Jonathan Sewall
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Jonathan Sewall, Jr. | |
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| Attorney Generalof the Province of Massachusetts Bay | |
| In office November 1767 – 1775 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 24, 1729[1] Boston, Massachusetts |
| Died | September 27, 1796(aged 67) Saint John, New Brunswick |
| Spouse | Esther Quincy |
| Children | Jonathan Sewell,Chief-Justice of Lower Canada. Stephen Sewell,Solicitor General of Lower Canada |
| Profession | Attorney |
| Signature |  |
Jonathan Sewall(August 24, 1729 – September 27, 1796) was the last Colonialattorney general of Massachusetts.
He was born inBostonon August 24, 1729, to Jonathan Sewall Sr. and Mary (Payne) Sewall. Sewall's father was an unsuccessful merchant who died at a young age. However through scholarships, funds raised by his pastor William Cooper and with the help of his uncle, Chief JusticeStephen Sewall,Sewall was able to attend Harvard.[1]Sewall graduated fromHarvard Collegein 1748, and was a teacher inSalemuntil 1756. He married Esther Quincy, a daughter of merchantEdmund Quincy.After studying law, he began a successful practice inCharlestownand served asattorney generalof Massachusetts from 1767 to 1775. In 1768 he was also appointed Judge ofAdmiraltyforNova Scotia.[2]
In 1759 Sewall became a very close friend and patron ofJohn Adams,the future secondPresident of the United States.At the urging of GovernorFrancis Bernard,Sewall offered Adams the position ofAdvocate General in the Admiralty Court.Adams declined. A devout Loyalist, Sewall took his family to England in 1775 after a mob stormed his family home inCambridge(he was subsequently named in theMassachusetts Banishment Actof 1778). While in England, he changed the spelling of the family name to Sewell. Adams, in his diary, grieved that his best friend in the world had become his implacable enemy. While Adams was assigned toLondonas a U.S. minister to theCourt of St. James'sin 1785, he looked up his old friend and they had a two-hour meeting. Both men were entrenched in their own ideas and no reconciliation was possible; Adams considered Sewall a casualty of the war.
Sewall later served as a judge in theVice Admiralty CourtofNova Scotia.He died inSaint John, New Brunswick,in 1796.
His sonJonathanlater served as Chief Justice ofLower Canadaand his sonStephenserved assolicitor generalfor Lower Canada.
In popular culture[edit]
Sewall was portrayed byJames Noblein thePBSminiseriesThe Adams Chronicles(1976), and byGuy Henryin theHBOminiseriesJohn Adams(2008).
References[edit]
- ^abShipton, Clifford Kenyon (1995),New England life in the 18th century: Representative biographies from Sibley's Harvard graduates,Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, p. 565,ISBN0-674-61251-5
- ^Stark, James Henry (1910).The Loyalists of Massachusetts and the Other Side of the American Revolution.Salem Press. pp.455.RetrievedMarch 20,2008.
Bibliography[edit]
- Jonathan Sewall: Odyssey of an American Loyalist,Carol Berkin. Columbia University Press (1974)ISBN0-595-00020-7
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