Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sherman, John

601466Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 52 — Sherman, John1897James Bass Mullinger

SHERMAN, JOHN (d. 1671), historian of Jesus College, Cambridge, was a native of Dedham in the county of Essex. He was educated at Queens' College, and, 25 Oct. 1660, was elected to a fellowship at Jesus College. In the following year he was presented to the university living of Wilmesloe in the diocese of Chester. The Act of Indemnity, however, enabled the former incumbent to retain the living, and Sherman was consequently never instituted. In 1662 his college presented him to the rectory of Harlton in Cambridgeshire, and in the same year he was elected president of the society. In 1663 he appears as one of the syndics for restoring the library at Lambeth, and in the following year as one of the twelve university preachers. In 1665 he was admitted to the degree of D.D. by royal mandate. In 1670 he was appointed archdeacon of Salisbury. He died in London, 27 March 1671, and was buried in Jesus College chapel. His ‘Historia Collegii Jesu Cantabrigiæ,’ giving an account of the college from its foundation, and also of the earlier foundation of the nunnery of St. Rhadegund, which stood on the same site, has been printed (very inaccurately) by J. O. Halliwell (London, 1840). It goes no further than the mastership of Edmund Boldero [q. v.], to whom Sherman dedicates his compilation.

[Additional notes to the original manuscript of the Historia in possession of the authorities of Jesus College; Baker MS. xxv. 323.]

J. B. M.