Sancho grew up there. He educated himself with the help of gentleman John Montagu who facilitated him and provided access to his library. When he was about twenty, Sancho escaped the house in Greenwich and persuaded the Montagu household to employ him as a butler, which they did.
He became a shop keeper in 1744 and was already known as a refined man of letters, writing to many notable correspondents including David Garrick and Laurence Sterne.
His letters were published posthumously. They are vivid, engaging and relatable. He says this of news: "The news will come with a handsome face - attested by a Gazette extraordinary, garnished by the happy flourishes of news-paper invention".
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