Henry Sewall

Bef 1576 - 1656  (> 79 years)

• Name	Henry Sewall
  Birth	Bef 8 Apr 1576  [1]
  Baptism	8 Apr 1576	St. Michael's, Coventry, Warwickshire, England   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Death	Mar 1656	Rowley, Essex, Massachusetts   [1]
  Alternate death	1657  [2]
  Person ID	I26864	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of FL, Ancestor of LDN
  Last Modified	19 Apr 2023

  
  

  Father	Henry Sewall, Mayor of Coventry,   b. Abt 1544   d. 16 Apr 1628, Coventry, Warwickshire, England (Age ~ 84 years)
  Mother	Margaret Gresbrook,   b. Bef 1557   d. Between 10 May 1629 and 20 Nov 1629 (Age > 72 years)
  Marriage	Bef 24 Sep 1575  [1, 3]
  Family ID	F16050	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Anne Hunt   d. Bef 1 Jul 1615
  Children	+ 1. Henry Sewall,   b. Bef 25 Jun 1615   d. 16 May 1700, Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts (Age > 84 years)
  Family ID	F16049	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	21 Feb 2020

  
  

• Notes

  He entered the Drapers Company of Coventry in 1591. He was in Manchester from about 1615 to about 1631. By 1634 he was back in Coventry, and in that year sent his son Henry to New England to begin a plantation. He and his second wife Ellen (Mosley) Nugent followed in 1635. With his son Henry, he was a founder of Newbury, Massachusetts. He moved to Rowley between 1647 and 1649. He appears to have been a troublesome and at times violent person. Both his father's and his mother's wills express hope that he will find the humility to make recompense for his many offenses, particularly (it is clearly implied) against his mother. He contested his mother's will (in which she left him just twelve pence) in litigation that extended over years. The records of Massachusetts Bay between 1638 and 1654 include four accusations against Henry Sewall for battery, and three for interrupting public meetings. And finally, in 1635, the same year that Henry Sewall and his second wife Ellen emigrated to Boston, the authorities of Massachusetts Bay granted him and his wife permission to live apart. She is last seen in the public records on 5 Jun 1638, when Henry was presented by a grand jury for beating her. Given the above, it is perhaps not unconnected that his son Henry found reason to return to England in 1646, and to not return to New England permanently -- or bring his own wife and family over -- until 1661, five years after his father died.

  
  

• Sources

  [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. [S3678] "Pedigree of the Family of Grazebrook Since They Settled in Staffordshire, with Sufficient Proofs After Each Generation." Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, 3rd series, 117, 158., month and year only.