Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/513

Rh and of woolly texture. His colored crayons, which he manufactured himself, were kept finely pow- dered in small glass cups, and hi' applied I hem with a camel's-hair pencil. He is said to have worked with _ great rapidity, wholly completing in two hours' a portrait for which he charged $15 for a profile, and $20 for a full face. He usually made a replica of each portrait, which he retained for his own use. This personal collection came into the possession of a gentleman in Virginia, it is said, as a pledge for a loan of $150, which was never repaid, and the portraits remained his. Each one originally had the name of the subject attached to it, but during the civil war a descendant of the owner removed them from his home, and many of the names were lost, out of 130 only 70 were named. Subsequently an effort was made to identify them, but with only partial success. At the Centennial exhibition in 1876, forty of them were purchased for the National museum in Inde- pendence hali, Philadelphia, where they now are. Among them are portraits of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe. Anthony Wayne, Horatio Gates, James Wilkinson, Elias Dayton, James Clinton, De Witt Clinton, Charles Brockton Brown, Chancellor Kent, Judge William Johnson, Chancellor Livingston, Noah Webster, Fisher Ames, Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Rush, Henry Cruger, John Langdon, James McHenry, and the wives of James Madison and Richard Stockton. Sharpless took Washington's portrait in profile in 1796 in Phila- delphia. The likeness has always been estimated as a very correct one. He made many copies in pastel, and his wife copied it on ivory in miniature. In 1854 there were brought from England what pur- ported to be three original oil-portraits by Sharp- less, two of Washington, one profile and the other full face, and one of Mrs. Washington. They were exhibited in New York, and created much interest. In !S82-'3 they were again brought to t hi- country and exhibited more widely, and again in lssi;-'7. when they were offered for sale at an extravagant price, but an investigation threw doubt on thru- authenticity and caused their withdrawal. Sharp- less had a turn for mechanics as well as art, and in the first volume of the " Medical and Philosophical Register" (1811) is published a paper by him on steam-carriages. His widow returned to England and had a sale of his effects at Bath, but his two sons are believed to have remained in this country and settled in the south. It was probably from one of them that the Virginia gentleman obtained the collection of pastel portraits.

SHARPS, Christian, inventor, b. in New Jer- sey in 1811 : d. in Vernon, Conn., 13 March, 1874. He early developed a talent for mechanics, became a machinist, and was conversant with every depart- ment of his trade. His principal invention was the Sharps breech-loading rifle. In 1854 he removed to Hartford, Conn., to superintend the manufac- ture of this rifle, and he subsequently invented other fire-arms of great value, and patented many ingenious implements of various kinds.

SHARSWOOD, George, jurist, b. in Philadel- phia, Pa., 7 July, 1810 ; d" there, 28 May, 1883. He was a descendant in the sixth generation of George Sharswood, of England, who settled at New Lon- don, Conn., before 1665. Hi- grandfather. James (b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 4 April, 1747; d. there. 14 Sept., 1836), was a lumber merchant, served in the Revolutionary war, and was an original mem- ber of the Democratic party, and served in the general assembly of Philadelphia, and also in the select council. He was activelv interested in found- ing the Farmers' and Mechanics' bank, and in 1817 wrote numerous articles against the Bank of the United States. His father died at the age of twenty-two, and before the son's birth, and hi>eai-ly training devolved entirely on his widowed mother. He was educated by his grandfather, Capt. James Sharswood, a wealthy citizen of Phila- delphia,, was graduated at the University of Penn- sylvania in 1828 with the highest honors of his class, and, after studying law under Joseph R. In- gersoll, was admitted to the bar, 5 Sept., 1831. He did not meet with marked success in the early years of his practice, and devoted himself to study. "In 1837-'8 and 1842-'3 he served in the legislature, and in 1845 the governor commissioned him as judge of the district court of Philadelphia. In 1848 he became its president, which post he con- tinued to hold until 1867, when he was elected a justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania. In 1878 he became chief justice, and he retired from the bench in 1882, at the expiration of his term of office. In 1850 he revived the law department of the University of Pennsylvania, which had been established in 1790 by James Wilson, but whose operations had been suspended, and he was the senior professor of law there until 1867, when he resigned his chair. He was a frequent contributor to the literature of the law, beginning in 1834 with an article in the " American Law Review " on " The Revised Code of Pennsylvania." He is the author of Professional Ethics, a Compound of Lectures on the Aims and Duties of the Profession of the Law " (Philadelphia, 1854) ; and " Popular Lectures on Common Law" (1856). The work which for a generation has made his name familiar is "Shars- wood's Blackstone's Commentaries" (1859). In 1853 he undertook the work of editing the several volumes of English common-law reports, repub- lished for the use of the American bar. His editions of English text-writers were numerous. "Adams < ni Equity," " Russell on Crimes," " Byles on Bills," " Leigh's Nisi Prius," and " Starkie on Evidence " are a few of the works that received his attention. In 1856 he published his " Lectures on Commercial Law." While he was a judge of the district court liis written opinions numbered more than 5,000. His opinions in the supreme court are to be found in the " Pennsylvania State Reports " from volumes Ivii. to cii., inclusive. His judicial career won for him the reputation of being one of the most eminent jurists that had ever sat on the bench in Pennsyl- vania, and his urbanity toward the bar gave him a popularity that has never been surpassed in the life of any jurist. These were in part made manifest by a dinner which was tendered him by the bar of Philadelphia, in the Academy of music, on his re- tirement from the bench, by the attendance of more than 500 lawyers at the meeting of the bar, held a few days after his death, and by a memorial tablet that they caused to be placed in the supreme court-room. He was elected vice-provost of the Law academy of Philadelphia in 1835, and .-em-d in this office until 1853, when he was elected pro- vost, which post he continued to fill until a short time before his death. He was chosen a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania in 1872, and was a member of the Philosophical society. The Uni- versity of the city of New York and Columbia col- lege, in 1856, conferred on him the degree of LL. D. See an address by George W. Biddle on the Pro- fessional and Judicial Character of Chief-Justice Sharswood." His cousin, William, author, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1836, was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1856, and then stud- ied at Jena, Germany, where he received the degree