Samuel Sewall
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| Samuel Sewall | |
|---|---|
 1729, by John Smybert |
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| Born | March 28, 1652 Hampshire, England |
| Died | January 1, 1730 (aged 77) Boston, Massachusetts |
| Occupation | Judge |
| Known for | Salem witch trials |
| Spouse | Hannah Hull Abigail (Melyen) Woodmansey Tilley Mary (Shrimpton) Gibbs |
| Signature |  |
Samuel Sewall (March 28, 1652 – January 1, 1730) was a Massachusetts judge, best known for his involvement in the Salem witch trials[citation needed], for which he later apologized, and his essay The Selling of Joseph (1700), which criticized slavery.[1]
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[edit] Biography
Sewall was born in Bishopstoke, Hampshire England, on March 28, 1652, the son of Henry and Jane Sewall (née Dummer),[2] and grandson of Henry Sewall, the mayor of Coventry, England. He emigrated with his parents from England to the Massachusetts colony in 1661 where they settled in Newbury, Massachusetts. It is there the young Samuel grew up along the Parker River and Plum Island Sound. Like other local boys he attended school at the James Noyes House, receiving his primary education from the Reverend Thomas Parker, M.A. A devout Puritan, he later moved to Boston to attend Harvard University, (graduating in 1671), hoping to study for the ministry, but he eventually left to pursue a career in business. He also entered local politics, and was elevated to the position of assistant magistrate in the judiciary that in 1692 judged the people in Salem accused of witchcraft. Sewall was perhaps most remarkable among the magistrates involved in the trials in that he was the only magistrate who, some years later, publicly regretted his role, going so far as to call for a public day of prayer, fasting, and reparations. In Salem, Sewall's brother Stephen had opened up his home to one of the initially afflicted children, Betty Parris, daughter of Salem Village's Reverend Samuel Parris, and shortly afterward Betty's 'afflictions' appear to have subsided.
Apart from his involvement in the trials, Sewall could be very liberal in his views. In The Selling of Joseph (1700), for instance, he came out strongly against slavery, making him one of the earliest colonial abolitionists. There he argued:
- "Liberty is in real value next unto Life: None ought to part with it themselves, or deprive others of it, but upon the most mature Consideration."
He regarded "man-stealing as an atrocious crime which would introduce amongst the English settlers people who would remain forever restive and alien," but he also believed that
- "There is such a disparity in their Conditions, Colour, Hair, that they can never embody with us, and grow up into orderly Families, to the Peopling of the Land."
Although holding such segregationist views, he maintained that:
- "These Ethiopians, as black as they are; seeing they are the Sons and Daughters of the First Adam, the Brethren and Sisters of the Last ADAM, and the Offspring of God; They ought to be treated with a Respect agreeable."
His 1725 essay "Talitha Cumi" refers to the "right of women." It is republished for the first time since 1725 in the appendix to the most recent biography of Sewall.[3]
His Journal, kept from 1673 to 1729, describes his life as a Puritan against the changing tide of colonial life, as the devoutly religious community of Massachusetts gradually adopted more secular attitudes and emerged as a liberal, cosmopolitan-minded community. As such, the diary is an important work for understanding the transformation of the colony in the days leading to the American Revolution.
In 1717, Sewall was appointed chief justice of Massachusetts.
Sewall married three times. His first wife was Hannah Hull, daughter of John Hull, mint-master of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, whom he married on 28 February 1676 in Boston. She was mother of all fourteen of his children.[4] She died in 1717; two years later, in 1719, Sewall married Abigail (Melyen) Woodmansey Tilley, who died seven months later. In 1722, Sewall married Mary (Shrimpton) Gibbs, who survived him.[5][6]
Sewall died in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 1, 1730 at age 77 and was interred in the family tomb at the Granary Burying Ground, Tremont Street, Boston. His great grandson Samuel Sewall would later represent Massachusetts in the U. S. Congress. A biography of Sewall was published by Richard Francis in 2005. SALEM WITCH JUDGE, a biography of Sewall published by his descendant Eve LaPlante, won the 2008 Massachusetts Book Award in Nonfiction.[7]
[edit] Bibliography
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Wikisource has original works written by or about: Samuel Sewall |
Works include:[8]
- The Revolution in New England Justified, 1691
- Phaenomena quaedam Apolyptica, 1697 online text (PDF version)
- The Selling of Joseph, 1700
- Proposals Touching the Accomplishment of Prophecies, 1713
- Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674-1729.
- Talitha Cumi, or Damsel, Arise, 1725. Reprinted in SALEM WITCH JUDGE, by Eve LaPlante, 2007, 2008.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Samuel Sewall; Melvin Yazawa (1998). The diary and life of Samuel Sewall. Boston: Bedford Books. pp. 1. ISBN 9780312133948.
- ^ Dummer, Michael (June 2005). "7: Stephen of Horton Heath - the Last Yeoman, and the Last Estate". The Family of Dummer (7th ed.). p. 38.
- ^ LaPlante, Eve (2007). Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall (1st ed. ed.). New York: HarperOne. pp. 304–11. ISBN 978-0-06-078661-8.
- ^ One of Sewall's daughters, Mary Sewall, married Boston bookseller Samuel Gerrish in 1709; cf. John Tyler Hassam. Samuel Gerrish, 1735-1741. Early recorders and registers of deeds for the county of Suffolk, Massachusetts, 1639-1735. J. Wilson and Son, 1900.
- ^ LaPlante op. cit., pp. 285–7
- ^ Graves, Eben W. (2007). The Descendants of Henry Sewall (1576-1656) of Manchester and Coventry, England, and Newbury and Rowley, Massachusetts (1st ed. ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Newbury Street Press. pp. 89–90. ISBN 978-0-88082-198-8.
- ^ LaPlante op. cit., pp. 312–3
- ^ PAL: Samuel Sewall (1652-1730)
[edit] References
- ^ Samuel Sewall; Melvin Yazawa (1998). The diary and life of Samuel Sewall. Boston: Bedford Books. pp. 1. ISBN 9780312133948.
- ^ Dummer, Michael (June 2005). "7: Stephen of Horton Heath - the Last Yeoman, and the Last Estate". The Family of Dummer (7th ed.). p. 38.
- ^ LaPlante, Eve (2007). Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall (1st ed. ed.). New York: HarperOne. pp. 304–11. ISBN 978-0-06-078661-8.
- ^ One of Sewall's daughters, Mary Sewall, married Boston bookseller Samuel Gerrish in 1709; cf. John Tyler Hassam. Samuel Gerrish, 1735-1741. Early recorders and registers of deeds for the county of Suffolk, Massachusetts, 1639-1735. J. Wilson and Son, 1900.
- ^ LaPlante op. cit., pp. 285–7
- ^ Graves, Eben W. (2007). The Descendants of Henry Sewall (1576-1656) of Manchester and Coventry, England, and Newbury and Rowley, Massachusetts (1st ed. ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Newbury Street Press. pp. 89–90. ISBN 978-0-88082-198-8.
- ^ LaPlante op. cit., pp. 312–3
- ^ PAL: Samuel Sewall (1652-1730)
- "SALEM WITCH JUDGE: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall," by Eve LaPlante, HarperOne, 2007, 2008. ISBN 978-0-6-085960-2. Please visit the author at www.EveLaPlante.com.
- Judge Sewall's Apology: The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of a Conscience, Richard Francis, Fourth Estate, London: 2005 ISBN 1841156760; HarperCollins, New York: 2005 ISBN 0007163622; HarperPerennial, London & New York, 2006, ISBN 1841156779
- Bridgeman, Thomas (1856). The Pilgrims of Boston and their Descendants. New York: D. Appleton and Company. http://books.google.com/books?id=oPQWAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+pilgrims+of+boston. Retrieved 29 April 2009.
[edit] External links
- 100 Parish Cemetery, York, Maine. Descendants buried here.
- Reading by Eve LaPlante from her biography of Sewall, courtesy of the Maine Humanities Council
- The Family of Dummer of British Origin
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