Dear Sherwood researchers, The following is provided from pages I obtained from the Fairfield Historical Society on my 5th Great Grandfather, Captain John Sherwood, Fairfield militia and Pastor of Stratfield Baptists. Captain John Sherwood is grandson of Captain Matthew Sherwood and Mary Fitch. Source: A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport Connecticut, by Rev. Samuel Orcutt, Part 1, Published under the Auspices of the Fairfield County Historical Society 1886.p. 548-549: "No. 117. The Stratfield Baptist Church was first gathered in October, 1751. It was a result, in part, of the "Great Awakening," or "New Light" movement in 1740 and 41. The Rev. Samuel Cooke of the Stratfield parish was in favor of Whitefield and his preaching, but there was a considerable sentiment opposed to Mr. Cooke’s views, and some of the opposition went to the Episcopal Church. Upon the death of Mr. Cooke in 1747, a successor in the pastorate--Rev. Lyman Hall--was secured, who was opposed to New Light methods, and this increased the feeling of dissatisfaction towards the old parish and church. The Separatist feeling, finally, took form under the leadership of Capt. John Sherwood and the preaching of the Rev. Joshua Moss (or Morse) in 1751. Mr. Moss was a convert under the preaching of Whitefield, in Rhode Island, and had united with the Baptist Church, entertaining its sentiments in regard to baptism, close communion and preparation for the ministry, namely, that a liberal education was unnecessary; the requisites being, the divine call, hallowed fire and spiritual enlightenment. Mr. Moss had preached in the place repeatedly and on the second Lord’s day in October, 1751, being assembled at the house of John Sherwood, he preached and after the sermon the following persons, Zechariah Mead, Nathaniel Seeley, Elihu Mash (Marsh), John Sherwood, Ebenezer Sanford and Samuel Beardsley, six men with a number of women, after the covenant services, were baptized by Elder Moss, and the Lord’s Supper was administered. These services, as then judged, constituted the organization of the Church. From this organization for six years there are found no records of this church. Some difficulty followed, between the members of this Baptist Church and the Old Stratfield Society about the collection of ministerial rates. The former thought that, under the law they should be exempt, the latter claimed of them rates the same as of others, since they were not an organized society, as the law required in order to be exempt, and tradition says that Captain Sherwood suffered his rate to be collected under distrait on his personal property, and in 1755, brought a suit in the Superior Court to recover sums which had been so collected. The results is not known, except that at the annual meeting of the Stratfield Society, December 29,1757, shortly after the ordination of Capt. Sherwood as the first resident pastor of this Church, the ministerial rates of John Sherwood, Nathaniel Seeley, Zachariah Mead and Ebenezer Sanford were remitted for the year 1756 and 1757, and that they should be exempt from the rastes of the following year. Captain John Sherwood was ordained as an elder, in the Baptist Church, on the third Tuesday in December, 1757, by the Elders and Messengers of the Churches in New London and Groton, assembled with the Baptish Church in Stratfield, and he became the settled pastor of this church. At the end of the first ten years, sixteen persons had been received into membership, and these had their residences in Ridgefield, Redding, Wilton and Newtown. Elder Sherwood died in 1779, aged 75 years. He was a man of strong convictions, and was faithful to them while a member of the old Stratfield Church, as well as after he became a Baptist. He labored devotedly and with much energy, and hence successfully, not only in Stratfield but extensively in Fairfield county. He had great physical powers, as appears in his encounter with the Indian, as related in NO. 102." Jeannie Winter