Author: SEWELL, Robert
Biography:
SEWELL, Robert (1798-1874: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 8 Aug. 1798 at Bois Hall, Halstead, Essex, one of at least six children of Rev. Isaac Sewell (1767-1845), farmer and congregational minister, and his wife Anne Bentall (1772-1849). He was converted aged sixteen after studying with Rev. Richard Cope LLD, FAS (1776-1857), who probably taught him Greek and Hebrew. He became a regular contributor to Youth’s Magazine, and was licensed to preach as an Independent. He dedicated An Essay in Rhyme (1834) to Cope. His father, brothers, and members of his mother’s family subscribed. He married Elizabeth Boult (1793-1888) on 23 July 1829 at Stoke Damerel, Devon. They went on to have at least three children. They travelled to Canada where he declined an invitation to become a minister there, and moved to America, arriving in New York on 22 Sept. 1834 on board the Montreal. He settled at Madison NJ and contributed for several years to the Mother’s Magazine in New York. He went to Wisconsin in 1853 and settled on a farm near Fulton, Rock County. He was soon invited to become Congregational minister, was ordained, and joined the American Home Missionary Society. In 1857 he moved to Stoughton WI where he would remain until his death. He also preached at Congregational churches in nearby Cooksville and Brooklyn. Despite a speech impediment, he was widely admired for his strict scriptural adherence and knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. He died in Stoughton on 11 Feb. 1874 and was buried at the Riverside cemetery where there is still a gravestone. (ancestry.co.uk 2 Dec. 2022; The Home Missionary, May 1874, 19-20; History of Dane County, Wisconsin [1880], 849; Bury and Norwich Post 17 Mar. 1874) AA