The maternal grandfather of Emily A. Pierce (Mrs. Judge Landon) was Elijah Sherman, a lineal descendant of Edmond Sherman, the founder of the family in America. The grandfather of Edmond, was Henry Sherman, of Dedham, England. He died in 1589, his wife Agnes in 1580. They were the parents of five children, of whom Henry (2) was the oldest. Henry (2) was a "clothier" of Dedham, and married Susan Hills, who died in 1610. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom Edmond, the founder, was the fourth.
(I) Edmond Sherman, son of Henry (2) and Susan (Hills) Sherman, was born in Dedham, Essex county, England. He was a cloth worker (or maker), and a man of large means. In the church at Dedham, England, may be seen a stained glass window bearing his initials, his gift to the church, and the records of the church show that one of the buttresses of the building was erected at his expense. A free school endowed by him is still in existence. He married, in England, 1611, Judith Angier, and in 1632 came to America with wife Judith, sons Edmond and Samuel, and nephew John. Edmond subsequently returned to England, where his descendants are numerous.
(II) Samuel, son of Edmond and Judith (Angier) Sherman, born in England, was part of the family emigration of 1632. He finally settled in Stratford, Connecticut, where he became a man of great prominence. He was a member of the court of assistants or upper house of the general court, and supreme judicial tribunal, for several years after 1663, and filled various appointive and elective offices of honor and trust. He married Sarah, daughter of Matthew Mitchell, a native of Halifax, Yorkshire, England, who emigrated to America from Bristol, England, in 1635, coming in the ship "James." Samuel and Sarah Sherman were the parents of nine children.
(III) Benjamin, eighth child of Samuel and Sarah (Mitchell) Sherman, was born in Stratford, Connecticut, 1662, died there in 1741. He married Rebekah Phippeny, born 1664, died 1739. They were the parents of eight sons.
(IV) Samuel (2), fifth son of Benjamin and Rebekah (Phippeny) Sherman, was born in Stratford, Connecticut, 1705. He married Mrs. Martha Gold, 1728, of Fairfield, Connecticut, and had issue.
(V) Elijah, son of Samuel (2) and Martha (Gold) Sherman, was born 1754, died 1844. He was of Woodbury, Connecticut, and served in the revolution as a private. He was a large manufacturer of shoes, employing many men both in making of hand-made shoes and in the tannery where he tanned the leather used in his shop. He was also owner of a large farm which he cultivated. In 1797-98 and again in 1806-07 he was elected a member of the Connecticut legislature from Woodbury. While a member he introduced a bill which became a law, allowing poor debtors a certain amount of property which was exempt from seizure: "A cow, a pig, beds sufficient for the family" and other necessities. In 1790 he was made a Free Mason. The Episcopal church in Woodbury was erected with the contributions of seventy members, of whom Elijah Sherman was one. The parish was prosperous until the breaking out of the revolution, when its usefulness was greatly hindered by the hostility of the public mind to everything "English." In an agitation over the adoption of the state constitution by the church he became involved and ultimately abandoned the society to become a Methodist, and for twenty years worshipped with a few others in his own house, later a church of that denomination being erected on his own property, adjoining his homestead, which still is the church parsonage. He was a leading member and was elder or local preacher. He married Nancy Northrop, born 1758, died 1818, a great-great-granddaughter of Joseph Northrop, who came from England in 1637, one of the "Eaton and Davenport Company of good character and fortune," who came in the ships "Hector" and "Martin," and settled at New Haven, later settling the town of Milford, Connecticut. His wife was Mary Norton, who came to Milford from Wethersfield with the Rev. Peter Prudden and his party.
(VI) Anna, daughter of Elijah and Nancy (Northrop) Sherman, was born 1789, died 1846. She married, 1814, Joel Pierce, born 1793, died 1847. They were the parents of ten children, of whom Emily Augusta, youngest, became the wife of Judge Judson S. Landon. (See Landon VI.)