Philip Sherman (1610-1687) was a prominent leader in early Rhode Island and one of its founders. His last name is sometimes spelled Shearman, which reveals the family’s ancient involvement with shearing sheep and the wool industry.

Sherman was born in 1610 in Dedham, Essex, England. He was the son of Samuel and Phillippa (Ward) Sherman.

In 1633 Sherman came to America during the great Puritan migration. He settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts. There he married Sarah Odding, the daughter of William Odding and Margaret (Lang) Odding, in 1634.

Sherman sided with Anne Hutchinson against Governor John Winthrop. In 1637 he was among the followers of Hutchinson who were ordered to give up their arms. He then left with her and her other followers to see Roger Williams in Providence Plantations (now part of the state of Rhode Island). Williams advised them to buy land on Aquidneck Island. There they founded Pocasset, which is now called Portsmouth. Philip Sherman—along with William Coddington, Ann Hutchinson’s husband, and sixteen other men--signed the Portsmouth Compact, a model of constitutional government.

At first the colony we know as Rhode Island was in two separate parts—Providence Plantations and Rhode Island. Philip Sherman was the first Secretary (General Recorder) of the latter part. He held several other political offices during his life. At some point Sherman became a Quaker (member of the Religious Society of Friends).

Sherman died in Portsmouth in 1687.

He was a direct ancestor of James S. Sherman, Susan B. Anthony, George H.W. Bush , George W. Bush, Janis Joplin, Sir Winston Churchill, Lyndon LaRouche, Conrad Aiken, Mamie Eisenhower, Alexander Stine, Nicholas Stine and possibly Marilyn Monroe.