Sherman, Roger, 1721-1793

Variant names
Dates:
Birth 1721-04-19
Death 1793-07-23
Gender:
Male
Americans, Britons
English

Biographical notes:

Roger Sherman (April 19, 1721 – July 23, 1793) was an early American statesman and lawyer, as well as a Founding Father of the United States. He is the only person to have signed all four great state papers of the United States: the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution, and also signed the 1774 Petition to the King.

Born in Newton, Massachusetts, Sherman established a legal career in Litchfield County, Connecticut despite a lack of formal education. After a period in the Connecticut House of Representatives, he served as a Justice of the Superior Court of Connecticut from 1766 to 1789. He represented Connecticut at the Continental Congress and signed the Continental Association, which provided for a boycott against Britain following the imposition of the Intolerable Acts. He was also a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence. He later signed both the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution.

Sherman served as a delegate to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, which produced the United States Constitution. After Benjamin Franklin, he was the oldest delegate present at the convention. He favored granting the federal government power to raise revenue and regulate commerce, but initially opposed efforts to supplant the Articles of Confederation with a new constitution. He ultimately came to support the establishment of a new constitution, and proposed the Connecticut Compromise, which won the approval of both the larger states and the smaller states.

After the ratification of the Constitution, Sherman represented Connecticut in the United States House of Representatives from 1789 to 1791. He served in the United States Senate from 1791 to his death from typhoid in 1793. Initially buried in New Haven Green, his remains were moved to the Grove Street Cemetery when that cemetery was relocated.

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  • Almanacs
  • Art galleries
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  • Congregational churches
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  • Correspondence
  • Indians of North America
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  • New England theology
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  • Susquehanna claim
  • Susquehanna Claim, 1753-1808
  • Williamsburg (Va.)
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  • Williamsburg (Va.)

Occupations:

  • Delegates, U.S. Continental Congress
  • Jurists
  • Lawyers
  • Legislators
  • Politicians
  • Representatives, U.S. Congress
  • Senators, U.S. Congress

Places:

  • Newton, MA, US
  • Stoughton, MA, US
  • New Haven, CT, US
  • CT, US

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