Philip Sherman
| Philip Sherman | |
|---|---|
| Born | baptized 5 February 1610/11 Dedham, Essex, England |
| Died | 1687 Portsmouth, Rhode Island |
| Other names | Philip Shearman |
| Education | Sufficient to be General Recorder of the colony |
| Occupation | Secretary, Town Clerk, General Recorder, Deputy |
| Spouse(s) | Sarah Odding |
| Children | Eber, Sarah, Peleg, Edmund, Samson, John, Mary, Hannah, Samuel, Benjamin, Phillip |
| Parent(s) | Samuel Sherman and Philippa Ward |
Philip Sherman (1611–1687) was a prominent leader and one of the founding settlers of Portsmouth in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Coming from Dedham, Essex in southeastern England, he and several of his siblings and cousins settled in New England. His first residence was in Roxbury in the Massachusetts Bay Colony where he lived for a few years, but he became interested in the teachings of the dissident ministers John Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson, and at the conclusion of the Antinomian Controversy he was disarmed and forced to leave the colony. He went with many followers of Hutchinson to establish the town of Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island, later called Rhode Island. He became the first secretary of the colony there, and served in many other roles in the town government. Sherman became a Quaker after settling in the Rhode Island colony, and died at an advanced age, leaving a large progeny.
Born in the village of Dedham in Essex, near the southeast coast of England, Philip Sherman (often spelled Shearman) was the son of Samuel and Philippa (Ward) Sherman. His grandfather and great grandfather were both named Henry Sherman. In 1633 he arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, settling in Roxbury, where he was made a freeman the following year.
In time Sherman became attracted to the preachings of the dissident ministers John Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson, during the so-called Antinomian Controversy, and following their banishment from the Massachusetts colony, Sherman and many other followers were disarmed. On 20 November 1637 he and others were ordered to deliver up all guns, pistols, swords, powder and shot because the "opinions and revelations of Mr. Wheelwright and Mrs. Hutchinson have seduced and led into dangerous errors many of the people here in New England." The Roxbury church records give this account of Sherman, "He came into the land in the year 1632 [sic; should read 1633], a single man, & after married Sarah Odding, the daughter o[f] the wife of John Porter by a former husband. This man was of melancholy temper, he lived honestly & comfortably among us several years, upon a just calling went for England & returned again with a blessing: but after his father-in-law John Porter was so carried away with these opinions of familism & schism he followed them & removed with them to the Iland, he behaved himself sinfully in these matters (as may appear in the story) & was cast out of the church."
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