Thomas Sharp (1693–1758) was an English churchman, known as a biographer and theological writer, archdeacon of Northumberland from 1723.
The Archdeacon of Northumberland is a senior ecclesiastical officer within the Diocese of Newcastle. As such she or he is responsible for the disciplinary supervision of the clergy within the geographical area of the archdeaconry. The post is currently vacant.
A younger son of John Sharp, archbishop of York, he was born on 12 December 1693. At the age of 15 he was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1712, M.A. in 1716, and was elected to a fellowship. [1]
John Sharp, English divine who served as Archbishop of York.
The Archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the Province of York, which covers the northern regions of England as well as the Isle of Man. The Archbishop of York is an ex officio member of the House of Lords and is styled Primate of England.
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. With around 600 undergraduates, 300 graduates, and over 180 fellows, it is the largest college in either of the Oxbridge universities by number of undergraduates. In terms of total student numbers, it is second only to Homerton College, Cambridge.
Sharp became chaplain to Archbishop William Dawes, a prebendary of Southwell Minster, and a member of the Gentlemen's Society at Spalding. He was also prebendary of Wistow in York Minster (29 April 1719), appointed rector of Rothbury, Northumberland in 1720, and collated archdeacon of Northumberland on 27 February 1722/3. He was created D.D. at Cambridge in 1729. On 1 December 1732 he was installed in the tenth prebend of Durham Cathedral at Durham, and in 1755 he succeeded Thomas Mangey as official to the dean and chapter of the cathedral.
Sir William Dawes, 3rd Baronet, was an Anglican prelate. He served as Bishop of Chester from 1708 to 1714 and then as Archbishop of York from 1714 to 1724.
Southwell Minster is a minster and cathedral, in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, England. It is situated six miles from Newark-on-Trent and thirteen miles from Mansfield. It is the seat of the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham and the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham.
The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the third-highest office of the Church of England, and is the mother church for the Diocese of York and the Province of York. It is run by a dean and chapter, under the Dean of York. The title "minster" is attributed to churches established in the Anglo-Saxon period as missionary teaching churches, and serves now as an honorific title. Services in the minster are sometimes regarded as on the High Church or Anglo-Catholic end of the Anglican continuum.
Sharp died at Durham on 16 March 1758, and was buried at the west end of the cathedral in the chapel called the Galilee.
His main works were:
Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667) was a cleric in the Church of England who achieved fame as an author during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. He is sometimes known as the "Shakespeare of Divines" for his poetic style of expression, and he is frequently cited as one of the greatest prose writers in the English language. He is remembered in the Church of England's calendar of saints with a Lesser Festival on 13 August.
Joseph Besse was an English Quaker controversialist. He quantified the sufferings and persecution of the Quakers.
John Hutchinson was an English theologian and natural philosopher.
A collected edition of Sharp's Works appeared in 1763; his correspondence with Mrs. Catherine Cockburn on moral virtue and moral obligation was published in 1743.
Sharp married, on 19 June 1722, Judith, daughter of Sir George Wheler (she died on 2 July 1757), and had fourteen children. Their eldest son, John Sharp, D.D., was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, became a prebendary of Durham, archdeacon of Northumberland, vicar of Hartborne, perpetual curate of Bamburgh, and senior trustee of the estates of Nathaniel Crewe, bishop of Durham; and died on 28 April 1792. Their ninth son was abolitionist Granville Sharp, and another son, William, was known as a surgeon.
Granville Sharp was one of the first English campaigners for the abolition of the slave trade. He also involved himself in trying to correct other social injustices. Sharp formulated the plan to settle black people in Sierra Leone, and founded the St. George's Bay Company, a forerunner of the Sierra Leone Company. His efforts led to both the founding of the Province of Freedom, and later on Freetown, Sierra Leone, and so he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of Sierra Leone. He was also a biblical scholar, a classicist, and a talented musician.
William Sharp was an English physician reported to have acted as surgeon to King George III. With his brother Granville Sharp, he was an active supporter of the early campaign against slavery in Britain.
Robert Winchelsey was an English Catholic theologian and Archbishop of Canterbury. He studied at the universities of Paris and Oxford, and later taught at both. Influenced by Thomas Aquinas, he was a scholastic theologian.
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The Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes and online, with 50,113 biographical articles covering 54,922 lives.