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John Sharples (d.1685) married Jane Moor and, as Quakers, the family emigrated in 1682 from England to land in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Descendants (spelling the surname Sharpless) and relatives lived in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and elsewhere. Includes ancestry in England to the 1200s A.D.
The Pennsylvania historian “deftly investigates turn-of-the-century law (such as it was) to find fresh answers” in a controversial 19th century murder (Main Line Today). On a stormy November evening in 1885, John Sharpless answered a knock on his door. Less than an hour later, he was found dead in his barn from a blow to the back of the head; his bloodstained hat lay next to him on the ground. A three thousand dollar reward for the killer sparked an overzealous bounty hunt across southeastern Pennsylvania, and numerous innocent men were arrested. Samuel Johnson—a local African American man with a criminal record—was charged. Despite the Widow Sharpless’s insistence that Johnson was not the man who had come to their door, he was tried and sentenced to hang. Author Stephanie Hoover offers an in-depth investigation of the crime. From the events of that night and the mishandling of the investigation by a corrupt police force to the trial and conviction of Johnson and the efforts of the Quaker community to appeal the sentence, Hoover profiles a miscarriage of justice in Delaware County. Includes photos