Young Richard Sharp’s future, as a haberdasher of hats in a long-established family business, had thus 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 maintained a friendship till Fell’s death, and at the age of 24, Sharp wrote a preface to Fell’s book, An Essay towards an English Grammar (1784).