John Sharp

(Lowland District) Born at Mortlach, near Huntly, 15th February 1772; arrived Valladolid from Scalan; ordained a priest, 27th September 1795, and returned to Scotland, 1796; taught at Scalan, 1796-99, and at Aquhorties, 1799-1801; one of first priests in Scotland to adopt English manner of speech; last procurator of Scottish mission, 1828-49; first rector of Blairs College, 1829-47, when he retired, though continuing to live there until he died, 5th September 1860. (MT)

John Sharp is buried in Snow Churchyard, Old Aberdeen.

Obituary of John Sharp from the Scottish Catholic Directory of 1861.

Pray for the soul of the Very Rev. John Sharp, who died at St Mary’s College, Blairs, on the 5th September 1860, in the 89th year of his age, and 65th of his priesthood.

Thia venerable clergyman was born at Mortlach, near Huntly, on the 15th of February 1772. His vocation to the priesthood ap­ pears to have manifested itself in early boyhood; for he had not yet completed his thirteenth year, when he solicited and obtained admittance into the Seminary of Scalan. As a student, however, his residence there was brief, extending only from the 14th of January 1785, when he was admitted, to the 20th of June following, at which date he was transferred to the Scots College in Valladolid, where he completed his studies preparatory for the Priesthood. He was ordained Subdeacon on the 19th, Deacon on the 21st, and Priest on the 27th September in the year 1795. In the following year he returned to Scotland, where, on his arrival, he was appointed teacher in the old Seminary of Scalan. When, in 1799, the students were removed to the more ample and commodious premises of Aquhorties, Mr Sharp accompanied them, and continued to discharge the same duties in the new establishment. This office, however, he was soon called on to exchange for the more active life of the Missionary. His first appointment was to the Mission of Deecastle, on the charge of which he entered in 1801, as successor to the Rev. Andrew Scott—afterwards Bishop of the Western District. In the summer of 1805, he was removed to Stricken, and for twenty-three years he laboured among the widely-scattered Catholic population of the district of Buchan. In 1815, he purchased at Byth, from a company of tanners, a small property, which he fitted up for the services of religion. He also, during his residence in those parts, acted for some time as tutor to the young heir of the estate of Lovat—a task which harmonised well with his tastes for classical attainments and his love of polite literature. The administrators of the Scottish Mission, at their meeting in August 1828, chose him their Procurator; and, to facilitate the discharge of the duties attendant on this office, he removed to Edinburgh in the following October. A post of still graver responsibility and importance awaited him in the subsequent year. The new College .of St Mary ’s, Blairs, was opened, and he was elected its first President. With his instalment, in the November of 1829, his career as a Missionary may be said to close. He addressed himself with zeal and judgment to the discharge of his new duties, and succeeded for the space of eighteen years in conciliating to himself the love and respect of the youthful community over which he presided. The fiftieth anniversary of his promotion to the Priesthood occurred in 1845, and the event was celebrated at Blairs with much festivity and enthusiasm. The infirmities of increasing years induced him in 1847 to resign the office of President. His resignation having been accepted, he was succeeded by the Bev. Dr Macpherson, but continued, nevertheless, to reside in the College. The only public duty he still continued to discharge was that of Procurator for the Mission. When the financial arrangements entered into in 1849 rendered the office of a Procurator General no longer necessary, Mr Sharp still continued to act as Procurator for the Northern District. Even that, however, the increasing weakness of his health compelled him to resign in 1851. Of active and vigorous habits, his well-trained constitution long resisted the aggressive inroads of age, and few could have detected in him the infirmities which usually mark the man of fourscore. But both mind and body began at length to give tokens of approaching dissolution. His funeral obsequies were performed in the Church of the College on Tuesday, the 11th September, after which his mortal remains were borne to Aberdeen, and deposited in the Snow Churchyard (Our B. Lady ad Nives.)