John Sherwood (1705 - 1779)

Born 22 Sep 1705 in Stratfield, Bridgeport, Fairfield, Connecticut Colony

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Walker) Sherwood — married 14 Jun 1733 in Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut Colony

Descendants

Died 17 Sep 1779 at age 73 in Stratfield, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States

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Biography

Capt. of Stratfield Company of Militia, 1747

Elder of the Baptist Church, 1757

From Ancestry, SHERWOOD HOME PAGE: Captain John Sherwood appears in Orcutt's "History of Stratford," and in Donald Lines Jacobus' "History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield." Orcutt, pages 577 and 1292, shows John Sherwood as born 22 September 1705; baptized 4 November 1705; deceased 17 July 1779, Stratfield, Fairfield Co, Connecticut; buried Stratfield Burying Place, Stratfield, Connecticut. His gravestone reads: "Here lyes Buried the Body of Captain John Sherwood, who departed this Life September 17th, 1779, in ye 74th year of His Age." He married Mary Walker 14 June 1733 Stratford Congregational Church - their children were Sarah, Ruth, Ebenezer, John, Elizabeth, Mary, Stephen, Rebecca, Anna and Samuel Sherwood

In the vital records and church records of Cornwall and Bridgeport, Connecticut, John Sherwood is titled "Sgt" and then promoted to "Capt.". The chronology of John Sherwood's service in the Stratfield Company of Militia is: Sergeant in 1733; Ensign in May 1741; Lieutenant in Oct. 1745; Captain in May 1747. - United Congretational Church of Bridgeport, CT (Stratfield) (LDS microfilm # 0003830), Volume 1

• Page 48: Sgt John Sherwood m. Mary Walker at Stratfield 14 June 1733
• Page 27: Sgt. John Sherwood's wife Mary (note: Mary Walker) admitted a member in full communion 2 July 1733
• Page 38: 28 July 1733 Capt. Sherwood & wife in full communion and present members of this church (note: first names not given)
• Page 53: Captain Sherwood voted be messenger for the year ensuing on 21 January 1749

John Sherwood was ordained Elder of the Baptist Church in December 1757, and served the Stratfield Baptists as Pastor for about 10 years in Stratfield, Connecticut. From information provided by Mr. James Davis, Stratfield is shown in a Fairfield 1693-1989 book; map page 32 as located between Norwalk on the West and Stratford on the east. Page 54-56 talks about the outlivers who lived about 4 miles from Fairfield town center on the border with Stratford (an area called Pequonnock) wanting their own school by 1678. And by 1690/1 a church. Page 202 says until 1890 Stratfield was just a sleepy rural area. Then south Stratfield started to be a Bridgeport suburb when the North Avenue trolley in Bridgeport was run out that direction. Stratford is in Fairfield Co., Connecticut. It is in the SE corner of the county. Fairfield Co. is in the SW corner of the state. Litchfield County is north of Fairfield County. In Mr. Davis' book Fairfield 1639-1989 on p.63-64 it says: "In December 1757, elders from the Baptist churches in Groton and New London met with the Statfeild congregation and ordained John Sherwood, "a man of large stature, of superior strength, & possessing no small degree of energy & Firmness in carrying out the convictions of duty & right," as the minister of the Stratfield church. Still without a building of their own, the Baptists ordained their new minister in Stratfield's Anglican church, another congregation formed by disgruntled members of the Stratfield Society." The main church in those days was Puritan or later know as Congegationalists and now United Church of Christ. P.63 has a picture of "The Stratfield Baptist Church at the corner of Stratfield and Churchill Roads was built in 1814." "By 1763 one Baptist, seven Congregational, and four Episcopal churches existed in Fairfield." Fairfield here means more than just Fairfield town. John Sherwood's Will is dated 26 November 1772, proved 4 October 1779. The will mentions his eldest son John (the executor); sons Ebenezer (my 5th great grandfather) and Samuel; eldest dau. Sarah; daus. Ruth, Elizabeth, Mary, Rebecca, and Anna; son-in-law Samuel Sherwood (husband and cousin of John's dau. Ruth).

Will

John Sherwood, 26 Nov 1772, Fairfield Co., CT^[1][2]

In the name of God Amen November 26th 1772

I John Sherwood of Stratford in the County of Fairfield in the Colony of Connecticut in New England being weak of body but of perfect mind & memory thanks be to God therefor and considering my own mortality I doe make & ordain this my Last Will & testament that is to say firstly and principally I commit my soul into the hands of a merciful God that gave it & my body to a decent Christian burial firmly believing in its resurection at the last day by the almighty power of God and hoping for eternal salvation in & through the merits of Jesus Christ my onely savior to whom be Glory for ever Amen and as touching such worldly estate as it hath pleased God to Bless me withal in this life I will and bequeath & demise ye same as follows ::Imprimus my will is and I do appoint and ordain my Executor herein after named to pay all my just debts & funeral expenses and all my legacies which I have hereafter mentioned out of my moveable & personal estate in case my moveable etstae will not answer the same

Item I will and bequeath unto my son Ebenezer Sherwood six shillings

Item I will and bequeath unto my son Stephen Sherwood six shillings

Item I will and bequeath unto my eldest daughter Sarah three pounds

Item I will and bequeath unto my daughter Ruth four pounds thirteen shillings

Item I will and bequeath unto my daughter Elizabeth one pound ten shillings

Item I will and bequeath unto my daughter Mary ten shillings

Item I will and bequeath unto my daughter Rebeckah so much of my estate as shall amount to the sum of sixty one pounds with what she hath already received out of ye same as shall appear upon my book of accounts

Item I will and bequeath unto my daughter Anna out of my estate in value to the sum of sixty one pounds

Item I will and bequeath unto my eldest son John Sherwood a certain parcel or parcels of land lying within ye townships of Fairfield & part of North Fairfield society adjoining on the town line or highway near Zachariah Lyons dwelling house lying in Edwards Long Lot so called also taking in Halls & Odells Long Lot so called. Ye parcel of land is to begin at the north end of my land in sd lots & so run the whole breadth of sd lots south to make the quantity of thirty acres the other parcel of land in ye township lying at a place called Jacksons Neck at the south end of Ephraim Hawleys homested bounded easterly northwardly and westerly by sd Hawleys land & southwardly by hs own land with all the priviliges thereunto belonging to be his and his heirs for ever sd parcel contains one acre of salt meadow

Item I will and bequeath & demise unto my son Samuel Sherwood a certain part of my homestead where I now dwell that is to say beginning at the south end of the same taking in Hubbells Sherwoods & Bennets Long Lot so called & so running the whole breadth of sd lots northward up to the land of Samuel Sherwoods land my son in law also my dwelling house & barn standing thereon with all the privileges thereunto belonging with all the boards & nails and shingle I have provided to repair the same withall to be his proper estate for ever also another parcel of land in Sherwoods Long Lot so called at a place called Pantico & Bennets Long Lot about eight acres more or less bounded southwardly by Saml Sherwoods land____ easterly by the land belonging to ye heirs of Will Odell deceast westerly by the lands of Stephen Hubbell & northwardly by the same also another parcel of land in sd Sherwoods Long Lot containing about eleven acres be it more or less part plough land and part wood land bounded northwardly by the land of Nathll Seely or his heirs & so running southwardly the whole breadth of sd lot ye whoe length of the division: also another parcel of land at a place called Jacksons Neck about an acre & a half of salt meadows lying in common with ye land beloging to my brother Nathll Sherwood bounded easterly & northwardly by Ephraim Hawleys and westwardlyand southwardly by a narrow creek all the above mentioned parcels with all the privileges thereunto belonging I give unto my son & his heirs for ever all n ye township of Fairfield

Item I appoint my eldest son John Sherwood guardian to take care of my son Saml Sherwood and his interest until Saml shall arrive to ye age of twenty years and no longer & that Samuel have the profit of all his interest and all his labour & that Samll & Anna have halfe a years provision out of my estate

finally I appoint constitute and ordain my eldest son John Sherwood Executor of this my last will & testament hereby impowering of him to pay all of ye above named debts & legacies out of my yestate according to his instruction and the remainder of my estate to be equally divided between son John and Saml Sherwood and this I declare to be my last will and testament and no other in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand & seal this twenty sixth day of November, one thousand seven hundred & seventy two - Signed Sealed and declared by John Sherwood to be his last will and testament in presence of

Josiah Treadwell

Ruth Hollingsworth

Timothy Thodsden

John Sherwood

His inventory was completed on 27 October 1779.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ Connecticut, Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999 Ancestry.com. [1]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Connecticut County, District and Probate Courts. Hartford Probate Packets, Sherwood, John
2. ↑ “Probate Records, v. 19-20, 1775-1783”, database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G92K-TL3S  : 5 July 2022), FHL microfilm 007627295, image 331-332, Fairfield, Fairfield, Connecticut, Vol 20, 1778-1781, Pages 95-98.
3. ↑ “Probate Records, v. 19-20, 1775-1783”, database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G92K-TL9G  : 5 July 2022), FHL microfilm 007627295, image 352-353, Fairfield, Fairfield, Connecticut, Vol 20, 1778-1781, Pages 136-138.

• Find A Grave memorial #13950550
• Jacobus, Donald Lines, compiled & edited (1930-2). History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield, Volume I. For the Eunice Dennie Burr Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution (Fairfield, Connecticut) page 557
• http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=glencoe&id=I57998
• Cutter, William. Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts (Lewis Historical Pub. Co., Massachusetts, 1910) Vol. 4, Page 2369-70
• Orcutt, Samuel. A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut (Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, New Haven, Conn., 1886) Page 549 & Page 577
• Hawley, Elias. The Hawley Record (E. H. Hutchinson & Co., Buffalo, N.Y., 1890) Page 495.
• Fairfield Historical Society, Reports and Papers (The Standard Assoc., Bridgeport, 1882)

• Page 31: The Old Stratfield Baptist Church. "This church was first gathered in the dwelling house of Capt. John Sherwood, October, 1751."

• • Page 34: Capt. John Sherwood's residence was located about one-half a mile north of the site of the Stratfield Baptist meeting-house, on the old road leading to Easton..."
  • Page 37: "The Stratfield Baptist church, an off-shoot from the original "Curch of Christ in Stratfield" was organized in 1751, mainly under the leadership of Capt. John Sherwood, grandfather of the late Deacon David Sherwood"
• Palmer, Charles Ray. The Bi-Centennial Celebration of The First Congregational Church and Society of Bridgeport, Connecticut (Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, New Haven, 1895) Page 171.
• Pendery, Joyce S., Stratfeld, Connecticut: Settlement and Church Record, Connecticut Ancestry (Connecticut Anc. Soc., Inc., Stamford, Conn., Feb 1994) Vol. 36, No. 3, WN 186, Page 121.