SEWALL, Samuel, jurist, born in Bishopstoke, England, 28 March, 1652; died in Boston, Massachusetts, 1 January, 1730. His early education was received in England before his parents came to New England. They went to Newbury, Massachusetts, and his lessons were continued there. He was fitted to enter Harvard in 1667, and took his first degree in 1671, his second in 1675. He studied divinity and had preached once before his marriage, but after that event, which took place on 28 February, 1677, he left the ministry and entered public life. His wife was Hannah Hull, the daughter and only child of John and Judith [Quincy) Hull. The position which his father-in-law held as treasurer and mint-master undoubtedly had somewhat to do with the change in the young man's plans. One of his first ventures after his marriage was to assume charge of the printing-press in Boston. This was under his management for three years, when other engagements compelled him to relinquish it. His family connections, both through his marriage and on the maternal and paternal sides, brought him in contact with some of the most prominent men of the day. In 1684 he was chosen an assistant, serving for two years. In 1688, he made a voyage to England, and remained abroad a year in the transaction of business, visiting various points of interest. In 1692 he became a member of the council and judge of the probate court. Judge Sewall appeared prominently ill judging the witches during the time of the Salem witchcraft. His character was shown more clearly at that time and immediately afterward than at any other time during his long life. He was extremely conscientious in the fulfilment of duty, and yet, when he found he was in error, was not too proud to acknowledge it. Of all the judges that took part in that historic action, he was the only one that publicly confessed his error. The memory of it haunted him for years, until in January, 1697, he confessed in a "bill," which was read before the congregation of the Old South church in Boston by the minister. During its reading, Sewall remained standing in his place. The action was indicative of the man. During the remaining thirty-one years of his life he spent one day annually in fasting and meditation and prayer, to keep in mind a sense of the enormity of his offence. In 1699 he was appointed a commissioner for the English Society for the propagation of the gospel in New England. Soon afterward he was appointed their secretary and treasurer, His tract, entitled "The Selling of Joseph," in which he advocated the rights of the slaves, was published in 1700. He was very benevolent and charitable, and his sympathies were always with the down-trodden races of humanity. In 1718 he was appointed chief justice, and served till 1728, when he retired on account of the increasing infirmities of old age. He also published "The Accomplishment of Prophecies" (1713)'" A Memorial Relating to the Kennebec Indians" (1721); "A Description of the New Heaven" (1727). The Massachusetts historical society have published his diary, which covers the larger portion of his life, in their "Historical Collections," and it has also published his letter-book, in which he kept copies of his important letters These throw light . upon the civil and social life of the day in a marked degree, and strengthen the opinion that he was a man of eminent ability and of sterling character. In addition to his diary, he kept a "commonplace book," in which he recorded quotations from various authors whose works he had read. At the time of his death he had also filled twelve manuscript volumes with abstracts of sermons and addresses that he had heard at various times. His funeral sermon, by the Reverend Thomas Prince, was highly eulogistic, but evidently a just tribute to one of the most remarkable men of his age.--His son, Joseph, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 26 August, 1688" died there, 27 June, 1769, was graduated at Harvard in 1707, studied theology, and was ordained on 16 September, 1713, as Ebenezer Pemberton's colleague in the pastorate of the Old South church, Boston. He was elected president of Harvard in 1724, but declined He was one of the commissioners appointed by the London corporation for propagating the gospel in New England, and a corresponding member of the Scottish society for promoting Christian knowledge. The Unigow gave him the degree of D.D. in 1731. He was a rigid Calvinist and a foe to free discussion and novel opinions, but gave his support and approval to Whitefield's revival in 1740. He contributed to the support of indigent students, and gave many books to replenish Harvard college library when it was burned in 1764. His benevolence gained him the familiar epithet of " the good," while his religious fervor caused him to be sometimes called "the weeping prophet." Many of his sermons were published.--Samuel's nephew, Stephen, jurist, born in Salem, Massachusetts, 18 December, 1704" died 10 September, 1760, was graduated at Harvard in 1721, and was librarian of the college in 1726-'8, and then a tutor till 1739, when he was appointed a judge of the supreme court of Massachusetts. In 1752 he was made chief justice, and he served in that capacity, and also as a member of the council, till the close of his life. He expressed doubt of the legality of general writs of assistance, which were demanded by the customs authorities for the purpose of suppressing illicit trade, yet before he could finally pass judgment upon the question he died, to the general regret of the patriot party.--Samuel's grandnephew, Samuel, engineer, born in York, Maine, in 1724" died there, 28 July, 1815, was the inventor of various useful improvements. He is said to have been the first to drive piles as a foundation for bridges, introducing this device at York in 1761. In 1786 he erected the Charles-town bridge on this plan.--Stephen's nephew, Jonathan, lawyer, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 24 August, 1728; died in St. John, New Brunswick, 26 September, 1796, was graduated at Harvard in 1748, taught in Salem till 1756, studied law, and began practice in Charlestown in 1758. He inclined to the patriotic side of the disputes with Great Britain until he was chagrined by the refusal of the legislature to pay the debts left by his uncle and by the opposition of James Otis and his father to his petition. He was rewarded for his subsequent adhesion to the cause of the crown with the posts of solicitor-general, attorney-general (which appointment he received in 1767), advocate-general, and judge of admiralty, his emoluments amounting to £6,000 a year. He was offered the appointment of judge of admiralty at Halifax in 1768, but declined. No lawyer in Massachusetts surpassed him in eloquence or acuteness. In 1769, in the suit of James against Lechmere, he secured the release of a negro slave two years before the common-law right of freedom was defined in the English courts by the decision of the Somerset case. He was esteemed one of the ablest writers in New England, and defended the doctrines of coercion with force and learning in the columns of the Tory newspapers. John Trumbull satirizes him in "McFingal" as "the summit of newspaper wit," who "Drew proclamations, works of toil, In true sublime, of scarecrow style ;With forces, too, 'gainst Sons of Freedom, All for your good, and none would read 'era." The papers in the "Massachusetts Gazette," signed "Massachusettensis," were attributed to him until, more than a generation later, Daniel Leonard, of Taunton, was discovered to have been their author. After Judge Sewall signed an address to Governor Thomas Hutchinson, his mansion in Cambridge was wrecked by a mob in September, 1774. He fled to Boston, and a few months later took ship for England, where he lived for a short time in London, and afterward mostly in Bristol. His estate in Massachusetts was confiscated under the act of 1779. In 1788 he removed to St. John, New Brunswick, where he resumed legal practice. His wife and the wife of John Hancock were daughters of Edmund Quincy, of Boston.--The second Samuel's brother, Stephen, Hebraist, born in York, Maine, 4 April, 1734: died in Boston, Massachusetts, 23 July, 1804, was graduated at Harvard in 1761, taught in the grammar-school at Cambridge, and in 1762 became librarian and instructor in Hebrew at Harvard. Two years later he was installed as the first Hancock professor of Hebrew, occupying the chair till 1785. He was an active Whig during the Revolution, and represented Cambridge in the general court in 1777. His wife was a daughter of Edward Wigglesworth. He published seven Greek and Latin poems in the "Pietas et gratulatio" (Cambridge, 1761) ; a "Hebrew Grammar" (1763); a funeral oration in Latin on Edward Holyoke (1769); an English oration on the death of Professor John Winthrop (1779); a Latin version of the first book of Edward Young's "Night Thoughts" (1780) ; "Carmina sacra quae Latine Graeceque condidit America" (1789) ; "The Scripture Account of the Sheehinah" (1794); and "The Scripture History relating to the Overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah" (1796). He left a manuscript Chaldee and English dictionary, which is preserved in the library of Harvard college.--Another brother, David, jurist, born in York, Maine, 7 October, 1735; died there. 22 October, 1825, was graduated at Harvard in 1755, studied law, and established himself in practice in York in 1759. He was appointed justice of the peace in 1762, and register of probate in 1766. Like his friend and classmate, John Adams, he was an earnest Whig, , and was an active patriot from the beginning of the Revolution. He was representative for York in 1'i76, was chosen a member of the council of Massachusetts, and was appointed in 1777 a justice of the superior court. From 1789 till 1818 he was United States judge for the district of Maine.--Stephen's nephew, Jonathan Mitchell, poet, born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1748 : died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 29 March, 1808, was brought up in the family of his uncle, and educated at Harvard. He left college to engage in mercantile business, afterward studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised with success. In 1774 he was appointed register of probate for Grafton county, New Hampshire Afterward he settled in Portsmouth. In the early part of the Revolution he wrote "War and Washington," a favorite song of the soldiers of the Revolutionary army. He produced other patriotic lyrics, besides paraphrases of Ossian, epilogues, and epigrams. In an "Epilogue to Cato," written in 1778, drawing a parallel between the characters and events of the Revolution and those of the play, occurs the couplet, "No pent-up Utica contracts your powers, But the whole boundless continent is yours," which Park Benjamin adopted as the motto of his paper, "The New World." His poems, which were mostly the productions of his youth, were collected into a volume (Portsmouth, 1801).--Joseph's grandson, Samuel, jurist, born in Boston. Mass., 11 December, 1757; died in Wiscassett, Maine, 8 June, 1814, was graduated at Harvard in 1776, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised in Marblehead, Massachusetts He was frequently a member of the legislature, was elected to congress for two successive terms, and served from 15 Nay, 1797, till 10 January, 1800, when he resigned on being appointed a judge of the Massachusetts supreme court. In the same year he was a member of the electoral college of Massachusetts. He became chief judge in 1813, and died while holding court in Wiscassett, where a monument was erected to his memory by the members of the bar.--The second Stephen's nephew, Jotham, clergyman, born in York, Maine, 1 January, 1760; died in Chesterville, Maine, 3 October, 1850, was a mason in his youth, and received only a rudimentary education, yet, after a theological examination in 1798, he was licensed to preach, and on 18 June, 1800, was ordained as an evangelist. From that time till the close of his life he labored as a missionary. He was installed as pastor of the Congregational church in Chesterville on 22 June, 1820, but continued his missionary tours, preaching wherever a few could be gathered together, on week days as well as on Sundays, and organizing many new churches. His ministry extended over a period of fifty years, and in this time he preached four and a half times on an average every week. His field was confined chiefly to Maine and parts of New Hampshire and Rhode Island, though his journeys extended into eleven other states and into New Brunswick. A memoir was published by his son, Jotham (Boston, 1852).--The third Samuel's son, Samuel, clergyman, born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, 1 June, 1785; died in Burlington, Massachusetts, 18 February, 1868, was graduated at Harvard in 1804, studied theology in Cambridge, and was pastor of the Congregational church at Burlington, Massachusetts, from 1814 till his death. He was fond of antiquarian studies, and left a "History of Woburn, Massachusetts, from the Grant of its Territory to Charlestown in 1640 to 1860," which was published, with a memorial sketch, by his brother, Reverend Charles Chauney Sewall (Boston, 1868).--Jotham's cousin, Thomas, physician, born in Augusta, Maine, 16 April, 1786; died in Washington, D. C., 10 April, 1845, was graduated in medicine at Harvard in 1812, and practised in Essex, Massachusetts, till 1820, when he removed to Washington. In 1821 he was appointed professor of anatomy in the National medical college of Columbian university. He began his lectures when the college first opened in 1825, and continued them till his death. He published, among other works, "The Pathology of Drunkenness" (Albany), which was translated into German, and established his reputation as an original investigator in Europe as well as in the United States.--Jotham's grandnephew, Rufns King, author, born in Edgecomb, Maine, 21 January, 1814, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1837, and at; Bangor theological seminary in 1840. He supplied pulpits in Vermont and Massachusetts, but the condition of his health prevented him from accepting a permanent pastorate. He resided for five years ill St. Augustine, Florida, studied law with his uncle, Kiah B. Sewall, of Mobile, Alabama, returned to Maine before the civil war, was admitted to the bar in 1860, and has since practised in Wiscassett. He is the author of a "Memoir of Joseph Sewall, D. D." (Boston, 1846); " Lectures on the Holy Spirit and his Converting Power" (1846) ; "Sketches of St. Augustine and its Advantages for Invalids" (New York, 1848); and "Ancient Dominions of Maine" (Bath, 1859).--Jotham's grandson, John Smith, educator, born in Newcastle, Maine, 20 March, 1830, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1850, went with the expedition of Commander Matthew C. Perry on the "Sarataga" as captain's clerk to China and Japan, taught for a year after his return, then entered Bangor theological seminary, and was graduated in 1858. He was pastor of the Congregational church at Wenham, Massachusetts, till 1867, when he became professor of rhetoric and English literature at Bowdoin. He exchanged this chair in 1875 for that of homiletics at Bangor theological seminary.