Samuel Sewall

“ Samuel Sewall, sensible of the reiterated strokes of God upon himself and family; and being sensible, that as to the guilt contracted upon the opening of the late Commission of Oyer and Terminer, at Salem (to which the order of this day relates) , he is, upon many accounts, more concerned than any that he knows of, desires to take the blame and shame of it ”

“ A climax of wig-hating was reached by one who has been styled “The Last of the Puritans”—Judge Samuel Sewall of Boston. Constant references in his diary show how this hatred influenced his daily life. He despised wigs so long and so deeply, he thought and talked and prayed upon them, until they became to him of undue importance; they became godless emblems of iniquity; an unutterable snare and peril.
We find Sewall copying with evident approval a “scandalous bill” which had been “posted” on the church in Plymouth in 1701. In this a few lines ran:—
“Our churches are too genteel. ”

“ He was a judge of the Superior Court from 1692 to 1728, and in 1718-1728 was its chief justice; in 1715-1728 he was judge of probate for Suffolk county. He died in Boston on the 1st of January 1730. Sewall has been called the “ last of the Puritans ” and his character is attractively portrayed in Whittier's Prophecy of Samuel Sewall. He was a strict Calvinist and opposed the growing liberal control of Harvard College ”

“ In 1684, and for several subsequent years, the loss of the charter occasioned great confusion and disorder in the political concerns of the colony. Soon after Sewall resigned his office as conductor of the press in Boston, he went to England, and he returned in 1692. He was undoubtedly the same Samuel Sewall [Pg 53] who, when a new charter was granted by king William, was for many years one of the council for the province, and who, in 1692, was appointed one of the Judges of the Superior Court; in 1715 Judge of Probate; and in 1718, Chief Justice of Massachusetts. He died Jan. ”

“ Even those evil days of New England households, the annual house-cleaning, were robbed of some of their dismal terrors by what was known as a "whang," a gathering of a few friendly women neighbors to assist one another in that dire time, and thus speed and shorten the hours of misery. [418]
For any details of domestic life of colonial days the reader has ever to turn to the diary of Judge Samuel Sewall of Boston, just as the student of English life of the same date turns to the diary of Samuel Pepys. Sewall was a Puritan of the narrow type of the later days of Puritanism ”

“ They were the best and selectest of Puritanism, brave, honest, God-fearing men and women; and if their creed in the lapse of time has lost something of its vigor, the influence of their ethical righteousness still endures. The prophecy of Samuel Sewall that Christians should be found in Newbury so long as pigeons shall roost on its oaks and Indian corn grows in Oldtown fields remains still true, and we trust will always remain so. Yet, as of old, the evil personage sometimes intrudes himself into company too good for him. ”

“ And all things considered, it would conduce more to the Welfare of the Province, to have White Servants for a Term of Years, than to have Slaves for Life. Few can endure to hear of a Negro's being made free; and indeed they can seldom use their freedom well; yet their continual aspiring after their forbidden Liberty, renders them Unwilling Servants. ”

“ As many Negro men as there are among us, so many empty places there are in our Train Bands, and the places taken up of Men that might make Husbands for our Daughters. And the Sons and Daughters of New England would become more like Jacob, and Rachel, if this Slavery were thrust quite out of doors. Moreover it is too well known what Temptations Masters are under, to connive at the Fornication of their Slaves ”

“ Chief Justice Samuel Sewall wrote a pamphlet against it. Many, says Dr. B., who were wholly opposed to the traffic, would yet buy a slave, when brought here, on the ground that it was better for him to be brought up in a Christian land! For this, Abraham and the patriarchs were vouched in, of course, as supporters.
Our winters were unfavorable to unacclimated negroes; white laborers were therefore preferred to black. “Negro children,” says Dr. ”

“ SEWALL, SAMUEL (1652-1730) , American jurist, was born at Horton, near Bishopstoke, Hants, England, on the 28th of March 1652. He was taken to New England in 1661; graduated at Harvard in 1671; studied divinity ”

“ Guilt Contracted by the Witch Judges (1697) BY CHIEF JUSTICE SAMUEL SEWALL
Sewall was a distinguished Massachusetts man; for a time a minister, later a judge. In the latter capacity he joined in the condemnation of the witches. His public humiliation is characteristic of the time. — Bibliography: Tyler, American Literature, II, 99-103; Winsor, Memorial History of Boston, II, ch. vi, notes; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 129. —See Contemporaries, I, No. 149.
COPY of the Bill I put up on the Fast day ; giving it to Mr. ”

“ Life and Death have come and gone!
There pictured tiles in the fireplace show,
Great beams sag from the ceiling low,
The dresser glitters with polished wares,
The long clock ticks on the foot-worn stairs,
And the low, broad chimney shows the crack
By the earthquake made a century back.
Lip from their midst springs the collage spire
With the crest of its cock in the sun afire ”

“ And hath made of One Blood, all Nations of Men, for to dwell on all the face of the Earth, and hath determined the Times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation: That they should seek the Lord. ”

“ 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. ”

“ JOSEPH
A Memorial.
FOR AS MUCH as Liberty is in real value next unto Life: None ought to part with it themselves, or deprive others of it, but upon most mature Consideration.
The Numerousness of Slaves at this day in the Province, and the Uneasiness of them under their Slavery, hath put many upon thinking whether the Foundation of it be firmly and well laid; so as to sustain the Vast Weight that is built upon it. It is most certain that all Men, as they are the Sons of Adam, are Coheirs; and have equal Right unto Liberty, and all other outward Comforts of Life. ”

“ And there is such a disparity in their Conditions, Color & Hair, that they can never embody with us, and grow up into orderly Families, to the Peopling of the Land: but still remain in our Body Politick as a kind of extravasat Blood. ”

“ Many have found it to their Cost, that a Prophetical Denunciation of Judgment against a Person or People, would not warrant them to inflict that evil. If it would, Hazael might justify himself in all he did against his Master, and the Israelites, from 2 Kings 8. ”

“ And for men obstinately to persist in holding their Neighbours and Brethren under the Rigor of perpetual Bondage, seems to be no proper way of gaining Assurance that God ha's given them Spiritual Freedom. ”

“ There is no proportion between Twenty Pieces of Silver, and LIBERTY. The Commodity it self is the Claimer. If Arabian Gold be imported in any quantities, most are afraid to meddle with it, though they might have it at easy rates; lest if it should have been wrongfully taken from the Owners, it should kindle a fire to the Consumption of their whole Estate. 'Tis pity there should be more Caution used in buying a Horse, or a little lifeless dust; than there is in purchasing Men and Women: Whenas they are the Offspring of GOD, and their Liberty is,
- - - - - - - -Auro pretiosior Omni. ”

“ For ought is known, their Wars are much such as were between Jacob's Sons and their Brother Joseph. If they be between Town and Town; Provincial, or National: Every War is upon one side Unjust. An Unlawful War can't make lawful Captives. And by Receiving, we are in danger to promote, and partake in their Barbarous Cruelties. I am sure, if some Gentlemen should go down to the Brewsters to take the Air, and Fish: And a stronger party from Hull should Surprise them, and Sell them for Slaves to a Ship outward bound: they would think themselves unjustly dealt with ”

“ Men from their Country, Husbands from their Wives, Parents from their Children. How horrible is the Uncleanness, Mortality, if not Murder, that the Ships are guilty of that bring great Crouds of these miserable Men, and Women. Methinks, when we are bemoaning the barbarous Usage of our Friends and Kinsfolk in Africa: it might not be unseasonable to enquire whether we are not culpable in forcing the Africans to become Slaves amongst our selves. And it may be a question whether all the Benefit received by Negro Slaves, will balance the Accompt of Cash laid out upon them ”

“ Once on the sidewalk—a button ripped from his coat, his shirt clinging to his skin, his collar hopelessly gone, and his tie spotted where the color had begun to run, he paused long enough to tender Sewall a lingering gaze of appraisal.
"You shouldn't be so cocky," Sewall explained in the tone of a philosopher. "We might have got into a whale of a mess, and it doesn't pay."
"Across the street," stated Phillips, "I seem to see a portal which beckons to me, and says, 'What's yours?'"
"Even now I'll bet I beat you to it," said Sewall, skipping over the car-tracks. "Gee! Women are funny people!" ”

“ Similar conduct ruined many of the members of Congress who were beneficiaries of the Credit Mobilier scheme. Mr. Samuel Hooper was a large holder of the stock, but being a man of fortune the public accepted that fact as a defence against the suggestion that the stock had been placed in his hands for the purpose of influencing his action as a member of Congress. With others the case was different. Many were poor men. ”

“ Despite a good deal of a somewhat ridiculous conservatism, linked with a surprising pettiness in some ways, the character of Sewall is impressed upon the present generation in a way to do him honor. His was a struggle to uphold declining puritanism, and the contrasts presented by the viceroyalty of New England at that time to one who was bred under the first charter must have been trying to Christian virtues, even were they such as Sewall possessed. ”

“ Not altogether foreign to the thoughts of many were the political possibilities of the coming century, when on New Year’s Day, 1701, the bellman’s clangor was heard, as he toned Sewall’s memorial verses through the streets. There was a certain fitness in the century being ushered in, for New England at least, by the man who was to make posterity best acquainted with its life, and who as a circuit judge, coursing statedly the country ways, saw more to portray than any one else. Sewall was an honest man, if in many respects a petty one. ”

“ Her writings may justify the opinion that as a writer and thinker she is in the front rank of American women.
Samuel Dana, who had been a judge for many years, president of the Massachusetts Senate for three terms, and a member of Congress for one term, was also a resident of Groton. He had been an active politician on the Democratic or Jeffersonian side in politics, and for many years in early life he had been the competitor of Timothy Bigelow, who had been a resident of Groton and a leader in the Federal Party of the State. ”

“ Sewall. I used to think that I could succeed in living up to her grand manners with better success than the other rather hoidenish young ladies who chanced to be the guests at Grassmere the time I was there. Mrs. Sewall is a small woman, always dressed in black, with a superb string of pearls invariably about her neck, and lots of brilliant diamonds on her slender fingers. Breck with his heavy features, black hair brushed straight back, eyes half-closed as if he was always riding in a fifty-mile gale, deep guffaw of a laugh, and inelegant speech does not resemble his mother. ”

“ Yes, the sun was certainly growing warmer. Sewall's collar was rapidly liquefying, and little beads of perspiration stood out on his resolute countenance, but he advanced firmly against the battle-line of the department stores, and picked out the biggest of them for his initial attempt. A floor-walker sent him to the second floor front; and a haughty cynic in a lace shirt-waist sent him back to the ground floor rear. At length a kindly errand boy directed him to an obscure comer where some delicacies in carved ivory rested under glass, awaiting esoteric purchasers. ”

“ Both were educated men—Sewall was a graduate of Harvard—and both were highly respected and trusted. Sewall held a minor position at Harvard connected with the library, was prominent in church affairs, and was a judge, officiating at the time of the Salem witchcraft trials. An informal journal written without prejudice, by such a man as he, gives material of the greatest value for a picture of the times. It is material of course and not the picture itself, for it lacks anything in the way of composition, just as do the facts of ordinary daily life in the order of their occurrence. ”

“ The Irish Exiles in America, a drama in five scenes, was also published in the above mentioned volume.
SEWALL, JONATHAN MITCHELL
Jonathan Mitchell Sewall, born in Salem, Mass., in 1748, died in Portsmouth, N. H., March 29, 1808. He was graduated from Harvard and first entered business life, but eventually became a lawyer. He was Register of Probate for Grafton Co., N. H., in 1774. Author of the song War and Washington, very popular during the Revolution. His Miscellaneous Poems were published in 1801. ”

“ Judge Sewall was warmly attached to that system of faith, and to those forms of worship and government in the church, which were embraced and practised by the Puritan settlers of New England. Occasionally he employed his pen in their illustration and defence. And he was strongly opposed to any innovations in doctrine, as well as jealous of any ceremonies or usages in divine service, that savored of human invention. Still he abhorred persecution, and exercised candor towards those who differed from him in their modes of worship or discipline. ”