Jereboam Beauchamp, who had married Cooke in 1824, avenged the honor of his wife by fatally stabbing Sharp at his home early on the morning of November 7, 1825.

Sharp's murder inspired fictional works, most notably Edgar Allan Poe's unfinished play Politian and Robert Penn Warren's novel World Enough and Time (1950).

[4] The family briefly moved to the area near Nashville, Tennessee, and to North Carolina[5] before settling permanently about 1795 at Russellville, Logan County where they lived in a log cabin near the Muddy River.

[12] He engaged in land speculation, sometimes in partnership with his brother, Dr. Leander Sharp, and by 1824, had acquired 11,000 acres, mostly north of the Barren River in Warren County.

After becoming established, on December 17, 1818, Sharp at the age of 31 married Eliza T. Scott, the daughter of a physician who had served as an officer in the War of 1812.

[7] During the 1811 session, Sharp worked with Ben Hardin to secure passage of a bill to ensure that state officers and attorneys at law would not be involved in dueling.

Twelve days later, in a rapid rise even for the militia, he was promoted to major and made a part of Ewing's staff.

Sharp recognized the value of a record of military service in Kentucky politics, however; he was eventually promoted to the rank of colonel.

[24] The measure, which paid Congressmen a flat salary instead of paying them on a daily basis for the days when they were in session, was unpopular with the voters of his district.

[24] When the next congressional session opened in December 1816, Sharp reversed his position and voted to repeal the law, but the damage was already done; he lost his seat in the House in the next election.

[29] Although Sharp's political opponents would continue to call attention to his putative child in future campaigns, his reputation remained largely untarnished.

His opponent, attorney John U. Waring, was a notably violent and contentious man, frequently in court because of altercations.

[32] In the 1824 presidential election, Sharp alienated some of his constituency by supporting his former House colleague John C. Calhoun instead of Kentucky's favorite son, Henry Clay.

[33] After Governor Adair's term expired in 1825, he was succeeded by another Relief Party member, General Joseph Desha.

The Relief faction in the legislature passed several measures favorable to debtors, but the Kentucky Court of Appeals struck them down as unconstitutional.

[35] On May 11, 1825, Sharp was chosen to represent the Desha administration in welcoming the Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolution, to Kentucky.

[36] The Anti-Relief partisans nominated former Senator John J. Crittenden for one of the two seats apportioned to Franklin County in the state House.

[37] During the sharply contested campaign, both John U. Waring and Patrick Henry Darby, a land speculator, said that Sharp's life was at risk if he won.

[26][38] In the early hours of November 7, 1825, the day the General Assembly was to open its session, a man knocked on the door of Sharp's residence.

Sharp's political rival, John J. Crittenden, tried to blunt such accusations by personally introducing a resolution condemning the murder and offering a $3000 reward for the capture of the assassin.

[43] Beauchamp requested a stay of execution so that he could write a justification of his actions; he continued to assert his avenging his wife's honor.

[46] Heeding these threats, Sharp did not publish his work; all extant manuscripts remained in his house, where they were discovered many years later during a remodeling.