Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/287

  for the better part of his own celebrity.

Of Severn's six children, three, Walter, Arthur, and Ann Mary, afterwards married to Sir Charles Newton [see ], became artists of note.



SEWALL (d. 1257), archbishop of York, was a pupil at Oxford of St. Edmund (Rich), the future archbishop of Canterbury. Edmund, who was greatly attached to Sewall, is said to have foretold his friend's promotion and troubles. About 1240 Sewall became dean of York. He held the prebend of Fenton, in the same church, apparently as early as 1237. While dean he wrote to Innocent IV in support of the proposed canonisation of St. Edmund (, Thes. Nov. Anecd. iii. 1838). Some constitutions made by him as dean of York, in 1252, are in Cotton MS. Vitellius A. ii. f. iii. Previously to 16 Jan. 1250 he was made archdeacon of York. On the death of Archbishop Gray in 1255 the canons elected him to the vacant see. The king refused his consent on the ground that Sewall was of illegitimate birth. On 1 Oct. the chapter determined to prosecute an appeal at Rome; eventually the pope granted a dispensation removing the defect of birth, and confirmed the election. The king was thus compelled to give his assent on 4 May 1256, and Sewall was consecrated at York on 25 July by Walter de Cantelupe, bishop of Worcester. Shortly after his consecration, [q. v.] addressed him a long letter of advice urging him to take Bishop Grosseteste as his example (Monumenta Franciscana, pp. 438–89). The pope claimed the right to appoint to the deanery on its vacation by Sewall, and in 1257 an Italian, Jordan, was by his authority fraudulently installed. Sewall resisted the intrusion, and as a consequence was suspended from his office and excommunicated. It does not seem clear whether Sewall was absolved before his death, but the dispute was apparently compromised by the provision of a pension for Jordan. On 20 July 1257 Sewall was one of the commissioners appointed to decide the dispute between Alexander of Scotland and his nobles (Fœdera, i. 362). He died on 10 May 1257 ( ap., Historians of the Church of York, ii. 405; but , v. 691, gives the date as 2 May). He was buried in the south transept of York minster, where his tomb is marked by a marble slab bearing a cross.

Sewall's rule as archbishop was troubled by his quarrel with the pope, whom on his deathbed he summoned to judgment (ib. v. 692). But his sufferings and resistance to papal intrusion won him great popularity. Matthew Paris describes him as a humble and holy man, well skilled in law and other sciences (v. 516). Bale ascribes to him:
 * 1) ‘Breviloquium ad Alexandrum papam.’
 * 2) ‘Sermones et Epistolæ.’
 * 3) ‘Ad suos Sacerdotes.’



SEWALL, SAMUEL (1652–1730), colonist and judge, son of Henry Sewall and Jane, daughter of Stephen Dummer, was born at Bishopstoke, Hampshire, on 28 March 1652. Emigrating in childhood with his parents to Newbury, Massachusetts, he was educated at a private school and at Harvard, entering in 1667, and graduating B.A. in 1671 and M.A. in 1674. He was then ordained minister, but on his marriage in 1677 was induced to leave that calling, and, under the patronage of his father-in-law, started a printing-press at Boston. He soon became known in public life, and in 1684 was elected a member of the court of assistants for Massachusetts. In 1688 he came to England on business. In 1692 Sewall, as a justice of the peace, was concerned in adjudicating in the Salem witchcraft case, but afterwards bitterly repented of his share in the proceedings, and publicly announced the fact, henceforward spending one day annually in fasting and prayer. He afterwards became one of the regular judges of Massachusetts, and in 1718 chief justice. He retired in 1728, and died at Boston on 1 Jan. 1730.

Sewall married, on 28 Feb. 1676, Hannah, daughter of John Hull and Judith Quincy. He left a long line of descendants, the ‘loyalist’ branch of which changed the spelling of the name to ‘Sewell’ [see under ]. Sewall's diary, an interesting and valuable source for the social history of the colony from 1674 to 1729, was first published in the ‘Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society,’ 5th ser. vol. v. An engraving, from a supposed original portrait (date and artist unknown), forms the frontispiece. Sewall was also author of a pamphlet