• Born: 4 Dec 1683, Sturgeon Creek ME
• Marriage (1): Katherine Clark on 18 Sep 1712 in Boston MA
• Died: 13 Jan 1774, Boston MA

  General notes:

Coppersmith

  Events in his life were:

• , . Though listed by a number of authorities as a silversmith (a New England beaker marked SD was attributed to him by Louise Avery, but disputed by Francis Hill Bigelow), no contemporary evidence has been discovered and he is now no longer given the attribution. Several Suffolk County deeds refer to him as a coppersmith or tinworker and he is known to have made the earliest authenticated American weather vane, a large copper Indian, in 1716. He also made the banner-shaped vane that was installed on Boston's Old North Church in 1740 and the famous grasshopper vane that has topped Fanueil Hall since 1749, which was made in compliment to Peter Faneuil who had a similar vane on his summer house which stood in the rear of his mansion on the summit of Pemberton Hill. The vane was originally of copper in the form of a gigantic grasshopper. It was later gilded. It was copied from that on the Royal Exchange in London, being the crest of Sir Thomas Graham, the founder of the Royal Exchange. He made the gilt rooster formerly on the Cockerel Church on Hanover Street, now on the steeple of the Shepard Memorial Church in Cambridge and the gilded Indian Chief which stood on the Province House and is today seen in the rooms of the Massachusetts Historical Society
  

Shem married Katherine Clark, daughter of Timothy Clark and Sarah Richardson, on 18 Sep 1712 in Boston MA. (Katherine Clark was born on 6 Apr 1687 in Boston MA, died on 21 Apr 1754 and was buried in 1754.)