Francis Joseph Sherman, poet and banker, was born 3

February 1871 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, eldest son of

Louis Walsh Sherman, lumberman and liquor merchant, and Alice Maxwell Myshrall, grand-daughter of James Maxwell, a Connecticut Loyalist.

The oldest of seven siblings, he spent his early years supporting his family after his father abandoned them.

Orthodox in his beliefs and ideals, he remained true to his Anglican roots and strove towards becoming a man who might reconcile his faith with his metaphysical curiosity.

Fredericton, at this time, was heavily influenced by the

Anglican Church (the spire of Bishop Medley’s Christ

Church Cathedral was visible from anywhere in downtown Fredericton), and this defined his character as he grew older. Both Sherman’s home environment and the atmosphere of the City of Fredericton are said to have been congenial to his thoughtful spirit.

The brooding spirit of George R. Parkin at the Collegiate School and George E.

Foster at the University bred a thorough cosmopolitanism and a robust sense of

intellectual independence in the city and the province. In 1886, Sherman entered

the University of New Brunswick for the Arts course.

Sadly, for financial reasons, his college days were cut short and the following

year he was found a junior post in the

Merchants’ Bank of Halifax; thus began a career which was to bring him in an

amazingly short time to a position of great trust and respect within what became the Royal Bank of Canada.

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)

It was while working at the bank in Fredericton that Sherman started writing poetry. New Brunswick’s landscape had a profound effect on Sherman’s work. His

landscapes are backdrops that complement

his melancholic poetry. In his work, there is a tension between nature as a condolence and

the Pre-Raphaelite notion of nature as a metaphor for inner turmoil. This Pre-

Raphaelite influence would colour Sherman’s work until his final collection.

In 1898 Sherman became the Manager of the Merchants’

Bank in Fredericton, the youngest man in Canada to hold such an office. A year later he was appointed assistant

manager of the Montreal office and then was transferred to Havana, Cuba, becoming the Bank’s first agent there in

November 1899. Sherman left Cuba in 1912 for the bank’s

Montreal head office. In 1915 he went overseas with the

McGill OTC, sent as reinforcements for the Princess

Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. A year after the war ended he retired from the Bank and took up residence in Atlantic City.

As has also been noted, Sherman’s body of work is small compared to other poets of his time, so it is

difficult to judge where his career may have taken him if he had continued to write. Little of his

manuscripts and drafts were readily available for

study during his life and he published privately in the United States, meaning he was virtually unknown in Canada.

Publications

 Matins. Boston: Copeland and Day, 1896.

 In Memorabilia Mortis. Boston: Copeland and Day, 1896.

 A Prelude. Boston: Copeland and Day, 1897.  Two Songs at Parting. by John Bodkin and Francis Sherman. Fredericton: n.p., 1899.

 The Deserted City. Boston: Copeland and Day, 1899.

 A Canadian Calendar: XII Lyrics. Havana: n.p., 1900.

 "An Acadian Easter," The Atlantic Monthly, April 1900.  The complete poems of Francis Sherman. Lorne Pierce ed., Sir Charles G.D. Roberts fwd. Toronto: Ryerson P, 1935.

Enrolling with the Officers Training Corps of McGill University, Overseas

Contingent, in 1914, Sherman left his prestigious banking position and enlisted as a private for reinforcements of the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry in 1915. In France, he won a captaincy and was transferred to the Royal Canadian Pay Corps, where he was later discharged with the rank of Major. The Honorable Mr.

Justice C. Gordon MacKinnon of the Superior Court of Quebec noted that Sherman should be remembered for his generosity during the war, giving away large sums

of money to privates in need and those going on leave. In France, he received 1000 francs (approximately $200 Canadian) from a bank in London and gave it all away before the end of the month (Pierce Complete 3).

 In 1919, with the war having undermined his health, he retired from the bank and in 1921 married Ruth Ann Sullivan, an acquaintance he had met years earlier in Cuba. They moved to Atlantic City and had two sons, Francis and Jerry.

Francis Joseph Sherman died there on 15 June 1926.