"Being about to go to another Kingdom" was how William Sharp, Glenlahan, otherwise Glinmount in Co Cork barony of Duhallow, prefaced his will of 1804.
To his wife Mary he bequeathed a life interest in two freehold farms at Glanlahan and Ballintober, Co Cork, as well as his farm and lands at Cush, Co Limerick. She was to raise £900 as a charge on the farms as a provision for their daughters: Mary, Jane and Sarah.
Four sons were to get the various farms, while a further £250 was to be raised as a charge for a fifth son, John. "If the said John shall insist on his present contract of marriage with the woman who claims to have been married to him, and shall not live apart from her, said legacy withdrawn and one British shilling only in bar of anything else he should claim."
This family was descended from Quaker Anthony Sharp (16431707). This man left England in 1669 to settle in Dublin, where he carved out a place for himself in the woollen trade, being a towering figure in the history of Irish Quakers. His will of 1706 reveals that apart from his English and American properties, Sharp had acquired lands in Co Laois barony of Ossory Upper, at Killinure, Lackagh and Lea; at Clarehill, Ballinahinch, Boyle and Clonaheen in the barony of Tinnahinch - a total of 2,000 acres. He also had land in Co Offaly. On top of that he owned 23 houses in Dublin - Meath Street, Coles's Alley, Elbow Lane and Marrowbow Lane.
Part of the above Killinure was Roundwood, and Anthony Sharpe's grandson, another Anthony, build Roundwood House in 1741. As there were several Quaker families in that locality, a number of which worked for the Sharpes, Killinure was then known as Friends' Town. Killinure probably derived from Coll an Iur, "the wood of the yew".
In 1535 John and Elizabeth Sharpe were granted the lease of a house in the parish of St Katherine, Dublin city, and in 1547 John Sharpe was granted a messuage in the suburbs of Dublin. And was Simon Sharpe, who was granted a house in the parish of St Katherine in 1569, a descendant of the above John and Elizabeth? The Census of the same year listed John Sharpe, as Titulado of Christchurch, Cork City, and Thomas Sharpe, gent, a Titulado of Mullenamucke, in the Co Kilkenny barony of Galmoy.
The Directory of 1814 shows there was still a Sharpe resident at Glenmount, Co Cork, and Hugh H Sharpe, esq, was then at Milltown Castle, Lurgan Green, Co Louth. Apart from an artist, a watch, clock and chronometer maker, a chandler, and a licensed maltster listed among the 12 Sharpe residents in Dublin in 1836, there were three tailors, a robe and gownmaker, the owner of a fancy dress and millinery warehouse, and an importer of British and foreign silk mercery.
Sharpe holdings listed in Owners of Land of One Acre and Up- wards (1876) were nine acres in Co Offaly; 69 at Cootehill, Co Cav an; 72 at Coleraine, Co Derry, with 23, 61 and 208 acres in Co Antrim. The largest Sharpe holding was the 476 Co Mayo acres of H Brabazon Sharpe, Sussex, England.
Sharpe has been used as the English for O Gearain (gear, sharp). Sloinnte na hEireann/Irish Surnames informs that O Gearain "relates to the Ui Fiachrach of Connaught, so the connection with the Munster Guerins is tenuous. There was a Huguenot name Guerin, but this would hardly account for the name in Limerick and Kerry." It has been anglicised Guerin, Geran and Gerin. Some of those bearing the English surname Sharpe may in fact have the Irish surname O Gearain. It is unlikely that any bearing either the English or the Huguenot names would have changed to O Gearain.
Telephone entries of the 86 Sharpes and 10 Sharps are found in all districts south of the Border, but mainly Dublin and Leinster. The name is almost as numerous North of the Border.