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I have been trying to connect the English Sherrills to those who settled in the early American colonies and to further connect them to, especially, Adam Sherrill, the Pioneer. There have been a variety of senarios put forth which serve to connect the early Sherrill colonists to common roots. The two major views currently held are that: 1. a Samuel Sherrill, born in England (abt. 1639) near the Welsh border, was shipwrecked off of Long Island, NY about 1670; one of his sons was William who moved south to Maryland; his other sons remained in New York and produced the northern branches of the Sherrill family; William was the father of Adam, who moved further south into Virgina and then to North Carolina around 1747. A variation of this story is that Samuel's father was in fact a merchant from Plymouth named Thomas Sherwell. The other prevailing story ignores Shipwrecked Samuel and generally goes as follows: 2. a William Sherrill was born in Devon, England (abt. 1667) came to the Maryland Colony as an early settler; his son Adam led a number of family members from the Maryland/Pennsylvania area where they lived, into Virgina and later, on to North Carolina. Based on my investigation and reading, I have developed my own opinion which includes elements of both stories but essentially favors story no. 2 as the more favorable of the two senarios leading to Adam, the Pioneer. That being said, I do reserve the right to change my mind, given convincing and verifiable evidence. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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I have discovered the following facts from the English records of the 1600s. 1. In Devon, Ermington Parish, 16 July 1632, Adam Sherwill married Marye. I have seen the microfiche of this original record in the Devon Record Office. 2. Adam and Marye had three children: William (christened 7 July 1635), Honor (christened 30 June 1639), and Mary (christened 9 July 1643). I have seen the microfiche of these original records in the Devon Record Office. 3. Thomas Sherwell of Plymouth wrote a will dated 17 March 1629. I have read the transcript of this will in the Devon Record Office. 4. There exist several sources which report the relationship and activities of Thomas and Nicholas Sherwell in Plymouth at the beginning of the 1620s and afterward. This is well documented as both men served as mayors of Plymouth for three terms each and were well known at that time. 5. This establishes yet another fact: at least two Sherwell families lived in Devon at this time. They lived less than 20 miles apart yet there is no apparent connection between the two families. 6. The place, and village named Sherwill, is in North Devon, more than 80 miles from Plymouth. 7. There are many reports from various sources which report that people named Sherwell lived in the towns of Ivybridge, Cornwood, Milton Abbot, Buckfastleigh, and Holbeton as well as Ermington and Plymouth. I don't know how any of these people were related if at all, but it does indicate that the name Sherwell (and spelling variants) was relatively common in the 1600s. I accept this fact as fundamental to the formulation of my opinion. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Considering the apparent difficulty in connecting Samuel to William as either father/son or brother, with factual evidence (not just family lore), I believe it is entirely reasonable to assume that the two were not related, and came to the colonies independently - Samuel in 1670 and William, about twenty years later around 1690. It is completely within the realm of possibility that two non-related people with the same common surname came to the colonies as early settlers. Why must they be related? I don't believe that they are, and the American Sherrills are in fact, two distinct family lines: one from Samuel and one from William. It is a fact that many people named Sherwell lived in Devon in the 1600s and probably they were not all, closely, related. How may of you know any of your 5th cousins, for example? Click here for a chart of the descendents of Samuel Sherrill through five generations, according to East Hampton, New York Historical Society records. (Note: In the following summary, I have used the designation "William1" to refer to William, the Conestoga trader; "William0" being his father.) | |||||||||||||||||||||
SUMMARY AND OBSERVATIONSI believe that Samuel (b. abt 1639 near the Welsh border) set out for the colonies, perhaps Virginia, but was shipwrecked off of Long Island about 1670. He married Margaret Parsons and had two children: Recompence and Elizabeth. This branch formed the basis of the families of the northern colonies/states and is an entirely different group of Sherrills from the ones who established themselves in Maryland and Pennsylvania. William1 Sherwell, a weaver by trade, (b. abt 1667 in Devon) was a prisoner headed for the cotton fields Barbados but was put ashore in the Maryland colony about 1690 or a little later. He settled at first in Cecil County and later in Lancaster/Chester County, Pennsylvania, a little further up the Susquehanna River. This is William, the Conestoga Trader whose son was Adam, the Pioneer. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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I realize that logic does not always work in analyzing things of this kind but there are many aspects about the timing of events which work very sensibly. 1. Going back to the earliest ancestor, Adam, who married Marye in 1632; if he married in his twenties, he would have been born between 1603 and 1613. That means that he was 20-30 years of age when his son William0 was born in 1635. 2. William0 married Margery Upright in 1658 in Ermington Parish, she was from Modbury, about 3 miles away. William0 was 23 when they were married and was 32 years of age when his son William1 was born. (Herein lies the major assumption of my belief: if this William1 is not William the Conestoga Trader, this story ends here; and that implies that there is yet another, undiscovered William Sherwell, born in Ermington at about this same time - that seems unlikely, still not out of the question.) 3. William1 was about 23 years of age when he reached Maryland and about 30 years of age when his son, Adam (the Pioneer) was born. 4. William1 had a son also named William (William2). The other brothers and sisters of the family were: Adam, Samuel, Mary, Uriah, John, and Margaret. Notice, William1 had one son named Samuel, born abt. 1699 (possible fly in the ointment); the only person by that name in this family line at that time. 5. The names Adam and William are very prevalent in this family line with only one person named Samuel over four generations before 1700. 6. In 1670, Samuel Sherwell was about 31 years of age when he was shipwrecked at Long Island. 7. If Shipwreck Samuel was a son of Thomas Sherwell of Plymouth, he would have been born after the will was made in 1629. It is not likely since Thomas, at this time (1635-39), had several grown children and a number of grandchildren and his wife was well beyond childbearing age - Thomas was over 50. 8. The report that Samuel had a son, William, born about 1670 in Ermington, is in error. I found no evidence in any of the records I examined, of anyone named Samuel Sherwell living in Ermington at this time. I believe that this information was contrived in order to connect William with Samuel. I accept the report that Samuel was from near the Welsh border; that is over 150 miles, at the very minimum, from Ermington. Here is the simplified breakdown of four generations.
Steven Sherrill, 2001 |
