Roger Sherman was born in 1721 in Newton, Massachusetts, and early moved to Stoughton, Massachusetts, where he attended the public schools and later learned the shoemaker's trade. He moved to New Milford, Connecticut, in 1743 and became surveyor of New Haven County in 1745. During this period Sherman was engaged in the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1754. He was a member of the Connecticut Assembly in 1755, 1756, 1758-61 and 1764-66. As Justice of the Peace for Litchfield County (1755-1761), he issued the warrant for the arrest of Timothy Hurlburt. He served as judge of the New Haven Superior Court and was a member of the State Senate. He served as Treasurer of Yale College from 1765 to 1776. He was a member of the Continental Congress 1774-1781, 1783, and 1784, and signed the Declaration of Independence as a member of the committee which drafted it. He was also on the committee which drafted the Articles of Confederation, and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. As such he became the only person to sign all the great American state papers: the Articles of Association, of 1774, the Declaration of Independence of 1776, the Articles of Confederation in 1783, and the Constitution in 1787.