Kershaw is engaged

The phone has been ringing off the hook at the Hampshire House, where owner Tom Kershaw is thanking all the well-wishers calling about his big news: Kershaw of Beacon Hill popped The Question to Janet Sharp of Winchester last week.

"We were sitting on my couch one evening, I don't know how the subject came up, and she said yes," said a beaming Kershaw.

Kershaw met Sharp over the summer in Nantucket at a fundraiser for his friend, Councilor Mike Ross. She was there with friends who also knew Ross. Smitten, he asked for her phone number, and they ended up going on a date four weeks later. "It's been fast and furious ever since," he said.

The two announced their engagement November 11. For now, Sharp is sporting a cocktail ring made up of a ruby arranged with diamonds, while they are having her engagement ring custom-made by a local jeweler. "I purchased a cocktail ring as an interim to show that we are 'engaged' – there are a lot of things you can say but he you've to have some visual," says Kershaw. "It'll be a nice size diamond."

Sharp is the mother of two; her daughter, Elizabeth, is in a post-graduate pre-med program at Columbia University in New York City, and her son is at the University of Vermont. Janet is a graduate of Hamilton College and has been in the real estate business, is active in many charitable activities, and is an avid tennis player.

Kershaw is the owner of the Hampshire House on Beacon Hill, Cheers, and 75 Chestnut, as well as an investor in two suburban restaurants, John Brewer's Tavern of Waltham and John Brewer's Tavern of Malden. Kershaw is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Business School and had been a resident of Beacon Hill for more than 40 years. This year he will be celebrating 40 years of ownership of the Hampshire House property at 84 Beacon Street.

The couple plan to reside on Beacon Hill and in Winchester.

Wedding plans are being finalized and will probably be some time in the month of May, says Kershaw. They're looking at holding the ceremony at the Church of the Covenant, and having a small reception at the Hampshire House.