Roger Sherman

Roger Sherman was born in Newton, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1721. After attending the local "common" schools he was apprenticed as a cobbler, but he became a self-taught mathematician and scholar. After his father's death he entered business with his brother in Connecticut and studied and practiced law.

• In 1774 Sherman was elected the first mayor of New Haven, a post he held until his death.
• Sherman was the only member of the Continental Congress who signed all four of the great state papers: the Association of 1774, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.
• He helped draft the Declaration of Independence. Patrick Henry called him one of the three greatest men at the Constitutional Convention.
• Sherman proposed the dual system of congressional representation, which was adopted.
• Elected a representative to the first Congress in 1789–1791 and to the Senate in 1791, he was regarded as one of the most influential members of Congress.
• Roger Sherman died on July 23, 1793, and is buried in New Haven.