Sharp’s share was taken out by his executors. By his grandfather's will, young Richard was to receive £1,500, to be held in trust for him by his uncles until he came of age. He was a partner with his stepfather, in the firm of Davis & Sharp, still at No. 6, Fish Street Hill in 1782. So Young Richard Sharp's future as a haberdasher of hats in a long-established family business had been settled by the time he was 11 years old. His wealthy grandfather's determination to keep the business in family hands would have left the child no opportunity to plan for anything different. Before his apprenticeship began, however, Sharp had been placed with a private tutor at Thaxted, Essex, the Rev. John Fell, minister of a Dissenting congregation there (Sharp's own family were Dissenters), and this must have opened his eyes to other possibilities. Sharp and Fell remained friends until Fell's death at the age of 24. Sharp wrote a preface to Fell's book, An Essay towards an English Grammar (1784). Adult life Sharp's activities in his third decade show him seeking intellectual stimulation and finding political issues that interested him. It was not hard to enter the ranks of society where that was possible – he had some family money and there were plenty of individuals in and about the City, many of them young, who enjoyed thought-provoking books, fashionable ideas and good conversation. Often they were Dissenters like himself. He is reported to have met Samuel Johnson (who died when Sharp was only 24) and dined regularly with Boswell. Perhaps sampling a different career, he was admitted to the Inner Temple on 24 January 1786, though he was never called to the Bar. In 1788 he became a member of the Committee for the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade (formed in 1787). He became a member of various reform political clubs over subsequent years. In 1798 Sharp finally left the hatting business, which came to an end when the other partner, his stepfather Davis, died two years later. In response to an invitation from a friend, Samuel Boddington, another Dissenter, he now took up a partnership in the latter's West India merchant's firm. A third partner was Sir George Philips (later Sir George Philips). This new enterprise with a potential of great profits must have opened the door to the considerable wealth