According to the English ancestry section (by J. Gardner Bartlett) in the Shed Genealogy532, Daniel Shed “was born about 1596, doubtless in Finchingfield, where the registers before 1617 are missing, so the record of his baptism is lost. He was evidently named for his uncle Daniel10 Shed. He became a yeoman in Finchingfield and resided, at least at one period, in the manor of Cornish Hall (which is located about three miles north of the church), as at a manor court with view of frankpledge held there 19 May 1627, the court rolls show that Daniel Shedd and James Chaplyn were assessors of fines of the manor. (Court Rolls of Cornish Hall in Honour of Clare, Duchy of Lancaster, Bundle 120, No. 1843, Public Records Office, London.) That Daniel11 Shed was held in good esteem in his parish is apparent from the fact that he held in the church from 1631 to 1635 the office of questman (now termed sidesman). As the eldest son, he was made the residuary legatee and executor of his father’s will in 1637, as previously related.

“In Feb. 1641/2, Parliament sent a manifesto throughout [p. 22] England, to test public opinion, protesting against any influence in the Government by the Church of Rome. Copies were sent to the constables of every parish in the country, who were ordered to show or read it to every male inhabitant over eighteen years of age, to list the names of all those persons who signed it or assented, and also to list the names of all who refused to sign. These lists were soon returned to Parliament, and many of them are still preserved, giving the names of all males in a parish over eighteen years of age. Among these so-called Protestation Rolls of 1642, which are preserved at the Houses of Parliament, are those for all the parishes in Hinckford Hundred, County Essex, including Finchingfield for which over two hundred names appear, among them that of ‘Danyell Shead.’ He evidently continued in Finchingfield until his death where he was buried 8 Feb. 1656/7, leaving no will, nor was any administration taken out on his estate. He was about sixty years of age at the time of his decease.”