Copy Book Archive

The Case of Jonathan Strong Granville Sharp and his surgeon brother William rescued a young African man from the streets of London.

In two parts

1767
King George III 1760-1820
Music: Charles Avison

© Chris Downer, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0. Source

About this picture …

Giltspur Street in London, with St Bartholomew‘s Hospital on the left, and the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral against the sky.

The Case of Jonathan Strong

Part 1 of 2

From the late 1760s, Granville Sharp (1734-1813), a Clerk in the Ordnance Office at the Tower of London, acquired a formidable reputation as an anti-slavery campaigner. By the 1800s, the mere mention of his name brought trembling slave-owners to the negotiating table. It all began quite by accident in 1767, when Granville received a letter from someone called Jonathan Strong, claiming to know him.

ONE day in 1767, Granville Sharp received a letter from a Jonathan Strong, saying he was in jail and needed help. Unable to put a face to the name, Sharp made enquiries at the jail. When he was told no such person existed, he demanded to check every inmate himself.

As soon as he laid eyes on him, he recognised Jonathan as a young African whom Sharp’s brother William, a surgeon, had rescued from the streets two years before, lame and nearly blind. The brothers had paid for treatment at St Bartholomew’s, and then obtained a place for Jonathan at a pharmacy.

Jonathan now explained that he had been helping his employer’s wife into her carriage, when by dreadful chance his former master, a Barbados lawyer called David Lisle who happened to be visiting London, had recognised him, and claimed him as a runaway.

So it was that Jonathan was lying in a city jail, waiting to be shipped off to the West Indies.

Jump to Part 2

Précis

Granville Sharp and his brother took Jonathan Strong, an African, off the streets of London and found a job for him. Two years later, Jonathan was spotted by a former slave-master and claimed as a runaway slave, so he wrote to Granville from jail asking for help. (47 / 60 words)

Part Two

© Christine Matthews, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0. Source

About this picture …

The interior of Westminster Hall, where the Court of King’s Bench met until its abolition in 1873.

MR Lisle’s sense of loss must have clouded his memory.

Strong was no runaway. Lisle had thrown him out, after beating him so badly that he could no longer work; if anything really offended him it was the sight of Jonathan looking so fit. Indeed, even as Jonathan languished in jail, Lisle hurriedly sold him to a Mr Kerr for £30.

Unable to find a lawyer to plead Jonathan’s cause, Sharp researched it himself, and his pamphlet planted sufficient doubt in legal minds to discourage Kerr from going to court straightaway.

Indeed, two years and a rather melodramatic challenge to a duel later (Sharp replied that Kerr would receive ‘satisfaction’ in the courts), the claims of ownership were suddenly dropped.

Kerr was fined £200 for wasting the court’s time, and Jonathan was set free. Admittedly Sharp’s claim, that slavery was so alien to British values that ‘owners’ had no rights here, had not yet come before a judge. But that day was drawing nearer.

Copy Book

Précis

Granville Sharp took Jonathan’s case on himself, researching his legal position. However, his claim that slave owners had no rights in England was not put to the test, as Jonathan’s ‘owner’ backed down in the face of Granville’s determination, and dropped the case. (43 / 60 words)

Source

Based on Self-Help, by Samuel Smiles.

Suggested Music

1 2

Concerto in G Minor (Op. 6) No. 2

3: Adagio

Charles Avison (1709-1770)

Performed by the Avison Ensemble conducted by Pavlo Beznosiuk.

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Concerto in G Minor (Op. 6) No. 2

4: Vivace

Charles Avison (1709-1770)

Performed by the Avison Ensemble conducted by Pavlo Beznosiuk.

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