JAMES SHARP

JAMES SHARP (1618-1679), archbishop of St. Andrews, born in Banff Castle; educated at Aberdeen University, visited England, where he formed important friendships, and in 1643 was appointed "regent" or professor of Philosophy at St. Andrews, a post he resigned five years later to become minister of Crail; during the Protectorate he sided with the "Resolutioners" or Moderates, and appeared before Cromwell in London to plead their cause; in 1660 received a commission to go to London to safeguard the interests of the Scottish Church, a trust he shamefully betrayed by intriguing with Charles at Breda, and with Clarendon and the magnates of the English Church to restore Prelacy in Scotland, he himself (by way of reward) being appointed Archbishop of St. Andrews; henceforward he was but a pliant tool in the hands of his English employers, and an object of intense hatred to the Covenanters; in 1668 his life was attempted in Edinburgh by Robert Mitchell, a covenanting preacher, and ultimately on Magus Muir, May 1679, he was mercilessly hacked to pieces by a band of Covenanters headed by Hackston and John Balfour.