Author: EWELL, Thomas
Biography:
EWELL, Thomas (1785-1826: ancestry.com)
pseudonym Peter Sulpher
Born into an old Virginia family on 22 May 1785, he was the son of Col. Jesse Ewell and his wife Charlotte (Ewell) Ewell. He studied medicine and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1805 with a thesis on the stomach. His older brother James (1773-1832) was also a physician and writer (though not in verse) with a talent for satire. In 1807 or 1808 Thomas Ewell married Elizabeth Stoddert, daughter of the First Secretary of the Navy, in Georgetown MD; they had nine children. He served as a naval surgeon 1808-13, resigning to manage the Stoddert estate after the death of his father-in-law. He was employed for some time as surgeon to the Navy Hospital in Washington DC. He died "suddenly" at his home in Centreville VA on 1 May 1826. His writings include an edition of Hume's essays, the first in America; The Ladies' Medical Companion (1818); and The American Family Physician (1824). (ancestry.com 30 Aug. 2025; DAB; WorldCat; Daily National Intelligencer [Washington DC] 6 May 1826) HJ