Jereboam Orville Beauchamp (; September 6, 1802 – July 7, 1826) was an American lawyer who murdered the Kentucky legislator Solomon P. Sharp; the crime is known as the Beauchamp–Sharp Tragedy. In 1821, Sharp had been accused in Bowling Green, Kentucky by Anna Cooke of fathering her illegitimate child; it was stillborn. Sharp denied paternity, and public opinion favored him. In 1824, Beauchamp married Cooke, who was seventeen years older than he. She asked him to kill Sharp to defend her honor. When Sharp campaigned in 1825 for a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives, opponents revived the story of his alleged illegitimate child by Cooke. They distributed campaign literature claiming the child was mulatto. Enraged, Beauchamp renewed his intention to avenge his wife's honor. In the early morning of November 7, 1825, he tricked Sharp to open the door at his home in Frankfort, and fatally stabbed him. Beauchamp was convicted of the murder and sentenced to hang. The morning of the execution, he and his wife attempted a double suicide by stabbing themselves with a knife she had smuggled into prison. She died from the attempt; he did not. Beauchamp was rushed to the gallows before he could bleed to death, and was hanged on July 7, 1826. The bodies of Jereboam and Anna Beauchamp were arranged in an embrace and buried in a single coffin, as they had requested. The Beauchamp–Sharp Tragedy inspired fictional works such as Edgar Allan Poe's unfinished play, Politian, and Robert Penn Warren's World Enough and Time (1950). Early life Jereboam Beauchamp was born September 6, 1802, in the area that is now Simpson County, Kentucky. He was the second son of Thomas and Sally (Smithers) Beauchamp. Both parents were devout Christians. He was named after a paternal uncle, Jereboam O. Beauchamp, a state senator from Washington County. Beauchamp was educated at Dr. Benjamin Thurston's academy in Barren County, Kentucky until the age of sixteen. Recognizing that his father could not sufficiently provide for the family, Beauchamp found work as a shopkeeper to earn money for his education. While he saved money, he did not have enough time to pursue his studies. Recommended by Thurston, Beauchamp became preceptor of a school. After saving more money, he returned to Thurston's school as a student. He later worked for the school as an usher. By age eighteen, Beauchamp had finished his preparatory studies. After