▶Date of birth:  18 November 1814        Place of birth: North Walsham, Norfolk

▶Father: James Sharpe      Mother:  Catherine Atkinson

▶Spouse(s):  Maria Palmer    Date(s) of marriage:  10 June 1841     Place(s) of marriage: Olney, Buckinghamshire

▶Occupation: Schoolteacher; Clergyman (Anglican)

▶Lifestory: Samuel Curtis Sharpe was ordained in the Anglican Church but was a schoolmaster while he lived in Cheltenham in the mid 1850s; throughout his adult life he had been perpetrating a series of frauds, and these eventually caught up with him. Sharpe was born in North Walsham, Norfolk, in 1814, the fourth son of James Sharpe, surgeon, of North Walsham, Devon, and his wife Catherine (née Atkinson). Sharpe was educated at Paston grammar school, and matriculated at Christ’s College, Cambridge in 1837, Scholar 1839, BA 1841, MA 1848. He took holy orders, and was ordained Deacon in 1841, and Priest (both Exeter) in 1842.

In 1841 he was licensed Curate of Bishop’s Tawton, North Devon (where he also took in pupils), and married Maria, youngest daughter of Mr Joseph Foster Palmer, of Olney, Buckinghamshire; they had one son and four daughters. At the same time he became Chaplain of Newport, Barnstaple 1843-7. In 1845 he became the local North Devon Secretary to the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, and in the following year lectured to the North Devon Literary and Scientific Institution on vegetable physiology (as he did elsewhere on other scientific subjects).

He was appointed Perpetual Curate of St Peter’s Church, Halliwell, Lancashire in 1848, where he lived in the Parsonage with his family, servant, and one pupil (then apparently educated with Sharpe’s son) until his resignation in 1854. At this point he moved to Cheltenham, and between 1855 and 1858 lived at The Aviary (now Cranley), Wellington Square, where from 1854 he was the Principal of Pittville School, teaching the Senior department of boys, whilst his wife ran the Junior department (in fact she died in October 1855). He advertised that he had “thirteen years’ experience in Private Tuition”.

Sharpe was, however, involved in a series of frauds, and may have perpetrated these in Trouville, Aix-la-Chapelle, Bath, Cheltenham, Clifton, and other places. It was said that “in 1859 a person … was at Gibraltar playing similar pranks” and employing the same alias as those encountered later. He remained at Pittville School until 1860.

As a result of his fraudulent activities, in February 1866 he and Frederick Bowles Brunwin, schoolmasters, of Norland Square, Notting Hill, were declared bankrupt; the judge looked harshly at Sharpe’s case as he was a clergyman with a large house who had defrauded many small tradesmen. Sharpe’s discharge was deferred for a year, and he was forced to flee to France.

In 1867 he applied, through a clerical agent in London, for the post of officiating minister at the Upper Town Church in Rue St. Martin, under the names variously of the Revd. Samuel Curtis Brereton, the Revd. Harry Brereton (late of Bombay), and the Revd. Shovell Clowdesley Brereton, of Boulogne. Because of his apparent status, he was able to obtain substantial credit from local tradesmen, which he could not repay, and so he was dismissed from his post.

He also lived towards his death in Dublin. Sharpe died at Carnoustie, Angus, in 1868, at the age of fifty-three, where he was buried. His wealth at death was sworn at just over £96.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  Halliwell, Lancashire      Moved from Pittville to: London

▶Date of death:   6 August 1868     Place of death: Carnoustie, Forfar, Angus

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial: Carnoustie, Forfar, Angus

▶Notes:        ID: 8477

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden