Samuel Sewall

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Judge Samuel Sewall, 1729, by John Smybert

Samuel Sewall (March 28, 1652 - January 1, 1730), was a Massachusetts judge, best known for his involvement in the Salem witch trials, for which he later apologized, and his essay The Selling of Joseph (1700), which criticized slavery.

[edit] Biography

Sewall was born in Hampshire, England, the son of Henry and Jane Sewall, and grandson of Henry Sewall the Mayor of Coventry, England. Sewall was an associate magistrate at the Salem witch trials. A devout Puritan, he emigrated from England to the Massachusetts colony in 1661. He settled in Boston, where he attended Harvard University, 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 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 and 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 reverend Samuel Parris, and shortly afterward Betty's 'afflictions' appear to have subsided.

Quite 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 still 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, ^[1].

His Diary, 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, whom he married in 1676 in Boston. She was mother of all fourteen of his children. 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. ^[2][3]

Sewall died in Boston, Massachusetts, and was interred in the family tomb at the Granary Cemetery, Tremont Street, Boston. His great grandson Samuel Sewall would later represent Massachusetts in the U. S. Congress. His most recent biographer, Eve LaPlante, is his 6-great-grand-daughter.^[4]

[edit] Bibliography

Wikisource has original works written by or about:

Samuel Sewall

Works include:^[5]

• 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, 2007.

[edit] References

1. ^ LaPlante, Eve (2007). Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall, 1st ed., New York: HarperOne, pp. 304-11. ISBN 978-0-06-078661-8. 
2. ^ LaPlante, Eve (2007). Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall, 1st ed., New York: HarperOne, pp. 285-7. ISBN 978-0-06-078661-8. 
3. ^ Graves, Eben W. (2007). The Descendants of Henry Sewall (1576-1656) of Manchester and Coventry, England, and Newbury and Rowley, Massachusetts, 1st ed., Boston, Massachusetts: Newbury Street Press, pp. 89-90. ISBN 978-0-88082-198-8. 
4. ^ LaPlante, Eve (2007). Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall, 1st ed., New York: HarperOne, pp. 312-3. ISBN 978-0-06-078661-8. 
5. ^ PAL: Samuel Sewall (1652-1730)

• Judge Sewall's Apology, Richard Francis, 2005, ISBN 1841156779

[edit] External links

• First Parish Cemetery, York, Maine. Descendants buried here.