Author: Sewall, Jonathan Mitchel
Biography:
SEWALL, Jonathan Mitchel (1748-1808: ancestry.com)
Pseudonym Vernon H. Quincy, Esq.
Recent research by Nancy R. Hammond (The Life and Times of Jonathan Mitchel Sewall, 2022) has greatly improved the biographical record for this American poet—including the timeline on Ancestry. He was born on 27 Mar. 1748 in Salem MA where his father Mitchel Sewall, a Harvard graduate, was a clerk of the inferior court. But his father died in the year of his birth, his mother Elizabeth Price in 1758, and his uncle and guardian Stephen Sewall—Chief Justice of Massachusetts—in 1760. (The spelling “Mitchel” preferred by both father and son was often normalized as Mitchell in other contexts, including some official records, and has persisted in library catalogues.) Sewall attended the Boston Latin School and was expected to go into business, but a severe illness caused him as a young man to travel to Spain for his health. On his return he began the study of law, first with his cousin Jonathan Sewall in Boston and then with John Pickering in Portsmouth NH. Called to the bar in New Hampshire, he established a practice in Portsmouth, where he was often called on as a poet and orator on special occasions. He represented the town at its commemoration of the death of George Washington in 1800, and his eulogy was published. Proposals for a subscription edition of his poems, first made in 1786, did not bear fruit until 1801. Sewall married twice and had six children, two of whom died in infancy. His first wife, married at Haverhill NH on 14 Nov. 1774, was Sarah Thurston Wood (1748-77). After her death he married (no public record has as yet been found) Sarah March (1748-1830). During the Revolutionary War and after, he composed patriotic songs for various occasions, the last being a broadside to celebrate American Independence (1806). He died at Portsmouth after an illness of about 18 months on 29 Mar. 1808 and was buried in the North Cemetery there. (ancestry.com 9 Oct. 2024; findmypast.com 9 Oct. 2024; DAB; Appleton; New Hampshire Gazette 25 Feb. 1786; Salem Gazette 22 Apr. 1808 [reprinting an obituary from the Portsmouth Literary Mirror]; information from Nancy R. Hammond)
Other Names:
- J. M. Sewall
- Jonathan Mitchell Sewall