Roger Sherman was born on April 19, 1721, in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of William Sherman and Mehetabel Wellington Sherman. When Roger was young, the family moved to Stoughton. His father was a farmer and shoemaker, and Roger grew up in a working household where children contributed to agriculture and craft production. Sherman received only a common-school education, but he read widely on his own. He learned his father’s shoemaking trade and developed strong abilities in mathematics and surveying. When William Sherman died in 1743, Roger helped support his mother and younger siblings. This early responsibility reinforced habits of thrift, diligence, and family obligation. In 1743 Sherman moved with relatives to New Milford, Connecticut. He opened a store with his brother, worked as a surveyor, and prepared almanacs containing astronomical and practical information. These activities required precise calculation, careful records, and trustworthiness. He also studied law independently and was admitted to the bar in 1754. Sherman married Elizabeth Hartwell, with whom he had children before her death. He later married Rebecca Prescott and raised a large blended family. His Congregational faith remained central to his life, shaping a moral and orderly approach to public affairs. Before signing the Declaration, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution, Sherman had been shaped by manual trade, limited schooling, self-education, paternal loss, sibling responsibility, migration, retail business, surveying, almanac making, law, marriage, and religion. His authority did not rest on aristocratic polish. It grew from practical mastery and a reputation for honesty. The compromise-minded reasoning he later brought to national government reflected habits developed while solving concrete problems in small-town New England.