Anthony Sharp

Anthony Sharp (1643–1707) was a Dublin Quaker and wool merchant. Early life Anthony Sharp, the son of Thomas Sharp, was born in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England in January 1643. Religion and business In 1665, impressed by the ministry of William Dewsbury at a meeting in Warwick prison, he joined the Religious Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers. In the summer or early fall of 1669, due to persecution of his Quaker religious beliefs, he fled from Gloucestershire and moved to Dublin and engaged in the woollen trade, in which he was highly successful. By 1680, he employed about 500 workers in the trade and in 1688, the weavers’ guild elected him master. Anthony Sharp was active in the Dublin Quaker Community. In 1683, he and some other Friends of Dublin were thrown into prison because they continued to attend their religious meetings, contrary to the orders of government which prohibited the public meetings of religious dissenters.