History

At a meeting of New-Castle Presbytery, May 18th, 1720, we find the following record : "A certain number of people lately come from Ireland, having settled about the branches of Elk River, have by Thos. Reed and Thos. Caldwell their commissioners supplicated this Presbytery ..." and subsequently a church was established in 1724 in Lewisville, Chester Co., PA.

While the original church is long gone, the adjacent cemetery that was established in Lewisville was documented as an Eagle Scout project by Evan Gruber. His report can be found here.

In 1741, there was split among the congregation, with one group moving to Fair Hill, Cecil Co., MD and eventually becoming The Rock Presbyterian Church. Sharp's Cemetery was established at the Fair Hill site. The tract of land was donated by Thomas Sharp Jr., whose remains are there interred, the tombstone which still stands giving the year of his death as 1785.

Check here for a history of Rock Presbyterian Church written 1872 by Rev. J.H. Johns.

Revolutionary War patriots interred in our cemetery include David Wherry, d. 7 July 1800 and Matthew Taylor, d. 1 Feb, 1784. 

The Maryland Archives has produced "Graven in Stone and Buried under the Shield: A Guide to Gravestones of Maryland’s Civil War Veterans" by Ralph E. Eshelman and A. Douglas Rawlinson.
Buried at Sharp’s Cemetery are ten Civil War veterans that are listed here. The full report can be accessed here (large file, be patient). The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) erected a plaque to commemorate the Civil War veterans but left off Franklin Mackie.

In 1920, Sharp's Cemetery Company, Inc. was formed to maintain and manage the site.