He was born at Hartlepool, County Durham, England in 1781, and received his education at Greenwich under Charles Burney.
When he was eighteen years old he served in Ireland during the rebellion as an officer in the fencible cavalry, a British regiment.
There he was stranded by the resumption of hostilities at the conclusion of the Peace of Amiens, and detained, with other English visitors, as a prisoner of war.
But by the influence of Claude Ambroise Régnier, the Minister of Justice, whom he knew, he was released on parole, and after a few years was allowed to leave for England.
Sharp settled at Hartlepool and married Elizabeth Croudace, and took up the study of local antiquities.