Sharp's activities during his third decade show him seeking out intellectual stimulation, and finding political issues that interested him. It was not hard to enter the ranks of society where that was possible – he had some family money, and there were plenty of individuals in and about the City, many of them young, who enjoyed thought-provoking books, fashionable ideas, and good conversation. Often they were Dissenters like himself. He is reported to have met Samuel Johnson (who died when Sharp was only 24), and to have dined regularly with Boswell. Perhaps sampling a different career, he was admitted to the Inner Temple on 24 January 1786, though he never was called to the Bar. In 1788 he became a member of the Committee for the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade (formed in 1787), and he became a member of various reform political clubs over the next few years.