Governor Horatio Sharpe

Governor Horatio Sharpe
Name	Horatio Sharpe
Birth date	1718
Birth place	Hull, Yorkshire, England
Death date	July 18, 1790
Death place	Havre de Grace, Maryland, British America
Occupation	Colonial administrator, planter
Office	21st Proprietary Governor of Maryland
Term start	1753
Term end	1768
Predecessor	Samuel Ogle
Successor	Robert Eden

Governor Horatio Sharpe was an English-born colonial official who served as the proprietary Governor of Maryland from 1753 to 1768, presiding during the era of the French and Indian War, shifting transatlantic commerce, and increasing tensions between the Province of Maryland and the British Empire. His tenure intersected with leading figures such as Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore, William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, and George Washington, and involved interactions with institutions including the Maryland General Assembly, the Board of Trade, and the Royal Navy.

Early life and family

Sharpe was born in 1718 in Hull, Yorkshire, the son of a merchant family connected to the City of London trade networks and the Baltic trade. He was related by kinship ties to the merchant-banking circles in London and the landed gentry of Yorkshire, with family associations reaching to figures in Kingston upon Hull, Hull Trinity House, and maritime commerce tied to the East India Company. His upbringing placed him within the milieu of Whig patronage and the patron-client relationships that connected provincial appointments to noble patrons such as Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore and later Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore.

Military and mercantile career

In early adulthood Sharpe pursued both military and commercial avenues, holding commissions in regiments associated with the British Army and serving in capacities that linked him to the Yarmouth militia and other local forces. His mercantile activities placed him in contact with trading hubs like Liverpool, Bristol, and Baltimore, and with insurers and financiers in the City of London. These dual experiences gave Sharpe familiarity with naval logistics, provisioning for regiments, and the colonial mercantile circuits between New England, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Caribbean islands such as Jamaica and Barbados.

Appointment as Governor of Maryland

Sharpe's appointment in 1753 as proprietary governor resulted from patronage by Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore and consultation with the Board of Trade and ministers in London including allies in the Ministry of the Duke of Newcastle. He succeeded Samuel Ogle and assumed duties at the colonial capital of Annapolis, Maryland where he engaged with the Governor's Council, the Maryland General Assembly, and the Provost Marshal and other officials. His commissioning reflected the interplay between proprietary prerogative vested in the Calvert family and imperial oversight exercised by the Privy Council.

Administration and policies (1753–1768)

During his administration Sharpe navigated fiscal pressures arising from mobilization against the French and Indian War and wartime requisitions by the Royal Navy and British regiments commanded by officers such as Edward Braddock and John Forbes. He oversaw militia organization involving colonial leaders like George Washington and negotiated appropriations with the Maryland General Assembly while contending with legal questions referred to the Chancery and the Court of King's Bench. His policies affected proprietary landholdings administered through the Calvert family estates and dealings with the Land Office and the Chesapeake tobacco trade, intersecting with merchants in London, Glasgow, and Amsterdam. Sharpe engaged with urban affairs in Annapolis and rural issues in Prince George's County, Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland, and Queen Anne's County, Maryland, while several disputes over taxation, impressment, and assembly privileges drew the attention of the Board of Trade and parliamentary committees in Westminster.

Relations with Indigenous peoples and colonies

Sharpe's tenure involved diplomatic and military interactions regarding frontier defense and treaties involving Indigenous nations such as the Iroquois Confederacy, the Delaware (Lenape), and the Shawnee, as colonial authorities coordinated with commanders like John Forbes and negotiated frontier settlement policies related to the Proclamation of 1763. He contended with colonial neighbors including the Province of Pennsylvania, the Colony of Virginia, and the Province of North Carolina over boundary, trade, and security issues, and corresponded with colonial governors such as Robert Dinwiddie and William Gooch about joint actions against French and Indigenous forces. These relations implicated enterprises in the fur trade centered in posts tied to Pittsburgh and rivers of the Ohio Country.

Personal life, estate and later years

Sharpe acquired and developed an estate at Havre de Grace, Maryland and maintained residences in Annapolis and on Calvert proprietary lands, with plantations operated through overseers and tied to the tobacco planters of the Chesapeake. He hosted figures from transatlantic society including officers from the Royal Navy, members of the Calvert family, and planters from Talbot County, Maryland and Dorchester County, Maryland. After resigning in 1768 he returned occasionally to England and corresponded with proprietarial agents and London financiers until his death at Havre de Grace in 1790, leaving estate matters influenced by the postwar realignments following the American Revolution and probate interactions with courts in Annapolis and London.

Category:Governors of Maryland Category:1718 births Category:1790 deaths