James Sharp, or Sharpe, (4 May 1618 – 3 May 1679) was a minister in the
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...
, or kirk, who served as
Archbishop of St Andrews from 1661 to 1679. His support for
Episcopalianism
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
, or governance by bishops, brought him into conflict with elements of the kirk who advocated
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...
. Twice the victim of assassination attempts, the second cost him his life.
Biography
James Sharp was born at
Banff Castle on 4 May 1618, eldest son of William Sharp (1592–1638) and Isabel Leslie (1595-ca 1640). His father was
property manager, or factor, for the
Earl of Findlater
Earl of Seafield is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1701 for James Ogilvy, who in 1711 succeeded his father as 4th Earl of Findlater. The earldoms of Findlater and Seafield continued to be united until 1811, when the earldo ...
; his mother was the daughter of the Laird of Kininvie. His younger brother, Sir William Sharp of Stonihill (1622–1685), was political agent to the
Duke of Lauderdale, Scottish
Secretary of State from 1661 to 1680.
In April 1653, Sharp married Helen Moncrieff, daughter of the laird of Randerston. They had seven children.
Background
Whilst
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...
or
Episcopalian now implies differences in both governance and
doctrine, this was not the case in the 17th century. 'Episcopalian' meant governance by bishops, usually appointed by the monarch; ''Presbyterian'' implied rule by
Elders, nominated by their congregations. The
Protestant Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and i ...
created a
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...
, or 'kirk', that was Presbyterian in structure and
Calvinist
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John C ...
in doctrine. When bishops were introduced to the Scottish system in 1584, they were doctrinal Calvinists, who opposed many practices of the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...
; these differences explain the failure of attempts to unify the two churches.
The 1638
National Covenant expelled bishops and established a
Covenanter
Covenanters ( gd, Cùmhnantaich) were members of a 17th-century Scottish religious and political movement, who supported a Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and the primacy of its leaders in religious affairs. The name is derived from '' Covena ...
government, which ruled Scotland during the 1638 to 1651
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of related conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, then separate entities united in a personal union under Charles I. They include the 1639 to 1640 Bi ...
. In 1647, Royalist defeat in the
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Angl ...
split the Covenanters into moderate
Engagers
The Engagers were a faction of the Scottish Covenanters, who made "The Engagement" with King Charles I in December 1647 while he was imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle by the English Parliamentarians after his defeat in the First Civil War.
Bac ...
and Kirk Party fundamentalists; both sides believed the institution of monarchy was divinely ordered, but differed over who held ultimate authority in clerical affairs.
Attempts by the Scots to restore first
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
, then his son
Charles II to the English throne, ended with incorporation into the
Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1652. The kirk split again, between a moderate majority known as
Resolutioners
The Act of Classes was passed by the Parliament of Scotland on 23 January 1649. It was probably drafted by Lord Warriston, a leading member of the Kirk Party, who along with the Marquess of Argyll were leading proponents of its clauses. It bann ...
, and 'Protestors', who blamed defeat on compromise with 'malignants.' Differences between the two were both religious and political, including church government, religious toleration and the role of law in a 'godly' society.
Since each split ended with the winners evicting the losers from their offices and ministries, it led to increasing bitterness.
Lord Broghill
Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery (25 April 1621 – 16 October 1679), styled Lord Broghill from 1628 to 1660, was an Anglo-Irish soldier and politician who sat in the House of Commons of England at various times between 1654 and 1679. Boyle fough ...
, head of the Council of State for Scotland, summarised the position by saying 'the Resolutioners love Charles Stuart and hate us, the Protesters love neither him nor us.' He fostered conflict between the two groups as deliberate policy.
Career
Sharp was educated at the local grammar school and in 1637, graduated from
King's College, Aberdeen
King's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland, the full title of which is The University and King's College of Aberdeen (''Collegium Regium Abredonense''), is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and now an integral part of the Univer ...
. The university and Banff in general were centres of Episcopalian support and one of the few areas to oppose the 1638 National Covenant, which removed bishops from the kirk.
Sharp went to
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, allegedly seeking a position in the Church of England, but returned to Scotland and by 1642, was a regent at the
University of St Andrews. In 1648, he became minister for the parish of
Crail, then a delegate to the kirk's
General Assembly
A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company.
Specific examples of general assembly include:
Churches
* General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of pres ...
in 1650. He accompanied the Scottish army in its
invasion of England and was captured at
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
in September 1651, before being released in 1652.
The Protesters sent a delegation to argue their case before
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
in 1656; Sharp was selected to represent the Resolutioners and spent most of the next four years in London. By 1659, plans were being made by
George Monck to
restore Charles II to the thrones of England and Scotland. The Resolutioners wanted Charles to commit to a Presbyterian kirk; in May 1660, Sharp was sent to
Breda to ensure he did so, but was unsuccessful in getting a response.
In January 1661, Sharp was appointed Royal Chaplain, and returned to St Andrews as Professor of Divinity. The March 1661
Rescissory Act returned the legal position in Scotland to that prevailing in 1633, removing the Covenanter reforms of 1638-1639. The restoration of bishops was confirmed by the Privy Council of Scotland on 6 September 1661.
Sharp was appointed
Archbishop of St Andrews and
Primate of Scotland and consecrated at
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
in December 1661. The kirk was restored as the national church, independent sects banned and all office-holders were required to renounce the Covenant; about a third of the clergy refused, around 270 in total, and lost their positions as a result. Most occurred in the south-west of Scotland, an area particularly strong in its Covenanting sympathies; some took to preaching in the open fields, or
conventicles, which often attracted thousands of worshippers.
After his appointment to the
Privy Council of Scotland in June 1663, Sharp assumed responsibility for these evictions, making him a target for Presbyterian radicals. At the same time, his lobbying to be made
Lord Chancellor
The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. Th ...
brought him into conflict with Lauderdale and other political leaders. He took an active role in suppressing the Covenanter-backed
Pentland Rising
The Battle of Rullion Green took place on 28 November 1666, near the Pentland Hills, in Midlothian, Scotland. It was the only significant battle of the Pentland Rising, a brief revolt by Covenanter dissidents against the Scottish government.
S ...
in November 1666; he is reported as having condemned to death eleven prisoners who surrendered on a promise of mercy, telling them "You were pardoned as soldiers, but you are not acquitted as subjects".
On 9 July 1668,
James Mitchell, a veteran of
Rullion Green, tried to assassinate Sharp in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
. He was seated in his coach on the
Royal Mile near his house at Blackfriars Wynd waiting for Bishop
Andrew Honeyman
Andrew Honeyman or Honyman (1619–1676) was a Scottish priest: he was Bishop of Orkney from 1664 until 1676.
Life
He was born in 1619, the son of David Honeyman of Pitairchney, a baker of St Andrews. His brother was Rev Dr Robert Honyman DD ...
to join him. Mitchell fired his pistol at Sharp but hit Honeyman instead. Mitchell was imprisoned on the
Bass Rock for this crime but was not executed until 1676.
Soon after, the government issued the first in a series of 'indulgences', allowing the readmission of evicted clergy, even without subscribing to episcopacy. The kirk split once again, this time between moderates, led by
Robert Leighton, and 'hardline' Episcopalians under Sharp; over the next decade, policy alternated between persecution and reconciliation.
In 1678, Sharp's faction regained control and supported by the government, stepped up actions against non-conformists; 3,000 Lowland militia and 6,000 Highlanders, known as the "Highland Host", were billeted in the Covenanting shires, as a form of punishment. James Mitchell, who had been arrested in 1673, was executed in 1678, making him a Presbyterian folk hero; Sharp gave evidence at his trial and was accused of perjury.
On 3 May 1679, a group of nine Covenanters, led by
David Hackston
David Hackston or Halkerstone (died 30 July 1680), was a militant Scottish Covenanter, remembered mainly for his part in the murder of Archbishop James Sharp of St. Andrews in 1679 and his involvement in the events of 1680 which led to his cap ...
and his brother-in-law,
John Balfour of Kinloch, were waiting at
Magus Muir, hoping to ambush the Sheriff of
Cupar. A Sharp appointee, the Sheriff was prominent in persecuting Covenanters but apparently heard about the proposed ambush and stayed home. Learning Sharp's coach was on the road, they intercepted it instead; Sharp was stabbed several times, in front of his daughter Isabella, before being killed by a shot to the chest. One of the group, James Russell, claimed he told Sharp he "...declared before the Lord that it was no particular interest, nor yet for any wrong that he had done to him, but because he had betrayed the church as Judas, and had wrung his hands, these 18 or 19 years in the blood of the saints, but especially at Pentland..."
Two of the nine, Hackston and Andrew Guillan, were eventually captured and executed; a third, William Dingwall, died at the
Battle of Drumclog
The Battle of Drumclog was fought on 1 June 1679, between a group of Covenanters and the forces of John Graham of Claverhouse, at Drumclog, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
The battle
Following the assassination of Archbishop James Sharp on ...
a month later. The other six were never tried; Balfour escaped to Holland with George Fleming, but disappears from the records thereafter.
Aftermath
Sharp was buried beneath an imposing black and white marble monument in the
Holy Trinity Church, St Andrews. Designed by his son, Sir William, it has two main objectives; commemorating his father as a martyr, rather than a turncoat, and confirming his privileged status as archbishop. When the tomb was opened in 1849, it was empty; the body was allegedly removed in 1725 and has never been found.
On 25 December 1679, five Covenanters captured at
Bothwell Bridge, Thomas Brown, James Wood, Andrew Sword, John Weddell and John Clyde, were hanged for refusing to identify the perpetrators. Although not involved themselves, they were executed at Magus Muir; their bodies hung in chains until the flight of
James VII in 1688. A gravestone was erected over their burial place in 1728 and enclosed by a surrounding wall in 1877; the same year that a memorial to Sharp was built. Both are situated about south of the spot where the murder occurred.
19th century Scottish histories portrayed Sharp as a despised turncoat; "For well concocted, cold blooded, systematic dissimulation, he stands almost without a match in History." Even more recent writers suggest his death can be seen as deserved retribution for his actions.
His most recent biographer, Julia Buckroyd, summarised his career as follows; "Sharp, who identified himself as a Scot and Presbytery, and who struggled to extricate Scotland from the Cromwellian union,...became identified as an agent of English, episcopal and political interests...an enemy of Scottish Presbyterianism and the rule of law."
The 1688
Glorious Revolution in Scotland led to the Act of Settlement in 1690, which re-established the kirk on a Presbyterian basis. Episcopacy was abolished once and for all, leading to the formation of the separate
Scottish Episcopal Church
The Scottish Episcopal Church ( gd, Eaglais Easbaigeach na h-Alba; sco, Scots Episcopal(ian) Kirk) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion in Scotland.
A continuation of the Church of Scotland as intended by King James VI, and ...
.
Family
He was married on 6 April 1653 to, Helen, daughter of William Moncrieff of Randerston, and had issue —
*Sir William of Scotscraig, created a
Baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...
1683, died January 1712
*John, baptised February 1665
*Isabella (married, cont. 18 December 1679, John Cunningham of Barns)
*Catherine
*Margaret, born 8 December 1664 (married 11 October 1683,
William Fraser, 12th Lord Saltoun
William Fraser, 12th Lord Saltoun (21 November 1654 – 18 March 1715), was a Scottish peer and the 11th Laird of Philorth.
Early years
Fraser was born on 11 November 1654 in the small town of Fraserburgh. His parents were Alexander Fraser, Maste ...
), died 1734
*Penelope (married John Dubh Mackinnon of that Ilk)
*Agnes, buried March 1666
*Robert, sheriff-clerk of Banff.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharp, James
1618 births
1679 deaths
Alumni of the University of Aberdeen
Archbishops of St Andrews
Assassinated Scottish people
Chancellors of the University of St Andrews
Members of the Privy Council of Scotland
Members of the Parliament of Scotland 1661–1663
Members of the Convention of the Estates of Scotland 1665
Members of the Convention of the Estates of Scotland 1667
Members of the Parliament of Scotland 1669–1674
Members of the Convention of the Estates of Scotland 1678
People from Banffshire
Scottish Restoration bishops
17th-century bishops of the Church of Scotland