He arrived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on June 12, 1632 aboard the "James" with his brother Henry Sherburne.
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.
[4] After Sherburne's great grandfather left Stonyhurst for Oxford, England, where he dwelled in Beam Hall, now a student house at Merton College,[5] his father Joseph moved to Odiham, where John and his brother Henry were born.
[6] Following their father's death, financial setbacks, and with limited prospects in England, the brothers decided to try their lot in America.
[7] One of the earliest Sherburne family homes (built 1695-1703) still stands, and is preserved at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.