Jonathan M. Sewall

Jonathan Mitchell Sewall (1748–1808) was a lawyer and poet who achieved some notability, published as Jonathan M. Sewall.

He was born in Salem, Massachusetts, to Mitchel Sewall and Elizabeth Price.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} (or according to other sources, York in 1749^[7] but this is not correct as on Sunday, March 27, 1748 he was christened Jonathan Mitchel Sewall just along the street from his parents home in Salem at the First Church of Salem by The Rev. John Sparhawk.^[8]). He and his brother Stephen were adopted by their uncle, Chief Justice Stephen Sewall (1702-1760) and they attended Boston Public Latin School from 1755 until at least 1760 when their uncle died. He studied law with his cousin Jonathan Sewall (1729- 1796) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He joined the law office of John Pickering (1737 - 1805) in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in the early 1770s. In 1774 he became register of probate in Grafton County, New Hampshire but resigned the following year. His ode, War and Washington which was written when British troops occupied Boston in 1775 was celebrated and sung in the Revolutionary War.^[8] A volume of his poems was published in 1801.^{[7] [8]}).He died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on March 29, 1808.^[1][8]

References

 

Wikiquote has quotations related to Jonathan M. Sewall.

1. The New England Gazetteer 4th edition, 1829 By John Hayward
2. Dictionary of American Biography. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1928–1936.
3. New Hampshire Early State Papers, vol.22.
4. Bell, Charles H. (1894). Bench and Bar in New Hampshire.
5. Hazlett, Charles A. (1915). History of Rockingham County.
6. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988. Ancestry.com.
7. An American Biographical and Historical Dictionary 2nd edition, 1832 by William Allen
8. Hammond, Nancy R. (2022). The Life and Times of Jonathan Mitchel Sewall (1748-1808) Poet - Lawyer - Patriot. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Peter E. Randall Publisher. ISBN 978-1-942155-54-6.