Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. NEW MILFORD PERIOD. 1743-1761. In June, 1743, the family moved to New Milford, where William, the oldest son, had gone three years before. It is said that Roger performed the journey on foot, carrying the tools of his trade with him. At first they took up their abode with William, who lived on a farm in that part of the town called New Dilloway. It is probable that, until he got established in other business, Roger worked at his trade. It is said that the object of his going to New Milford was to engage in the. business of a surveyor. At the October session of the General Assembly, 1745, Roger Sherman was appointed "Surveyor of Lands for the County of New Haven," the town of New Milford being at that time included in New Haven County. This was his first official position, and he continued in it till Litchfield County was organized in 1752, in which New Milford was included, and then he was appointed to the same office in that county, which position he held until he resigned it in 1758. The office of surveyor was more than ordinarily remunerative in those days. Mr. Sherman was often employed in that capacity by the colony, to lay out portions of the ungranted lands of thecolony to individuals. One commission which he executed for the colony as surveyor, in 1751, brought him 83 14.; and this was only one of a number of orders he fulfilled for the colony within a few years. For ten years his employment by private individuals to resurvey tracts of land which had been laid out by estimation at first, in New Milford, must have taken a large amount of his time, and brought him a remuneration that but few people obtained at that date. This occupation naturally led him to make investments in land, and he became one of the largest. buyers and sellers of land in t...