Individual Details

Data on Roger Sherman and his ancestors found in WorldConnect file of Mark Bradley; last updated in May of 2008.

Roger was two years old when his parents moved to Stoughton (now Canton), Massachusetts. As a boy, he studied History, Mathematics and Theology at a "common school". In addition, his father taught him the "cordwainer's trade" (shoemaking).
But after Roger's father died in 1741, he ended up moving to New Milford, Connecticut, to live with his brother. There, Roger got a job as a surveyor. He eventually found his way into law school, where he passed the bar in 1754, and opened a law practice in Connecticut.
In June of 1761, at the age of 40, Roger gave up his law practice and moved to New Haven, CT. Here he pursued life as a successful merchant and businessman. Starting out as a supplier of books and other provisions to Yale students, he eventually became Yale's Treasurer, and received an honorary M.A. degree from the University.
Roger was chosen as the Justice of the Peace in 1765 and 1766, and served from 1766-1785 as a State Senator in Connecticut. During this time, he also became a Superior Court Judge.
In 1774, Roger Sherman was elected to serve as a representative from Connecticut to the Continental Congress. He was a member of that body from 1774-1781 and 1783-1784. He was a member of the committee which helped Thomas Jefferson draft the Declaration of Independence, and he signed that document in 1776. He also helped draft the Articles of Confederation (1777), which he also signed.
After the War of Independence, he served as Mayor of New Haven from 1784 to his death in 1793, and continued as a Superior Court judge.
Roger Sherman's greatest claim to fame was as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. Here he solved the deadlock between large and small states with a proposal known as the "Great Compromise". His idea was that each state should have the same number of votes in the Upper House (the Senate), but in the Lower House (the House of Representatives), representation would be based on population. Benjamin Franklin helped Sherman sell the idea by suggesting that all tax legislation should originate in the Lower House. An overwhelming majority of the delegates agreed with the plan, and the deadlock was broken.
Roger Sherman spent the final years of his life serving in the Government he had done so much to create. He served one term in the House of Representatives (1789-1791), and was elected by the Connecticut State Legislature to fill the United States Senate seat vacated by the resignation of William S. Johnson. Sherman served only two years in the U.S. Senate, from June 13, 1791 to his death in 1793.
Thomas Jefferson once referred to him as "Mr. Sherman of Connecticut, who never said a foolish thing in his life", and John Adams called him "an old Puritan, as honest as an angel".
Roger Sherman was a Congregationalist, and the father of 15 children: seven by his first wife, and eight by his second. He is buried in the Grove St. Cemetery in New Haven, CT.
Roger was an opponent of slavery, and his grandson, Roger Sherman Baldwin (also a New Haven lawyer), was a lifelong abolitionist who provided legal defense for the African defendants in the famous Amistad Mutiny and Murder case.

Another database on WorldConnect has a lot of data on this family: "The New England Mathers with special emphasis on the families who married into our family" by Mike, updated in February of 2011. This database had much more precise dates.

From the "Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress online
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000349
Roger Sherman, 1721-1793
Senate Years of Service: 1791-1793
Party: Pro-Administration
SHERMAN, Roger, (father-in-law of Samuel Hoar and Simeon Baldwin, grandfather of William Evarts, Roger Sherman Baldwin, George Frisbie Hoar and Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, great-grandfather of Rockwood Hoar and Sherman Hoar, great-great grandfather of Henry Sherman Boutell, great-great-uncle of Chauncey M. Depew), a Delegate, a Representative, and a Senator from Connecticut; born in Newton, Mass., April 19, 1721; moved with his parents to Stoughton (now Canton), Mass., in 1723; attended the public schools; learned the shoemaker’s trade; moved to New Milford, Conn., in 1743; surveyor of New Haven County in 1745; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1754 and practiced; member, Connecticut assembly 1755-1756, 1758-1761, 1764-1766; justice of the peace for Litchfield County 1755-1761, and of the quorum 1759-1761; moved to New Haven, Conn., in June 1761; justice of the peace and member of the court 1765-1766; member, State senate 1766-1785; judge of the superior court 1766-1767, 1773-1788; member of the council of safety 1777-1779; Member of the Continental Congress 1774-1781, and 1784; a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a member of the committee which drafted it; member of the committee to prepare the Articles of Confederation; the only Member of the Continental Congress who signed the Declaration of 1774, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Federal Constitution; mayor of New Haven from 1784 until his death; delegate to the Federal Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787; elected to the First Congress (March 4, 1789-March 3, 1791); elected to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William S. Johnson and served from June 13, 1791, until his death in New Haven, Conn., July 23, 1793; interment in Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven (formerly known as New Haven City Burying Ground).

Birth	19 Apr 1721	Newton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Marriage	17 Nov 1749	Stoughton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts - Elizabeth Hartwell
Marriage	12 May 1763	Danvers, Essex County, Massachusetts - Rebecca Minot Prescott
Death	23 Jul 1793	New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut

Spouse	Elizabeth Hartwell (1726 - 1760)
Child	Capt. John SHERMAN (1750 - 1801)

Spouse

Rebecca Minot Prescott (1743 - 1793)

Father	William SHERMAN (1692 - 1739)
Mother	Mehitable Wellington (1687 - 1776)