Samuel Sewall, Chief Justice of Massachusetts

1652 - 1730  (77 years)

• Name	Samuel Sewall  [1]
  Suffix	Chief Justice of Massachusetts
  Birth	28 Mar 1652	Bishopstoke, Hampshire, England   [2, 3]
  Baptism	4 May 1652	Stoke Church, Bishopstoke, Hampshire, England   [2]
  Gender	Male
  Death	1 Jan 1730  [2]
  Burial	Granary Burying Ground, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts   [2]
  Person ID	I26863	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
  Last Modified	19 Apr 2023

  
  

  Father	Henry Sewall,   b. Bef 25 Jun 1615   d. 16 May 1700, Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts (Age > 84 years)
  Mother	Jane Dummer,   b. Abt 1627, England d. 13 Jan 1701, Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts (Age ~ 74 years)
  Marriage	25 Mar 1646	Newburyport, Essex, Massachusetts   [2, 4, 5]
  Notes	The ceremony was officiated by Richard Saltonstall.
  Family ID	F16046	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Wikipedia: "Samuel Sewall was a judge, businessman, and printer in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 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. He served for many years as the chief justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature, the province's high court." Also historically important are the detailed diaries he kept from 1674 to 1729, recording "the people he met, what he read, what he thought, and the births, marriages, and deaths of family, friends, and acquaintances for virtually his entire adult life. In addition to the diaries, letter books, notations in 'interleaved almanacs,' and the journal of his trip to England in 1688 and 1689 all survive." [The Descendants of Henry Sewall, citation details below]

  
  

• Sources

  [S3679] Joseph Lemuel Chester, "The Family of Dummer." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 35:254, 35:321, 1881. [S3675] The Descendants of Henry Sewall (1576-1656) of Manchester and Coventry, England, and Newbury and Rowley, Massachusetts by Eben W. Graves. Boston: Newbury Street Press, 2007. [S6886] Judge Sewall's Apology: The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of a Conscience by Richard Francis. London: Harper Perennial, 2006. [S3679] Joseph Lemuel Chester, "The Family of Dummer." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 35:254, 35:321, 1881., date only. [S6886] Judge Sewall's Apology: The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of a Conscience by Richard Francis. London: Harper Perennial, 2006., year only.