Sherwood, Adiel

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Ruth McKenzie, “SHERWOOD, ADIEL,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 10, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/sherwood_adiel_10E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • United Empire Loyalist and sheriff; b. 16 May 1779 at Fort Edward, New York, son of Thomas Sherwood and Anna Brownson; m. on 11 Oct. 1801 Mary Baldwin by whom he had seven daughters and one son; d. 25 March 1874 in Brockville, Ont.
    • Adiel Sherwood’s parents were United Empire Loyalists who came to Quebec in 1779 when Adiel was an infant. In 1784 they settled in the future Leeds County, and Adiel later recalled that “I saw the first tree cut and the first hill of Corn and Potatoes planted by an actual settler.” 
    • In his long public career Sherwood served the Johnstown District, (present-day Leeds and Grenville, and parts of Lanark and Carleton counties) as deputy clerk of the crown, branch roads commissioner, land board member, commissioner of the peace (1818–28), treasurer (1814–41), and sheriff (1829–41). He continued as sheriff for the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville from 1842 to 1864.
    • Sherwood was an upright and conscientious sheriff. His duties were to seize land and goods and chattels for tax arrears and to sell them at public auction, to attend the assizes and quarter sessions of the district courts, to select and summon juries for court hearings, to supervise the district (later the counties) jail and its inmates, and to bring the prisoners to court and to see that their sentences, including executions, were carried out.
    • After the rebellion in 1837, Sherwood investigated for the provincial government the activities of “Patriots” and of Hunter’s Lodges suspected of border raids across the St Lawrence (some led by the “pirate” William Johnston*) and of the invasion at Prescott in November 1838.
  • Son of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=7578
  • Find A Grave : https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/104815942/adiel-sherwood