G’day Mr Cornwell,
I’ve failed with several smuggler-related guesses as to Sharpe’s father over the years, but I’m intrigued by a recent post that suggested several possibilities – and your answer that the “answer was there somewhere”.
James Petit seems closest to fitting the bill, as the others mentioned don’t fit the timeline. James on the other hand is a perfect fit time-wise. He was also a smuggler who appears to have been convicted for horse-stealing. On top of which, he was caught smuggling tobacco, and the smuggling setup in his town of Jevington seems to have involved storing contraband in the local church. I’m suspecting the French connection is perhaps in the name Petit.
So that’s a lot of ticks next to previous clues you have given. However I feared that I couldn’t spot the irony… until I found a piece online suggesting that James may well have actually been a “gentleman”.
I look forward to your “nice try, but completely wrong” comment in due course!
Phil Dean