SHERMAN, Roger, signer of the Declaration of Independence, born in Newton, Massachusetts, 19 April, 1721 ; died in New Haven, Connecticut, 23 July, 1793. His great-grandfather, Captain John Sherman, came from England to Watertown, Massachusetts, about 1635. His grandfather and father were farmers in moderate circumstances. In 1728 the family removed to Stonington, Massachusetts, where he spent his boyhood and youth. He had no formal education except that which was obtained in the ordinary country schools(but by his own unaided exertions he acquired respectable attainments in various branches of learning, especially and politics. He was early apprenticed to a shoemaker, and continued in that occupation until he was twenty-two years of age. It is said that while at work on his bench he was accustomed to have before him an open book, so that he could devote every spare minute to study. At the age of nineteen he lost his father, and the principal care and support of a large family thus devolved upon him, with the charge of a small farm. In 1743 he removed with his family to New Milford, Connecticut, performing the journey on foot, and taking his shoemaker's tools with him. Here, in partnership with his brother, he engaged in mercantile business. In 1745 he was appointed surveyor of lands for the county in which he resided, a post for which his early attention to mathematics qualified him. Not long afterward he furnished the astronomical calculations for an almanac that was published in New York, and he continued this service for several years. Meanwhile, encouraged to this step by a judicious friend, he was devoting his leisure hours to the study of the law, and made such progress that he was admitted to the bar in 1754. In 1755 he was elected a representative of New Milford in the general assembly of Connecticut, and the same year he was appointed a justice of the peace. In 1759 he was made one of the judges of common pleas in Litchfield county. Two years later he removed to New Haven, where the same appointments were given him. In addition to this, he became treasurer of Yale college, from which, in 1765, he received the honorary degree of M.A. In 1766 he was appointed judge of the superior court of Connecticut, and in the same year was chosen a member of the upper house of the legislature. In the former office he continued twenty-three years; in the latter, nineteen. When the Revolutionary struggle began Roger Sherman devoted himself unreservedly to the patriot cause. In such a crisis he was obliged to be a leader. In August, 1774, he was elected a delegate to the Continental congress, and was present at its opening on 5 September following. Of this body he was one of the most active members. Without showing gifts of popular speech, he commanded respect for his knowledge, judgment, integrity, and devotion to duty. He served on many important committees, but the most decisive proof of the high esteem in which he was held is given in the fact that, with Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, and Livingston, he was appointed to prepare a draft of the Declaration of Independence, to which document he subsequently affixed his signature. Though a member of congress, he was at the same time in active service on the Connecticut committee of safety. In 1783 he was associated with Judge Richard Law in revising the statutes of the state, and in 1784 he was elected mayor of New Haven, which office he continued to hold until his death. He was chosen, in conjunction with Dr. Samuel Johnson and Oliver Ellsworth, a delegate to the convention of 1787 that was charged with the duty of framing a constitution for the United States. Documentary proof exists that quite a number of the propositions that he offered were incorporated in that instrument. In the debates of the Constitutional convention he bore a conspicuous part. He was also a member of the State convention of Connecticut that ratified the constitution, and was very influential in securing that result. A series of papers that he wrote under the signature of "Citizen " powerfully contributed to the same end. Immediately after the ratification of the constitution he was made a representative of Connecticut in congress, and took an active part in the discussions of that body. In February, 1790, the Quakers having presented an address to the house on the subject of " the licentious wickedness of the African trade for slaves," Mr. Sherman supported its reference to a committee, and was successful in his efforts, though he was strongly opposed. He was promoted in 1791 to the senate, and died while holding this office. The career of Roger Sherman most happily illustrates the possibilities of American citizenship. Beginning life under the heaviest disadvantages, he rose to a career of ever-increasing usefulness, honor, and success. He was never removed from an office except by promotion or because of some legislative restriction. Thomas Jefferson spoke of him as "a man who never said a foolish thing"; and Nathaniel Macon declared that " he had more common sense than any man I have ever known." In early life he united with the Congregational church in Stonington, and through his long career he remained a devout and practical Christian. Mr. Sherman was twice married, and among his descendants are Senators William M. Evarts and George F. Hoar.--His nephew, Roger Minor, lawyer, born in Woburn, Massachusetts, 22 May, 1773; died in Fairfield, Connecticut, 30 December, 1844, was graduated at Yale in 1792, and served as tutor there during 1795. He was admitted to the bar at Fairfield in 1796, was a member of the general assembly in 1798 and of the state senate in 1814-'18, and of the Hartford convention of 1814. He was judge of the superior court and the supreme court of errors in 1840-'2. --Roger's grandson, John, clergyman, born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1772; died in Trenton Falls, New York, 2 August, 1828, was graduated at Yale in 1798, became pastor of the 1st church at Mansfield, Connecticut, in 1797, and remained in this relation until 180,5, when he withdrew from it because of his adoption of Unitarian views. He was for a short time pastor of a Unitarian church at Trenton Falls, the first of that denomination that was organized in the state of New York. At this place he established and for several years conducted a flourishing academy. He was the author of a work entitled " One God in One Person Only," which is said to have been the first elaborate defence of Unitarian-ism that appeared in New England (1805); also of " The Philosophy of Language Illustrated" (1826); "Description of Trenton Falls" (1827): and of various minor publications.