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Home  »  library  »  BIOS  »  Samuel Sewall (1652–1730)

C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Samuel Sewall (1652–1730)

Sewall, Samuel. An American jurist; born in Bishopstoke, England, March 28, 1652; died in Boston, Jan. 1, 1730. He came to America very young, graduated at Harvard in 1675, and became a member of the Council; and as judge of the probate court (1692) took a prominent part in the trials during the Salem Witchcraft excitement. He is chiefly remarkable in literary annals for his ‘Diary’ and ‘Letters,’ which have been published by the Massachusetts Historical Society (1878–82). He wrote a tract on the rights of slaves, ‘The Selling of Joseph’ (1711); and published: ‘The Accomplishment of Prophecies’ (1713); ‘A Memorial Relating to the Kennebec Indians’ (1721); and ‘A Description of the New Heaven’ (1727).