the command, he ‘being esteemed a safer leader than any other.’ The general voice was to return to the West Indies across the isthmus. At the Isle of Plate, however, in the middle of April, things looked brighter, and they resolved to cruise for some time longer. This led to a further secession, and the dissenting party, including William Dampier [q. v.] and Lionel Wafer [q. v.], returned to the West Indies by the isthmus, while Sharpe went for a cruise to the northward, and captured a Spanish ship named the Rosario, having on board a large quantity of silver in pigs, to the value of about 150,000l. At the time the silver was mistaken for tin, and Sharpe took only one pig on board. Most of this was cast into bullets; it was only when the small residue was afterwards disposed of in the West Indies, that the buccaneers learnt what a prize had escaped them. They found also in the Rosario ‘a great book of sea charts and maps’ of the South Sea and the coasts of Spanish America, which was afterwards presented to the king. The volume now in the British Museum (Sloane MS. 44), drawn by William Hack, is presumably a copy of this.
On 16 Aug. Sharpe and his followers resolved to return to the West Indies. Making their way to the southward, they passed round Cape Horn in November, and reached Barbados on 28 Jan. 1681–2. Learning, however, that the Richmond frigate was there, and fearing that they might be seized as pirates, they went to Antigua, but the governor would not allow them into the harbour. At Nevis the authorities were more complacent, and there the party broke up, the ship being assigned to some of the men who had lost all their money in gaming. On his return to England, Sharpe was arrested at the instance of the Spanish ambassador, and tried for piracy; but in the absence of legal evidence was acquitted. His journals and ‘waggoners,’ carefully written and drawn (Sloane MSS. 44, 46a and b, and 47), suggest that he was permitted to live in peace and comfort.
[Ringrose's Dangerous Voyage and Bold Attempts of Captain Bartholomew Sharp and others, in History of the Buccaniers, vol. ii.; Dampier's Voyages, vol. i.; Wafer's New Voyage; Burney's Voyages and Discoveries in the South Sea, iv. 91–124.]
SHARPE, CHARLES KIRKPATRICK (1781?–1851), antiquary and artist, was the second son of Charles Sharpe of Hoddam, Dumfriesshire, by Eleonora, youngest daughter of John Renton of Lamerton. His mother was granddaughter of Susanna, countess of Eglinton, third wife of the ninth earl, Alexander Montgomerie [q. v.] He was born about 1781. The father, Charles Sharpe, was the son of William Kirkpatrick of Ailsland (brother of Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, second baronet of Closeburn), who changed his name to Sharpe on inheriting the estate of Hoddam from his uncle, Matthew Sharpe. To Charles Sharpe, Burns, under the signature ‘Johnny Faa,’ addressed a curious letter, humorously claiming to belong to ‘the same family,’ not on the ground of relationship, but on the score of being ‘a fiddler and a poet;’ and enclosing some stanzas to a tune of his which he said ‘a brither catgut’ gave him ‘the other day.’ Sharpe's grand-uncle, Charles Sharpe, a Jacobite who fought at Preston, also possessed literary tastes, and was a correspondent of David Hume. Further, the family claimed kinship with the noted Grierson of Lag. Thus, while Sharpe could claim an ancestry of some distinction, intellectual and other, he was also from his infancy nourished on Jacobite story and tradition; and this phase of Scottish sentiment occupied most of his interest, and mainly directed the bent of his artistic studies and his antiquarian research.
With the view of taking episcopal orders, Sharpe entered Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. 17 June 1802, and M.A. 28 June 1806. But, although he made several friendships, the social life and special studies of the university were uncongenial to him. In truth his attitude towards his fellows was always more or less repellent; he was unsympathetic and depreciatory, and from first to last he was accustomed to emphasise and magnify the frailties of his acquaintances, and all but ignore their good points. At the university he devoted himself chiefly to antiquarian research and to practice with his pencil, making some reputation by his sketches of heads. Either before or soon after leaving the university he gave up all thoughts of entering the church, and finally, about his thirtieth year, he took up his residence in Edinburgh, where, although he maintained friendly relations with many distinguished persons, including especially clever and sprightly aristocratic ladies, and was a welcome guest in many country houses, he lived mainly the life of a literary recluse. With advancing years his peculiarities became more pronounced, and they were emphasised by the fact that till the close of his life he retained the style of dress which was in fashion at the period of his early manhood.
The appearance of the first volume of Scott's ‘Border Minstrelsy,’ in 1802 naturally aroused Sharpe's special enthusiasm. Though unacquainted with Scott, he sent him a
