Career
They were very early New England pioneers. Both men, who arrived penniless in the New World despite deep aristocratic connections in England, rose to considerable wealth in colonial New Hampshire. John Samuel Sherburne, (1757 – August 2, 1830), a prominent colonial and early American politician in New England, was Sherburne"s descendant, as was John Sherburne Sleeper (1794 - 1878).
John and Henry, the family"s founders in the New World, were lineal descendants of the illustrious Sherburne family of England (inter alia, their ancestors could trace their lineage to the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne).
These Sherburnes built Stonyhurst Hall in Lancashire, England but Stonyhurst was lost to the family when the elder branch went extinct in 1717). By then the New England Sherburnes -- descended from a younger son -- were already in New Hampshire.
Stonyhurst is now Stonyhurst College. In addition to their Continental aristocratic connections, the Sherburnes of Stonyhurst and New England were among England"s oldest families, their ancestors the Mittons on pre-Stonyhurst lands having been mentioned in the Doomsday Book.
Following their father"s death, financial setbacks, and with limited prospects in England, the brothers decided to try their lot in America.