He "was a
Maiden-lane whip-maker, of the average intelligence of a mechanic", and was an
alderman of New York City. He was a member from New York County of the
New York State Assembly in 1814-15 and from 1816 to 1821, and was
speaker in 1820–21. He was a delegate to the
New York State Constitutional Convention of 1821. Credentials of his election to the
Seventeenth Congress were issued by the
Secretary of State of New York but Sharpe did not claim or take the seat.
Cadwallader D. Colden successfully contested Sharpe's election and was seated on December 12, 1821. Sharpe was elected as an
Adams-Clay Democratic-Republican to the
18th United States Congress, holding office from March 4, 1823 to March 3, 1825. He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election to the
19th United States Congress in 1824. He died on August 3, 1842, in
Brooklyn, New York, and was buried at the
New York Marble Cemetery, but later re-interred in the
Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. ==See also==