of the West Yorkshire Archive Service offices. It may have been compiled many years ago and could be out of date. It was designed to act as a signpost to records of interest on a particular historical subject, but may relate only to one West Yorkshire district, or be an incomplete list of sources available. Please feel free to add or update with any additional information. |
A Very Georgian Romance - Sharp family collection C617
The Sharps were a family of Quakers, originally living in Selby and active in the Knaresborough Society of Friends.
Joseph’s mother and father were John and Hannah (married in 1788). Joseph’s father was a man of several trades, including work as the manager of the Ackworth School Farm. Though successful, John’s business life was not without its upsets, including a failed business enterprise in Leeds caused in part by high rents and poor land, but also due to a lack of capital after a failed speculation in the Castle Mills on the Foss, York.
Joseph’s mother died in the Autumn of 1801, and John’s father joined his son Joseph and daughter Rebecca in Philadelphia in 1818. By the time of Hannah’s death, she had given birth to nine children in the space of eleven years. The family’s romantic nature must have come in handy as John remarried in 1821 and 1837. He died in 1841.
Joseph (Hannah’s fourth child in five years) attended Ackworth School between 1805 and 1807, and after leaving school became an apprentice draper in Hensley.
It is assumed that Joseph Sharp must have met Hannah around 1811 – the date of the Valentine’s poem and the tone suggests this may have been the 18-year old Joseph’s initial attempts to woo Hannah.
In May 1816, Joseph and his younger sister Rebecca sailed for America, landing in Philadelphia. Shortly after arriving, he again became a draper’s apprentice, becoming a much-travelled man as he journeyed up to 1,800 miles to take in orders. In 1818 he started his own account.
In 1822, Joseph – now aged 29 - returned to England. Further letters in the collection, dated between January and July 1822 show the developing relationship between the couple. Joseph, after meeting Hannah again on the 27th January 1822 returned north to live with his friend Thomas Hoyle and his business partner William Worrell in Manchester. At this point, Joseph was also involved with business concerns in Halifax and Leeds, as the letters make frequent reference to Joseph having to make the passage between the two counties.
To say that Joseph was still infatuated with Hannah is something of an understatement. The letters all make Josephs feeling for Hannah very clear, and the following verse gives a good example:
Say, did they bosom ever heave
For me affections sigh?
Or did thou ever yet believe
In dream that I were nigh?
Or is the deadly voice of hate,
Or jealousy, was heard,
Say, did thou e’er extenuate
My faults with one kind word
Or did thou ever when alone,
Accord with what I’ve said.;
If so thou’st done, my heart thy own.
And Thine is Thine, dear maid.
Joseph Sharp married Hannah Lindsey (daughter of Wm and Ann) on Oct 22 1822, at the Peel Meeting House, London.
The couple moved back to Philadelphia shortly after marriage and had four children. Joseph died on March 21 1848, aged 55, whereas Hannah died on June 4th 1870, aged 74.