wrote letters of the most whining contrition to Lauderdale, who extended him a careless reconciliation. Fora time he made himself actively useful, and helped to restrain. his brethren from writing to London to complain of the conciliation policy which for a while Lauderdale carried out. On luly Io, 1668 an attempt was made upon his life by Iarnes Mitchell, who fired a pistol at him while driving through the streets of Edinburgh. The shot, however, missed Sharp, though his companion, the bishop of Orkney, was wounded by it, and Mitchell for the time escaped. In August Sharp went up to London, returning in December, and withhis assistance Tweeddale's tolerant proposals for nlling the vacant parishes with some-of the “outed ” ministers were carried out. In the debates on the. Supremacy Act, by which Lauderdale destroyed the autonomy of the church, Sharp at first showed reluctance to put in motion the desired policy, but gave way upon the first pressure. When, however, Leighton, as archbishop of Glasgow, endeavoured to carry out a comprehensive scheme, Sharp actively opposed him, and expressed his joy at the failure of the attempt. From this time he was completely subservient to Lauderdale, .who had now finally determined upon a career of oppression, and in 1674 he was again in London to support this policy; In this year also Mitchell, who had shot at him six years before, was arrested, and, upon Sharp's promise to obtain a pardon, privately made a full confession. When Mitchell later claimed this promise, Sharp denied that any such promise had been given. His falsehood was proved by the entry of the act in the records of the court. Mitchell was finally condemned, but a reprieve would have been granted had not Sharp himself insisted on his death. This was speedily avenged. On the 3rd of May 1679, as he was driving with his-daughter Isabel to St Andrews, he was set upon by nine men, and, in spite of the appeals of his daughter, was cruelly murdered. The place of the murder, on Magus Muir, now covered with fir trees, is marked by a monument erected by Dean Stanley, with a Latin inscription recording the deed. Unless otherwise mentioned, the proofs of the statements in this article will be found in vols. i. and ii. of the Lauderdale Papers (Camden Society) and in two articles in the Scottish Review, July 1884 and January 1885.
SHARP, JOHN (1645~1714), English divine, archbishop of
York, was born at Bradford on the 16th of February 164 5, and
was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge. He was ordained
deacon and priest on August 12th 1667, and until 1676 was
chaplain and tutor in the family of Sir Heneage Finch at
Kensington House. Meanwhile he became archdeacon of Berkshire
(1673), prebendary of Norwich, rector of St Giles's-in-the-Fields,
and in 1681 dean of Norwich. In 1686, when chaplain
to James II., he was suspended for ten months on a charge of
having made some reflections on the king, and in 1688 was
cited for refusing to read the declaration of indulgence. Under
William and Mary he succeeded Tillotson as dean of Canterbury
in 1689, and (after declining a choice of sees vacated by non jurors
who were his personal friends) followed Thomas Lamplugh
as archbishop of York in 1691. He made a thorough investigation
of the affairs of his see, and regulated the disordered chapter
of Southwell. He preached at the coronation of Queen Anne
and became her almoner and confidential adviser in matters
of church and state. He welcomed the Armenian bishops
who came to England in 171 3, and corresponded with the
Prussian court on the possibility of the Anglican liturgy as a
means of reconciliation between Lutherans and Calvinists.
-He died at Bath on the 2nd of February 1714.
His works (chiefly sermons) were published in 7 volumes in 1754,
and in 5 volumes at Oxford in 1829.
SHARP, RICHARD (1759-1835), known as “Conversation
Sharp, ” was born in Newfoundland in 17 59, the son of a British
officer in garrison there. He was for many years in business
in London, and amassed a large fortune. He was the host of
leading literary and political men at his houses in Park Lane
and near Dorking. Johnson, Burke, Rogers, Hallam, Grattan,
Sydney Smith, James Mill, Wordsworth and Coleridge were
among his many friends. From 1806 to 1812 he was M.P. for
Castle Rising, and subsequently he represented Portarlington
and Ilchester. He was the author of a. volume of Letters and
Essays in Prose and Verse (1834), which the Qnarterly. Re1Jie'w
declared to be remarkable for “ wisdom, wit, knowledge ofl the
world and sound criticism.” Sharp died at Dorchester on the
3oth of March 11835.
SHARP, WILLIAM (1749-1824), English line-engraver, was
born at London on the 29th of January 1749. He was originally
apprenticed to what is called a bright engraver, and practised
as a writing engraver, but gradually became inspired by' the
higher branches of the engraver's art. Among' his earlier plates
are some illustrations, after Stothard, for the N or/elists' Magazine.
He engraved the “ Doctors Disputing on the Immaculateness
of the Virgin ” and the “ Ecce Homo ” of Guido Reni, the “fSt
Cecilia ” of Domenichino, the “ Virgin and Child ” of Dolci, and the
portrait of John Hunter of Sir Joshua Reynolds. His style of -enf
graving is thoroughly masterly and original, excellent in its play
of line and rendering of half-tints and of “ colour.” He died at
Chiswick on the 2 5th of July 1824. In his youth, owing to hishotly
expressed adherence to the politics of Paine and Horne Tooké,
he was examined by the privy council on a charge of treason.
Mesmer and Brothers found in Sharp a stanch believer;'7 and for
long he maintained Joanna Southcott at his own expense. As
an engraver he achieved a European reputation, and at the
time of his death he enjoyed the honour of being a member of(
the Imperial Academy of Vienna and of the .Royal Academy
of Munich. V
SHARP, WILLIAM (1856~1905), Scottish poet and man of letters, was born at Paisley on the 12th of September 1856. His was a double person-ality, for during his lifetime he was known solely by a seriesfof poetical and critical works of great, but not of outstanding merit, while from 1894 onwards ihef published, with elaborate precautions of secrecy, under the name of “ Fiona Macleod, ” a series of stories and sketches in poetical prose which made him perhaps the most conspicuous Scottish writer of the modern Gaelic renaissance. His early liféfr was spent chiefly in the W. highlands of Scotland, and after leaving Glasgow University he went to Australia in 1877 in search of health. After a cruise in the Pacific he settled for some time in London as clerk to abank, became an intimate of the Rossettis, and began to contribute to the Pall Mall Gazette anchother journals. In 1885 he became art critic to the Glasgow Herald. He spent much time abroad, in France and Italy, and travelled extensively in America and Africa. In '1885 he married- his cousin, Elizabeth Amelia Sharp, who helped him in much of his literary work and collaborated with him in compiling the Lyra Celtica (1896). His volumes of verse were The Human Inheritance (1882), Earth's Voices (1884), Romantic Ballads and Poems of Fantasy (1886), Sospiridi Roma (1891), Flower o' the Vine (1894), Sospiri d' Italia (1906). William Sharp was the general editor of the “ CanterburyPoets ”series. He-was a discriminating anthologist, and his Sonnets of the Century (1886), to which he prefixed a useful treatise on the sonnet, ran through many editions. This was followed by American Spnnets (1889). He wrote biographies of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (188d), i of Shelley (1887), of Heinrich Heine (1888), of Robert Browning (1890), and edited the memoirs of Joseph'Severn (1892)'. most notable of his novels was Silence Farm (1899). » During the later years of his life he was obliged for reasons of health to spend all his winters abroad. The secret of his authorship of the “Fiona Macleod ” books was faithfully 'kept until his death, which took place at the Castello di Manlace, Sicily, on the 12th of December 190 5. As late as the 13th of May 1899 Fiona Macleod had written to the Athenaeum stating that she wrote only under that name and that it was her own. I' »She began to publish her tales and sketches of the primitive Celtic World in 1894 with Pharais: A Romance of the Isles. They found only a limited public, though an enthusiastic one. The earlier volumes include The Mountain Lovers (1895), The Sin-Eater (1895), The Washer of the Ford and other Legendary M oralitfiea (1896), &c. In 1897 a collected edition of the shorter stories, with some new ones, was issued as Spiritual T ales, Barbaric Tales and Tragic Romances. Later volumes are. The Dominizm
