[Source: Sherwood family archives] The children were rechristened with Russian versions of their English names, thus John became Ivan and his youngest brother Joseph became Osip.

Ivan Sherwood was admitted to the Moscow Medical and Surgery Academy in 1815 but left after 3 months and became an English Language teacher.

Sherwood joined the army initially as a private in the 3rd Ukrainian Ulan Regiment and was rapidly promoted to NCO.

The next day he was brought to St. Petersburg to see General Kleinmichel, through whom Sherwood was introduced in the Kamennoostrovsky Palace to Alexander I. Sherwood told "that he accidentally learned that in some regiments of the 1st and 2nd armies there is a secret society that is gradually increasing connections in the 4th reserve cavalry corps, and that he is sure that the Ensign of the Nezhinsky Cavalry Regiment, the ensign Vadkovsky, is one of the most important members, and finally ... he hopes to be introduced into this and to discover the secrets and members of it."

Returning to the south, on the instructions of Alexander I, he began to make acquaintance with the officers in different places and "clearly saw from their conversations that the conspiracy must be ubiquitous".