Born: April 19, 1721
Died: July 23, 1793
Colony/State: Connecticut
Occupation / Public Role: Lawyer, legislator, judge, mayor, Representative, Senator
Contribution to the Founding Era: Delegate to the Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence, member of the Committee of Five that prepared the Declaration, framer of the Constitution, and the only person to sign the Articles of Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution.
Roger Sherman was born in Newton, Massachusetts, and moved with his family to Stoughton as a child. He did not follow the polished elite path that many founders did. The U.S. House notes that he learned the shoemaker’s trade, moved to New Milford, Connecticut, worked as a surveyor, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1754. He later moved to New Haven, where his public career expanded even further.
Before independence, Sherman served in a long list of Connecticut offices. He sat in the Connecticut assembly, served as a justice of the peace, and later became a judge of the superior court. By the time of the Revolution, he was already one of Connecticut’s most experienced public men, which is a polite eighteenth-century way of saying the man basically lived at work.
Sherman served in both the First Continental Congress and the Second Continental Congress. He was also a member of the Committee of Five appointed to prepare a declaration of independence in June 1776, alongside Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Robert R. Livingston. Jefferson wrote the draft, but Sherman was part of the committee that brought the document forward, and he signed the Declaration as one of Connecticut’s four signers.
His role in the founding era went well beyond the Declaration. The House history office notes that Sherman helped prepare the Articles of Confederation, signed them, attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and signed the United States Constitution. Britannica adds that he is especially remembered for backing the plan that helped break the deadlock between large and small states at the Constitutional Convention, a plan that became known as the Great Compromise or Connecticut Compromise.
After the Constitution was adopted, Sherman continued in national service. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives and later in the U.S. Senate, representing Connecticut in the new federal government. He died in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1793. Roger Sherman is not always one of the flashiest names in the founding era, but his résumé is downright ridiculous: signer, framer, congressman, senator, judge, mayor, and compromise-builder. That is not a side character. That is heavy machinery.
Related Links
- Signers of the Declaration of Independence
- Declaration of Independence
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