| Notes |
- Good Website > http://www.ctssar.org/patriots/roger_sherman.htm <
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The four great documents signed by Roger Sherman were:
1774 - Articles of Association
1776 - Declaration of Independence
1778 - Articles of Confederation
1787 - Constitution of The United States
He also signed the Address to the King in 1774.
The Bill of Rights consists of amendments to the Constitution. It was not signed by members of Congress.
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From Ted Gloger: Part 1: The Sherman "house."
When RS moved to New Milford in 1743, the house he rented or bought or built was in present day Sherman (Then called Dillaway or Dellaway), as you know it was New Fairfield until 1802. Specifically if one was to look for it today, drive through Route 39, the north part of Sherman toward the New York
border, you will pass it. Pass it because it no longer exists. The farm house that stands there now was built about 100 years ago or more. The orginal burned down. However, when we lived in Sherman, the barn where RS set up his cobbler shop was still there! It was there until last year! A developer who bought the 250 or so acres surrounding the old farm didn't realize the historic value of the old barn and tore it down!!!!
However, before we get too excited and ready to tar and feather the guy, we have to note that there was no historic marker in front of the barn on the road. The people who lived in the house refused to let CT put up a marker! They claimed that hoards of curious visitors would be bothering them!
Anyway, when the developer realized his mistake, he turned over the wood beams that he had saved from the barn to the Sherman Historical Society. Eventually the Historical Society will rebuild the barn an use it as a museum or so.
RS moved a few years later to a house that was next to the present day New Milford Town Hall on the green. Then he tore it down as his family got larger and located his new home to the Kent-Danbury Road, or Route 7.
Now, there is controversy over that house. Some say it was built after RS left New Miford and moved to New Haven. But they do admit that parts of the house now standing may have been RS's original house that is now where the town hall sits..
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about the photo --- from CT website:
Sherman house, Main Street, New Milford. Date: 1872.
Frame house has a porch, louvered shutters at doors and windows and an oval window in the gable. A one-story addition is at the right. A small commercial building is at the left. The small structure with lattice sides at the right is probably a well. A ladder leans against the roof of the house on the right. A picket fence surrounds the houses. A paved sidewalk, a grassy lawn, a street lamp and a dirt road are in the foreground. The leafless trees appear to be elms. Inscribed on back: "Ell of large house occupied by Roger Sherman. The little shop, the north side was his shoe & cobbler's shop. Roger Sherman (Town) Hall is now built on the site. The House was moved to East St. & now nearly faces Church St. Stephen Mills shop next south Taylor & Millinery - William Sherman, brother of Roger built & lived in large part of the house."
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from the Connecticut Heritage Gateway - on line
Entry by Albert D. Van Dusen
Merchant, lawyer, and statesman, Sherman was born in Newton, but spent his early years in Dorchester's South Precinct, where his father taught him the trade of cordwainer. After his father's death, in 1743 Sherman moved the family to New Milford and in 1745 secured the highly profitable position of New Haven County surveyor, which later was shifted to the newly-established Litchfield County.
Active in church and town affairs, he held the important positions of clerk, deacon, grand juryman, selectman, deputy, and justice of the peace and quorum. In 1750 he and his brother William opened New Milford's only detached store. As a merchant, having suffered the ill effects of rapidly-depreciating paper money, he wrote a pamphlet in 1752 emphasizing the evil results of using a fluctuating medium of exchange, especially that of neighboring colonies. A man of very diversified talents, in 1750 he started publishing Connecticut's first almanac, modeled after that of Nathaniel Ames, a series which continued for eleven years. Reading on his own, he was admitted to the bar in Litchfield County in 1754, rapidly gaining an active practice.
Seeking greater opportunities, in 1761 he moved to New Haven where he abandoned law in favor of trade, having already opened a store there in July 1760. As relations with England deteriorated, he devoted less time to business and more to politics and public service. Elected deputy in 1764, he served until the fateful election of 1766 when he was elected an assistant, a position he held until 1785. Appointed a superior court judge in 1766, he served until 1789. Although not an early advocate of the Susquehannah Company, by 1774 he had become a strong supporter. Of a cautious and conservative temperament, he nevertheless embraced the Revolutionary cause wholeheartedly. He was the only American to sign four famous and momentous historical documents: the Articles of Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Federal Constitution.
With the exception of 1782 and 1783, he served throughout the Revolution as a member of Congress, becoming one of its most influential members. Probably his greatest achievement was attained at the Federal Constitutional Convention, which he attended as a Federationist but left as a nationalist. The "Connecticut Compromise," which the Connecticut delegates so ably engineered, originated with a proposal Sherman had made some eleven years earlier. In the First Federal Congress, which made many fundamental decisions about the direction of American domestic and foreign policies, as a strong exponent of states' rights and an economic nationalist, he left his imprint on much important legislation. Appointed to fill William Samuel Johnson's unexpired term in 1791, he served until his death. While his greatest contributions were on the national level, he gave long and devoted service as New Haven's first mayor and treasurer of Yale College. Plain and blunt in speech and manner and lacking in social graces, he nevertheless left an indelible mark on his times.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWNS OF NEW MILFORD AND BRIDGEWATER, CONNECTICUT, 1703-1882
CHAPTER VIII. SKETCHES OF PROMINENT MEN. 1730-1750.
Roger Sherman, brother of William, came from Newton in 1743, a single man, and resided with his brother; for he is said in a deed, in 1746, to be "of New Dilloway," having then been in the town three years. In 1748, he purchased a house and lot of Gamaliel Baldwin, in Park Lane, for £1,500, and made his residence there, but afterwards removed to the village and came into possession of his brother William's home, nearly on the site of the Town Hall, where he resided until his removal to New Haven. This dwelling and lot he sold to Abel Hine, Esqr., in 1761. (See Biog.) Upon further inquiry the place called New Dilloway seems to have been in the extreme northern part of the town of Sherman.
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http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=artcohan&id=I02428
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1721 - 1793 (72 years)
