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S A M U E L SEVALL: T H E M A N A N D HIS W O R K

By
T h e o d o r e B # St r & n d n e e s

A THESIS
S u b m i t t e d to the School o f Graduate Studies o f M i c h i g a n
State College of A g r i c u l t u r e a n d A p p l i e d S c i ence
in p a r t i a l f u l f i l l m e n t of the r e q u i r e m e n ts
for the degree of

D O C T O R OF P H I L O S O P H Y

Department of English
19 5 1

T•?
r r'
\) *; !^
A r
U* v ;
>
?esea^nh
of

th °
lo

T>o e t o n
'ic a l

cal

te e

u l° rlv
-?•■»

a t

and

h e l"

is

my

S ta te

u n d e rta k e n
to

; .y

New Y o r k

of

th e s e

th e

th e

at

p la c e s

some
th e

s ta ff

o f

in d e b te d n e s s
C o lie pe,

p o s s ib le

at

whose

and

o b lig a tio n

th e

is

in s titu tio n .
C la u d e
th is

a d v ic e

To

much
p a .rtic in

in te re s te d
F in a lly ,
M.

H e w lin

s tu d y

'n a v e

done

was
so

c o m p le tio n .

T. E. S.

iii

as

nanus c r ip ts .

\Tnf«-i l i n " a n a

and

w e ll

S o c ie ty ,

S e w a ll

s u -n re s tic n

H is to ri­

as

fo r

C ity ,

5 G-snea-

S a le m .

My

P ro fe s s o r

encouragem ent
its

S o c ie ty *

B o s to n

of

t.Viht

Nov,' Y o r k .

**ra te fu l

th e

lib ra ry

II*is s a c h u s e tts

H is to ric a l

p a rt

to

and

J am

a s s is ta n c e .

amazement

a t th e

H i « t o v*ie- -> l a n

HI s t o r i e n l

re co rd

g re a te r

. os t o n

Ton - : l a n d

M a s s a c h u s e tts

and. w h o e ®

make

Nev

on

I f i r ri " v o f H o r v a r d

of

In s titu te *

p u b lic

th e

w ith

mu? : e x p r e s s

much

to

--iVH:i n o

M ic h l-'a n

o f

a ll

1ib r a r v

re c o lle c t,

th e

penerour

p re ut

th e

c is s fr:

eno

o ffic e s

s ta ffs

v ra s c a r r i e s

1ib ra rie s

'-'ubl i o

A th e n a e u m ,

S o c ie ty ,

h in a n e ^ '

I

th e

S o c ie ty ,

'o r i'D s

t h is s tu d y

.rs
:io
v^
.r t
]
. r- v;t!r
.1
O

3t a t e C o l l e g e , t o o V / i o ^ n o r

I . T l o h i ••■n

U n iv e rs ity ,

fo r

.1 i)

I
o f

Theodore B. Strandness
candidate for the decree of
Doctor of Philosophy

Final examine tion, November 15, 1951,
Hall
Dissertation:

2:00 P. LI., 214 Llorlll

Samuel Sev/all: the Han and his V/ork

Major Field of Study: En ;lish
Bioo;raphlcal 11ems
Born, Uarch 23, 1915, St. Paul, Minnesota
Undergraduate Studies, Jamestown College, 1933-1937
Graduate Studies, Unlversit;. of Minnesota, 1959-1942 (inter­
mittent) ; LUchlaan State College, 1946-1951
Srv'rience:

Teacher in public schools of North Dakota, a.nd
Hlnnesota, 1937-1942; United Sta-tes Navy, 19421946; Instructor in th' Department of Written
a~nJ. Snoken English, LUc'-.l r-n State College,
1946-1951

T A B L E

OF

c o i:

t

e

::

t

s
Pa. 70

AC XH C Y/LED G LIEM TS.............................................................................................................. i n

V I T A .......................................................... v
I I I THC DU CT 10 I T .........................................................................................................................x l

Chapter One: FAMILY BACKGROUND ALL BARLY Y E A R S ............1
Chapter T w o : HARVARD COLLEGE .uHD IMYELLE CDUAL LIFE . . .

55

Chreoter Three: UEACKAHY a MD LL-iM OF PROPERTY . . . . . .

81

C h a p te r F o u r:

SERVANT OF COLONY AMD P R O V I I I C E ............................. 1 4 6

Chapter Five : THE Y/RITER

........................... 273

Chapter SI".* PRIVATE LIFE AMD LAST Y E A R S ................ 525
Chapter Seven: CCMCLU3I0M ...............................

475

B IB L IO G R A P H Y ...................................................................................................................... 4 3 0

vll

I L L U S T B A T

10

US

Samuel S e w e l l .................................... Frontispiece
GrGorp;e F. Dow, The Arts and Grafts in Hem EnpLand,
1704-1775 (Topps f i e l d , Mass., 1927), x::l, ettributes tills portrait to Hathaniel Emmons, a native
of Boston vf 10 died tliere in 1740 at the <a;;e of
tliirty-si:' years*
KIs obituary said of him that
he was "tie greatest Master of various Sorts of
Paintin'; that ever was born in this Country. And
his Excellent b'orhs were the pure Effects of his own
G-enius, without receiving any instructions from oth­
ers. . . .
He was sober a.n: modest and minded accu­
racy more than p r o f i t . M
Title-Par:;o of PPhenomena guaedan A p o c a l v p t l e a ............ 25
Two Popes from an Interleaved A l m a n a c ................... 116
A Pape from the Hill of Ladinp b o o h ..................... 127
Two Papes from the Diary durin.p the 7,'itchcraft......... 191
Papes fro:: a Circuit Court J o u r n a l ....................... 203
Probate Hotice ............................................. 222
First Pape of The Sell in;; of J o s e p h ......................274
Title-Page of Proposals- Touchlnp the Accomul 1 sliment
of P r o p h e c i e s .............................................. 296
First Pape of A Memorial Reintiny to the Kennebech
In d l a n s ..................................................... 303
Broadside Copy of "Wednesday, Janus.ry 1. 1701. A little
before Breah-a-day, at Eo-ton of the M a s s a c h u s e t t s . .306
Two Papes from Sewell's Old South Society Hotebooh .

. .404

Two Papes from the English Journal........................ 4 3 1
All of the Illustrations are from materials at the
Massachusetts Historical Society
ix

I N T R O D U C T I O N
Few men, end eertclnly none in his generation in Arne rice.,
heve left so extensive,

so detailed and Interestin ' a record

of the v.’orld they knew an., tr.e life, they lived as did Samuel
Se-Tll.

This record, and pre-eminently,

of course,

the well

known diary, has long been recognised as an Invaluable con­
tribution to our knowledge of Puritan New England of the late
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

As such,

it has

been dredged for materials about every conceivable aspect of
the New England of his day, religious, political,
thetic, economic, and moral.

It has been used,

soci'l, aes­

indeed,

to

provide everything except a detailed picture of the man whose
record it is, Samuel Sewall himself.
berlain’o book,
1897),

The title of Mr.

Samuel Sewall and the World He L i ved in (Boston,

suggests that the job has here been done.

however,

Cham­

It hos not.

Actually,

Appearing at the end of the last century,

if shires the character of m o 3 1 of the writing that his been
done on Sewall in Its delicacy of sentiment ana its inclination
to reverence for its subject, with the result that it succeeds
mainly in inducing: a pious— -or more recently, perhaps,
pious--frame of mind.

Furthermore,

an im­

it does not explore the

Sewall. materials with the thoroughness they deserve.

Not

appearing in any of the standard bibliographies but consider­
ably more valuable, both for facts and for critical evaluation,
xi

xll

ic the series of reviews by C. F. A d a m s, Jr., J. M. Hubbard,
and T,Y. H. Jhltmore vh.ich appeared in the Nation during the
years (1373-8?) of the public*'. t i ;n of the five volumes of the
Sewall Papers.

Though tills series constitutes what is pos­

sibly tiie best introduction to Sev/all now in print, it does
not, needless to say, represent the larger study of the man
and bis work which Is the object of the present study.
A writer taking for his subject a man 7/hose narrative
accc/:ipl Is rime nt is as considerable as Sewall's, must feel some
hesitation in sett in; out to do wimt,

In some ways at least,

has already been done better by the subject himself.

The fact

is, however, that the diary is not an easy room to enter.
Do suite, for example, Farrington's statement that it is

"the

one asong all books of the time th t is still ouick with life,
or Murdock's that it is

"one of those rare and precious works
O
1 i which appears a man as he lived, ,r' or James Truslow Adams'

that there is no other American diary

"in which the journal-

ist's entire world is so vividly reproduced, "
three among many such Judgments,

to give but

the app 1v i 3 .nl of Charles

^ The Colonial Mind, 1620-1800 (New dork, 1927), p. 83.
^A review of the Mark Van Doren abridgment of Sewall*s
Jinry (New York, 1927), New England Quarterly, I (Aoril, 1928),
957.
Dietlonary of American Biography, XVI, 611.

,fAm

xlil

Francis Adams, Jr., macle when the die ry first nr^esrea In print,
is also valid.

It seemed to him

cal reference, " a book that

"essentially a work of histori­

"can never be . . .

pop\ilar, or

even in considerable denar.w. with general readers"; this despite
the fact that

"it is a mine of necessary information, " a work

that brings the reader

"face to face with the inmost life of

b e poo'le whose story it . . .

narrate[sj.

It is, to change

tie firrure once more, a very tangled skein.

The fact that it

is tangled is, as with all rood diaries, an aspect of its ap­
peal; but it is also the thing which accounts in large degree
for its resistance to easy underste.nding ana which makes it
one in that category of works which earn from all but the most
industrious students of our 1 It e rati? re, respect— and neglect.
Another reason why it resists understanding is that on almost
every page there are entries which need explaining for all but
specialists In the period.

Then too, extensive as it is, it

is not the complete record left by Sev/all.

The letter-bcok par­

ticularly, together with a considerable amount of unpublished
material,

supplies much information which needs coordinating

with It.
The writer's wish is generally to resist the impulse to
generalization about

"the nature of Puritanism" on the basis

of evidence presented primarily in the record of a single man.
As Knanpen well remarks,

"In strict accuracy there were many

Puritan spirits but there was no Puritan spirit.

Like a

4 "Sewall's Diary. " Nation, XXXV (August 3, 1882), 97.
®I£. M. Knappen, Tudor Puritanism (Chicago, 1939), p. 339.

xiv

cloud,

"the Puritan spirit" Is distinct In outline only at a

distance.

The closer our view of it, the more we rea.lize that

what we took 'for distinctness is in reality a confused and un­
end in,.; process of change.

Similarly,

Puritan" any more than there is an
cal J e w . "

there is no

"typic*al

"average A m e r i c a n " or

"typi­

There is special point in this for any student of

early i!ev England, because if lie allows himself to think too
easily in terms of the type rather than of the individual, he
runs a strong chance of entering the realm of myth,

of which

there is already enou. :h in studies of this period.

No other

period better illustrates the truth in ohe story about the four
blind men and the elephant, each eagerly shouting about

"the

truth" in terms of his limited experience and limited point of
view.

To say this is not to rob the present study of point.

Sewall was o 'ite obviously a child of his times, illustrating
its character in innumerable ways; so that without indulging in
facile generalisation we may yet learn much about the v:orld in
which he lived.
The subject of New England Puritanism iias in recent years
become a storm center, and a writer on it must expect to be read
by those with whom a first concern will be a de tern inn.t ion of
.
‘■.is sympathies.

The ablest scholars have shown a surprising

willingness to become involved in what ;ias become a kind of Pro­
crustean field day, stretching and cutting to fit the thesls-bed
of their particular choosing.
some degree inevitable.

Actually,

of course, this is in

Even should the historian admit, as

apparently he would not always do, tnnt Ills Job is to record the

XV

facts and brine; to their analysis the or.me det' uhe 1 attitude
t'v t the chert1st brin;;'s to the examination of his test tubes,
the fact remains that he is a man writing of othec men and
cannot avoid seein-; them in terms of his own predilections.
Id1, line the present v/riter, he has noted with approval,
cite but one pertinent example,

to

the reply which Driers on re­

cords of the liberal nineteenth-century clergyman to the pro­
ponent of the Calvinist hod—

"hour God is my devil M—

it 13

doubtful that he could read the diary of Cotton Mather with
much active sympa thy or that any writing he might do on the
subject of that tormented man of God could conceal the fact.
It mi^ht be added that the mention of Emerson in this connec­
tion is most approorlate, for it is he who, as much as any
other man, symbolises the gulf across wv.ich we must feel our­
selves reaching in any attempt to recreate the earlier New
England.

The sense of identity with subject,

so desirable in

historical study, can never be, where the Puritans are concerned,
as complete as we would wish.

Despite these facts, and partial­

ly because of them, the writer has tried not to pass Judgment in
terras of current points of view but rather to record and, so
far as possible, understand.
A characteristic of much of the writing on the Puritan
period which the student must expect to encounter and which
undoubtedly accounts in some degree for its being the contro­
versial subject that it is, is a tendency on the part of its
author sons to shroud the past in a haze of filial piety and
sentimental romance.
no exception.

The treatment accorded Sewall provides

The sentimental haze ls present in Whittier's

XV i

well known

"Prophecy of Samuel Sewall, " in which, for example,

he speaks of Sewall1s face ag
True and tender and brave and Just,
That man might honor and woman trust#
It ls In Hawthorne1s story of

V h e Pine-Tree Shillings, " in

which he Imagines

"honest Johi%.Hull dressed . . . In a
‘,s *n .
plum-colored coat, all the buttons of* which were made of
nine-tree shillings, " and In which he fancifully pictures
Hull's daughter and Sewall*s wife-to-be (whom he chooses to
call Betsey!) as

"blushing with all her m i g h t ” and looking like
7

a full-blown peony or a great red apple. "

It ls, of course,

in

Hawthorne also that we get the yarn about the daughter* s dowry
being her weight in pine-tree shillings, which, though without
discoverable basis in fact,
the ordinary neraon

is probably one of the few things

"knows" about Samuel Sewall.

of Chamberlain's work has already been noted.
that in his introduction he speaks of
whose sons they are#
that he speaks of

^

The flllo-piety

It is symptomatic

"the people who never forget

It is doubtless in this reverential mood

"the cross lights of heaven and history beating

. . . down upon their home

Q

in the wild, ** to cite but one of the

innumerable such warm effusions in his
of thing end with the last
^Vol. I of Works (New

century.

work.

Nor does this sort

H.L. Duff, whose

Sewells [si

York, 1892)#

Works. V, 43 (Nottingham Society edition, New York, n#d.).
8Page xi#
9Page xii#

XVii

jLn the Meiv '.Vorld ani)esred in 1S14,
lie ls fulfilling a

"pious office,

c o m ’es^es to the reader that
Some of the imaglnative

feats he performed in fulfilling this office will be noted in
the course of the study.

An amusing Illustration of the tender

atmosphere In which such writing exists Is contained in H, C,
'./inthrcp' s A Difference of Opinion Concerning, the He&sona why
Ka therlne Win throw Refused to Ha rry Chief Justice Sewall •
George S, Sills had presented Hr, Winthrop with a copy of his
An Address on the Life and Characier of Ciilef■-J u st ice Samuel
Sewall t1 2 a book wnlch caused ./Inthrop to rise in a meeting of
the Hassachusetts Historical Society and say to its author:
", • • this is the pamphlet v/iiich, at the close of our last
meeting, you handed to me to give to my father; and the reason
why I preferred to await a more advanced state of his convales­
cence before doing so, is that I accidentally observed that, on
the eighteenth page, you style his great-great-grandmotrier a
'worldly-minded woman.' "

The author lira arrived at this deadly

judgment because of Madam V/lnthrop's insistence that the Judge
purchase a coach and wear a wig.
It is refreshing- to turn from such examples of sentimental
romanticising and critical tender-mlndedness to the study of
Sewall*s own pages; for immediately the haze ls dispelled and
we are in the honest realm of fact.
as possible,

to remain there,

^•Opage Ix.
■^Boston, 1885,
12Boston, 1885.

The writer wishes,

so far

Sev/all stands in no need of wings,

xviii

and it signifies no lack of sympathy that we prefer him with
them removed.

He can stand an honest examination better than

most men, and if there ls much about him which amuses and some
things which dismay us, there ls quite as much that earns our
affection and. respect.

If it is a loss that he no longer re-

mn i: o the man Whittier has given us, it is a gain that he exists
as a more credible and certainly more interesting human creature.
The loss in reverence for the gain in Interest and credibility
is a fair and desirable exchange.
In the matter of sources,

tne writer has examined every­

thing Sewall ever wrote of which he has been able to gain any
knowledge and numerous other primary sources relating to him.
He has not hesitated, however, to use the findings of others
in dealing with some of the many relationships with his age
which Sewall represents.

It would be strange indeed for a worker

in this field not to incur a heavy Indebtedness to Morison,
Murdock, and Miller,

to name but four obvious examples.

Dextei

In this

connection it should be said that because Sewall touches his age
at so many points,

the temptation for the study to become a super­

ficial survey of the period was one that had constantly to be
resisted.

I have tried, rather., to keep the study centered on

the man, tracing background movements and personalities only
so far as seemed necessary to make clear his relationship to
them.
It has seemed advisable to quote much and often,

frequently

supplementing quotation in the text with additional quotation in
the footnotes.

One reason for this is that since the aim is

understanding and knowledge of a man, it would seem * ell to
let him rather than the writer speak whenever possible*

Also,

as Palfrey well observes in defense of his quoting more than
•here considerations of rhetorical taste" might seem to allow,
"The peculiar language of the men . . • is a substantive part
of their oeculiar history.
of the place and time.

It displays the form and pressure

The phraseology of the actors ls to the

reader a constant expositor and reminder of the complexion of

the thoughts and sentiments that determined the course of affaire.1
In the transcription of material from original sources
I have retained the peculiarities of spelling, punctuation,
and capitalization.

Since the purpose of the study is histori­

cal rather than antiquarian, however, I have seen little point
in retaining abbreviations of words that would do little more
then bedevil the t.vuist ana multiply many times the chances of
trivial error,

I have expanded them, rather, as the printer

would have done in Sewall* s own day.
becomes this,

becomes on, etc.

and the long form of the letter
modern usage.

Also, 1,'s, J['s, u's, v's, and

a

have been changed to follow

Typographical peculiarities involving numbers

have been retained (e.g., Plf£ for
November).

thus becomes the,

twenty-first, 9? for

Italics have not been retained for words that would

now aupear in regular form.

Dates given are according to the

Julian calendar, and for the annual period between January 1
and March 25 the contemporary device of double-dating is employed.
■^John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England (Boston, 1870)
xvl.

Chapter One
FAMILY BACKGROUND A1TD EARLY YEARS
Riding the Bristol Circuit in September of 1698, Samuel
Sev/all, forty-six years old and a member of the Superior Court
of Massachusetts, was held up at Bristol by rain,
writes,

"So," he

"after dinner at Mr. Sa.ff In' s, Not knowing better how

to bestow my time, Look* d on Mr. Saffin's Books, and lit on Dr.
Fullers History of the Worthies of England, and in p. 116. 117*
found mention ma.de of the Inundation at Coventry, on Friday
April, 17. in the Maloralty of Henry Sewall my Father1s Grand­
father.

Accepting St. Paul's admonition to Titus to avoid

matters of genealogy as being among those things which are un­
profitable and vain, we need not enter the discussion of how far
the SewalD. pedigree may legitlme.tely be extended beyond this
worthy of the time of James the First.

2

^Diary.I, 484, entry for September, 12, 1698.
He adds:
M e n t i o n Is made p. 134. of William Dugdale's Illustrations of
Warwickshire." The reference In Fuller (1811 edition), II, 404,
Is to a great flash flood of April 17, 1607, "in the Mayoralty
cf Henry Sewall. " In Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire
(London, 1656), p. 98, Henry and his brother William are both
listed simply as mayors during the reign of James I.

2

E. E. Salisbury, in his Family Memorials (New Haven, 1885),
p. 151, declares that his representative In England, Col. Joseph
L. Chester, found himself unable to go beyond this point, saying
that though he "spared no labour nor expense " his efforts were
"utterly without success. " This conclusion In the matter ls accep
ted by the editors of Sewall's Diary (see Vol. I, xv). Salisbury,
however, is inclined to assume family connections that would make
legitimate the coat of arras ( "sable, a chevron betwixt three gad—
bees argent") deriving from John Sewale, Sheriff of Essex and
Hertfordshire in the late fourteenth century.
This inclination
is shared by the Rev. Samuel Sewall (a nineteenth century de­
scendant of the earlier Samuel) in his liiemolr of Hon. Samuel
Sewall, E s q . , " American Quarterly Register. XIII (February, 1841)*
£37-252. Like Salisbury"ana the Rev. Samuel Sewall, H.L. Duff
^ The Sewells in the New World (Exeter, 1924), p. 1, feels

The little we know of this Henry Sewall, the first of three
successive generations of eldest sons to bear the name, lias con­
siderable Interest in what it siiggeste of the character and n r e e r
of the subject of this study, his great-grandson Samuel*
1544,

Born in

he was apparently a man whose lines fell in pleasant pla­

ces, for his life was long,4 prosperous, ana filled with honor*
Being, as Samuel later wrote of him,

'ta. prudent m a n , h e

married

'h well-dowered maiden of very respectable degree, to wit Margaret,
daughter and co-heiress of Alverey G-resbrook . * * of Stoke Hall,
Middleton, in his own county of Y7arwickshlre,

a marriage which

was but the first of many such prosperous alliances in the gene­
rations of Sev/alls that were to follow*

Through it and his

Justified in going beyond Henry, Mayor of Coventry, to William
Sewell (sic), “who was b o m about the end of the fifteenth or
early in the sixteenth century in the reign of Henry VII, lived
in Warwickshire, and married, in or before 1540, Matilda Horna
of the same county. “ Further he cannot go, profoundly desirous
though he is of doing so* One slight suggestion of some further
knowledge on Sewall's part occurs in an entry he made in an
inter-leaved almanac during a trip to England in 1683/9. Being
shown the city hall at Coventry, he notes, ”• * • saw my great
Grandfathers name without any alias " (Diary, I, 505, entry for
April S, 1689).
'“'Duff, p. 2.
I am dependent on thl3 source for information
on the first two Henrys derived from English sources to which I
have not had access*
4 Duff, p* 3. He died in 1628 at the age of eighty-four.
§
Diary. I, xl. The reference here is to a letter dated September 21, 1720, v/hlch Sewall wrote to his eldest son* S^m Junior,
of Brookline.
Of first importance in the establishment of family
background, it will hereafter be referred to simply as “Gen.
better. "
6Duff, p. 2.

3—

business, which vras that of linen-draner,

he

"acquired, a great

estate, "7 a fact v/hich is reflected in his will, where there
is an impressive listing of

•toassunges, " "closes, M " 1 >nds, "

“annuities, " "parcels of ground, " and"tenements.

That he occu­

pied a position of trust and regard in the estimation of his
fell 0 7 /-townsmen may be Inferred from the fact that he served
a
them as mayor of their city in 1589 and again in 1606,® and as
their reoresentative in Parliament during the years 1620 to
1 6 2 2 . The Puritan character of both him and his community
7 "Gen. Letter, " xi.
®Duff, pp. 3-4,
Some idea of the wealth of this progeni­
tor of the Sewall line may be gp.ined from the following details:
To his wife he left: "one annuity or rente-charge of £ 1 1 8s.
issuing out of certain lands in Ansley now in tenure of Ellz:
Throckmorton " and *%ill lands, messuages, tenements in Coventry
city and caounty and in Corley and Coundon . . . in Radford*
in Wethenfielu and Stoke . . . . “
To his eldest son Henry he left what Duff describes merely
as a 'large number of other lands."
To the younger son Richard he left various lands (again
Duff is not specific) plus "one messuage in Snithford Street
and a tenement with stables called the Sextree in C o v :"
To daughter Anne another 'tosssuage " and
close or pasture
called Filter1s Church, and a green merch adjoining called Tanfield Rene, and a close called Birchwalls, and two tenements in
Bailie Lan^" and various other pieces oi
,■
To daughter Maraaret a "parcel of ground in Quarry Close,
and all my close called Baronfield; three other closes and one
auarteral reight acres of arable land} in Stoice • . . , " etc.
Finally, there are bequests to miscellaneous charities and
small donations to personal friends, servants, eta.
Duff remarks of Henry’s brother William that his will shows
him to have been "evidently not less prosperous than Henry" (page
Q
Salisbury, p. 154.
1 0 Duff, p. 2.

shows itself In a surviving piece of correspondence having to
do, typically enough, with a dispute between Xing James and
the people of Coventry over the manner of receiving holy comtnunion.'*’^

Henry Sewall was vigorous in defending the right

of t3ie community to remain standing during the sacrament, a
practice highly Irritating to the pedantic King*
So stands the first Henry Sewall, rich in lands, success­
ful in business, prudently married, long of life, busy for his
community and his Puritan Cod, serving in his calling under the
great Taskmaster's eye#

The Saxon family name that he bore now

stood for far different things than the sea-might with which it
was anciently a s s o c i a t e d # ^

^ member of the

"country party"

whose leadership the Puritan gentry did so much to supply, we
imagine him sitting heavy with years (he was seventy-six when
he first entered Parliament) among those squires and merchants
on the benches at Westminster who heard with anger the continu­
ing news of corruption and dissoluteness at the court of James
and regarded with alarm his ever-renewed demands for the exten■^It is described by Duff, p# 3. He fails to let us hear
any of its words#
1?
Old English "sae" plus "geweald. " There is an interesting
entry for the name in H. Harrison, Surnames of the United King­
dom (London, 191Q), II, 149#
In Dugdale1s Antiquities of War­
wickshire (London, 1656), pp# 474-475, there are several para­
graphs on the ancient and honorable name of Saswalo, Sawwaldus,
Sev/allus, and Sewall, going back to the time of William#
Else­
where, as in Fuller1s Worthies, there are such other variants
as Sewald, Sewalle, Seawall, Seawale, and Sewell#

5-

sion of royal prerogative.
the Drapers*

In 1628 he died and was burled In
13
Chapel In St. Michael's Church at Coventry.

His wife Margaret died in the next year and left to her
eldest 9on Henry
forgive

"twelve pence in money, " adding that she did

"liis offences."14

In the father's will these same

"offences" are mentioned and he is instructed
obedient. 1,15

"to continue

This ls the first indication we have of a trou­

ble-begetting disposition and apparent truculence of character
that distinguishes this second Henry.

Though thus cut off by

his mother with the conventional shilling and unsuccessful in
a long suit at law to recover his share of her property from
16
his brother Richard and his sisters, Margaret and Anne,
he
was not in any financial difficulty.

For besides having inheri­

ted property from his father,he followed the older Henry's ex­
ample by a prosperous marriage to Mary Cawarden,

"daughter and

heiress of Thomas Cawarden, of Manesgyn, Ridware.
first wife dying childless, he married an Anne Hunt,

This
1A

to whom

the third Henry was born in 1614, their only son and the father
of Samuel the diarist.
13Saliebury, p. 152.
14 Ibld. . p. 155.
15Ibid.. p. 153.
16
Ibid., P. 155.
17Duff, p. 13.

-6-

In 1634 the tide of Puritan emigration was at its height.
Few weeks would go by without news arriving of men, touched in
their pockets by the exactions of Charles and in their conscien
ces by the abhorred regulations of Laud, leaving
land of England, 11 as Cotton Mather said,

"the pleasant

"to transport them­

selves, and families, over the ocean sea, into a desert land in
America.

One of those who decided to act was the truculent

Kenr.y Sev/all, who, as his grandson la.ter wrote,

'tout of dislike

to the English Hierarchy sent over his onely Son . . .

to New

England in the Year 1634, with Net Cattel and Provisions for a
new Plantation.

Mr. Cotton would have had my father settle at

Boston; but in regard to his Cattel he chose to goe to Nev/bury,
20

whether my Grandfather soon followed him. "
The economic factor in this

^Pitch at Newbury"

21

and the

place of the Sewalls, father and son, in the undertaking are
of some interest.

Guided by the practical observation that

"to him v/ho ha Hi it shall be given, " these founders of a New
England town allowed each of the grantees two hundred acres for
each fifty pounds he put in.

Under this arrangement Henry

Serall held six hundred and thirty acres.

Of the original

ninety-one grantees, only one, Mr. Richard Dummer, whose niece
the younger Henry later married, held more, namely one thousand
ana eighty acres.

The smallest holder was allowed ten.

In the

list of names of those in the first company, only Henry Sewall
19Magnalla Chrlstl Americana (Hartford, 1853), I, 13.
2 9 "Gen. L e t t e r , " xil.
21So termed in the obituary notice for Samuel Sewall in the
Boston News-Letter, issue of January 8, 1730.

-7has after it the phrase

% n d servants* 1,22

As possessor of

"Net

Cattel" Henry Sewall was but one of an organized company whose
mirpose was stock-raisin.': and for whom the G-eneral Court or­
dered on July 8, 1635 (the actual settlement not being made un­
til June of this year), that land be laid out at Newbury

"for

the keeping of the sheepe and cattell that came over in the
Dutch shipps this yeare, and to belong to owners of said cattle*"2
A Thomas Coleman had undertaken to care for the cattle, and his
failure to do so resulted in the holdings of the company being
24
split up among its members*
Such facts as these, taken as a
whole, leave one feeling that though they were doubtless not
like the good people of Marblehead, who reminded John Cotton
that whatever his purpose had been in coming to New England
theirs was

"to catch fish, " there were quite possibly those

among them who did not join the enterprise

"meerly on the account

of pure and undefiled Religion, " as Cotton Mather, with others
25
writing in the same tradition, would have us believe*
Though the

"offenses" which kept the elder Henry out of his

mother's will are not specified, we are scarcely prepared to lean
that on October 6, 1635, the G-eneral Court ordered that the wife
of Henry Seawall (sic)

"shalbe att her owne dlsposeall, for the

place of her habitacion, and that her saide husband shall allow
her wearing apparell, and twenty pounds annually,

to be palde

22Joshua Coffin, The History of Newbury (Boston, 1845), p* 287.
23
Mass. Records. I, 149*
24
John J. Currier, Quid Newberry (Boston, 1896), p. 9*
2 ®Lo c * c l t ♦

—8—

cuarterly, as also a be&d with furniture to I t . A p p a r e n t l y
they did not remain apart, for on April 5, 1638, he was "pre27
sented by the grandjury for beat lag his wife, "
the Puritans
not holding with the common law Idea which permitted a man to
beat, his wife so long as the stick he used was no bigger than
28
his thumb.
We are less surprised to discover that in 1638 he
was having "business and difference with the town of NeweberryM
oq
which ls referred to the General Court, ^ or that two years la­
ter,

"for his contemptuous speech and carriage to Mr. Saltonstall

he was

"enjoyned to acknowledge his fault publicly at Ipswich

Court, and to be of good behavior.

A final bit of informa­

tion of this kind is recorded by Coffin, historian of the town
3T
of Nev/bury. *' In 1650, according to evidence presented to the
grand Jury, the old man (he was now seventy-four)

"was walking

86Mass. Re cords, I, 163.
Which of the facts recorded in this
paragraph anply to the elder Henry Sewall is a quest}~n for which
I have not been able to determine the answer.
With Savage (see
Genealoglcal Dictionary. IV, 53) and Coffin (op.clt. .p. 61),
I am satisfied that some of them do.
Duff, however top, clt.,
p. 16), gives the undocumented date of 1640 for the elder" Henry* a
arrival in the New World, and the court entry here given refera
to the wife as Ellen, rather than Anne as we should expect.
Was
there another Henry Sewall in the colony at the time?
The twenty
pounds annual payment could not have been levied on a poor, and
perhaps therefore obscure, Individual.
Did the Henry Sewall In
ciuestion remarry?
It was now more than twenty years since the
birth of the younger Henry in 1614, and should his mother have
died in the meantime another marriage for the father would not
have been unusua-1.
If there exist answers to these questions
I have not discovered them.
^ M a s s . Records, I, 233.
^ S e e M.M. Knappen, Tudor Puritan­
ism (Chicago, 1939), 453-455, on the place of the Puritan wife.

PQMass.

Records,

I, 222, entry for March 12, 1637/8.

3^Ibld., p. 286,entry for March 3, 1639-40*
3^The History of Newbury, p. 61.

9-

in the meeting-house neare the pulpit and Mr. Rogers being
present and ready to step into the place to begin prayer,
Mr. Shov/ell Csicj, cease your walking.
should have come sooner. "
this ls the house of G o d . "

Pastor:

Mr. S. answered, you

"Remember where you are,

Sewall ( "with a lowd voyce ") :

know how to behave in the house of* God as well as you. ”
'’Putt him out."

Sewall:

said,

HLett us see who d a r e . ”

less this exchange which led Savage to observe,
insane, ls the natural conclusion.

. . .

"I

Pastor:

It is doubt­

"That he was

But however de­

ranged were his faculties, his proud and mutinous spirit pro­
vides a grateful relief to the sober half-tones of the genera­
tions around him.

Furthermore, the family memorialists,with

whom his antic behavior has been a subject for silence (and
this Includes his grandson Samuel), might have considered that
in him there was apparently the strength and vitality essential
to the success of that wilderness venture toward whi ch they turn
such reverential eyes.

When the Newbury meeting house was moved

in 1646, he sold his house and land (again outraged, no doubt)
and moved to nearby Rowley,where he died in March of 1657,
33
eighty-one years of age.
On March 25 of the year that the elder Henry moved to Rowley,
the son, who had come to New England as a youth of twenty and was
32

James Savage, A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers
of New England (Boston^ 1862;, IV, 63.
33
Currier, Quid Newberry, p. 247.
Salisbury, Family Memorials,
o. 157, gives the date of his baptism as April 8, 1576, from which
we may assume that this was also the year of his birth.

-10-

now thirty-two, married nineteen-year-old Jane Dummer, daughter of Stephen and Alice Dummer, aleo of Newbury.0'1 As was
usual with Sewall marriages,

the alliance was a desirable one,

the Dummers being: among the original proprietors of the town
and a family of long and worthy record in England. ° In the
year after the marriage, father and mother Dummer decided that
the climate of New England, was

“not agreeable " and returned to

England, taking the younger couple with them.36

There, at Tun-

worth, Bishop Stoke, and Baddesley in Hampshire, five children
vere born, to which number three more were added after the fami­
l y ^ later return to New England.37 Of these, Samuel, the eldest
38
son, "oeme abroad, " as he later said,
on March 28, 1652, at
Horton in the parish of Bishop Stoke,

“so that the light of the

Lord1s Day was the first light that my Eyes saw, being born a
little before day-break.

I was baptised by Mr. Rashly,

(sometime

3 - “Gen. Letter, “ xii.
Sewall, •fMemoir, " p. 239.
gc
Salisbury, p. 257, traces them back to the twelfth century
and terms them "respectable yeoman" of Hampshire.
Duff, p. 19,
characteristically speaks of the family as enjoying “good stand­
ing among the English rural aristocracy for many centuries. “
36 "Gen. Letter, » xii.
37 Ibid. and Vital Records of Newbury (Salem, 1911), p. 471.
The eight, with places and dates of birth, are as follows:
HAnnah, May 10, 1649, at Tunworth, Hampshire.
Samuel, March 28, 1652, at Bishop Stoke, Hampshire.
John, October 10, 1654, at Baddesley, Hampshire.
Stephen, August 15, 1657, at Baddesley, Hampshire (given as
August 19 in the "Gen. Letter").
Jane, October 25, 1659, at Baddesley, Hampshire.
Anne, September 3, 1662, at Newbury, Massachusetts.
Mehitabell, May 8, 1665, at Newbury, Massachusetts.
Dorothy, October 29, 1668, at Newbury, Massachusetts.
3SLetter-Book,
1709.

I, 383, letter to Joseph Gerrish dated May 2.

11

member of the Old Church In Boston)
1652*
me#

In Stoke Church May 5,

Mr# Rashly first preached a Sermon, and then baptised
After which an entertainment was made for him and many

more* w
At the town of Baddesley, to which the family moved a
few months after Samuel's b i r t h , f a t h e r
served as a minister; for when,

apparently

in 1659, he returned to New

England, the elder Henry being lately dead and

"his rents at

Newbury coming to very little when remitted to England,"4^ he
carried a letter from Richard Cromwell, Protector, addressed
to the Governor and magistrates of Massachusetts Bay which
reads as follows:
Loveing Friends,
We being given to understand, that Henry Sewall of
Rowley in Messeytusick bay in New-England, dyed about
foure [slcj years since, possessed of an estate . . .

in

the colony aforesaid, and that the said estate did and
ought to descend and come to his only sonne Henry Sewall,
39

"Gen* Letter, " xii*
Whittier mistakenly speaks of his
birthplace as Newbury (see W o rks.II. 41).
Since his great
grandfather lived, died, and was buried at Coventry, I am at
a loss to explain the following statement by Sewall in a letter
to Mary Dumner dated August 20, 1712: "Of my Parents Eight
Children, it fell to my share only to be born in the parish
where ray Great Grandfather liv'd, and to be baptlsd in the
Church where he lyes interd." (Letter-Book. II, 6-7)*
40 "Gen. Letter, M xii*
41 Ibid#

minister of North Baddesly,

in our county of Southamp­

ton in Filmland, who now purposelng to make a voyage into
New-England,

there personally to make his clayme to the

said estate, hath desired our lycence for nis absence,
as also our letters recommendatory unto you, that when
(by the helpe of God) he shall be arrived in New-England*
he may have speedy Justice and right done him • • . soe
he may the sooner returne to his ministeriall charge at
North-Baddesly.

...

he being personally knowne to us

to be laborious and Industrious in the work of the minis­
try, and very exemplary for his holy life and good conver­
sation • • • soe he may the more expeditiously returne to
his . . .

charge • • • •
Your very loving friend,
Richard P.

Whitehall, the 23d of March 1658”
^
Why he did not return to England we do not know, but the abdi­
cation of Richard must have been a determining factor*
42

A friend

Thomas Hutchinson, History of the Colony of Massachusetts
Bay (London, 1760), Vol. I, app. 12.
He made an earlier visit
while the elder Henry still lived (see the "Gen* L e t t e r , M xii)*
The evidence of ills being a minister is very curious, for
several reasons. First, we hear nothing about such an occupa­
tion before he first left New England at the age of thirty-three;
nor do we hear anything about it after he returned there to live,
in a country where ministers were in short supply.
Second, we
hear nothing about any formal training for such work, and the
Puritans were not given to a self-instructed clergy.
He was
only twenty when he first came to New England.
Had he then quali­
fied himself during the twelve years he was in England?
Finally,
and strangest of all, is the fact that his son Samuel makes no
mention of the matter, when obviously it would have been to him
a thinn: of considerable moment*

-13-

of the Protector would have little to look forward to In
Restoration England*
and he was at home*
lay.

In New England the elect still ruled,
There was no doubt where his sympathies

He had told his son 'taany t i m e s " of how in 1637, at the

time Governor1 s Winthrop's authority was being challenged by
the party of Sir Henry Vane, during the famous Anne Hutchin­
son controversy,

"that he and others went on foot from New­

bury to Cambridge [where the election was held 'upon the Plain
in the open Aer'J, fourty miles, on purpose to be made free
[i.e., to be made a freeman, which he was on Hay 173>4*^ and
help to strengthen Governor v71nthrop's Party* 1,44

The estima­

tion he enjoyed in the eyes of the people of Newbury is shown
in their six times choosing him to serve as their deputy to
the General Court at Boston.

4.R

His estate, like those of his

forbears, was large, consisting of numerous

"houses, " "barnes, "

TLands, " "tenements, " etc., both in Newbury and in England.4®
43Sewall,

'Memoir, " p. 239*

44Letter-3ook, I, 294-295, letter So Edmund Calamy in Lon­
don, dated January 24, 1703/4*
Sewall a d d s : "The New-English
Planters were at this time hardly bestead; being infested by
the Pequot Indians, and the new Opinions at the same time*
45M a a s . Records. Vol. TV, part 2, pp. 2, 41, 71, 274, 562, 448.
46His v?1X1 nay be seen at the Essex County Courthouse, Salem,
Mass., probate docket, file number 25077.
Its details are of
some interest.
Having thour-‘'ts of "dissolution and freedom from
this transitory world" and thinking to "dispose of what God
hath been pleased to entrust me with, " he first of all e-ives his
soul to God and his body to the earth.
Then:
To his wife Jane ten pounds a year for as long as she lived
(to be oaid by Samuel) and "rent and revenue ^f a small farrae,
now in the • • • occupation of Joseph Goodrldge, containing
about one hundred and five Acres • • •"; also, "the house new
built which now I dwell in" with barn and one and one half acre* ^

-14Seing eighty-six years old, he

“grew very decrepit and sick­

ly “ during the winter and spring of 1700 ana died on May 16
47
of that year.
Shortly before, when there was talk of going
"he shewd his inability, and said he hopd he
48
should shortly go to a greater Assembly. “
A few months

to

m e e tin g ,

later his wife Jane died, and on a tombstone in the burying
ground of the First Church at Newbury one may read these
49
wordst
of land adjoining (this to go to Samuel on the mother’s death);
also, two acres of saltraarsh of the twenty "purchased of Mr,
Woodman" and two acres of meadow of the twelve “purchased of
G-eorge Little, "
To Sam, in addition to the house and land in Newbury he
is to get after his mother* s death, and the mill-lot and lands
he is to get from his sister Mehitaoel should she die without
issue, he confirms a former deed of gift of a "tenement at
Lee near Rumsey in England and in the County of Hants Cl*©*
HampshireJ, lately in the occupation of Stephen Newland, " and
till the houses and lands belonging to me in Coventry, the
County of Coventry and Warwickshire," plu3 six acres of the
meadow purchased of G-eorge Little,
Stephen gets “House, Lands, Barnes, orchards, and all . .
thereunto belonging • • • in Horton, in the parish of Blshopstoke, in the County of Hampshire, “
To son John and daughters Hannah (Tappan) , Jane (G-errlsh) ,
and Anne (Longfellow) various pieces of land around Newbury
(sixteen acres, twenty acres, two and a half acres, etc,)*
To daughter Mehitabel the “mill lot “ and one hundred
acres adjoining, to go to Samuel should she die without issue.
To daughter Dorothy % 1 1 my land in Newbury Neck, " about
sixty acres.
The will was drawn on August 17, 1678, and designates
Samuel and Stephen to be executors.
The favored position occu­
pied by Samuel is quite obvious,
47
Letter-Book, I, 236, letter to John Stork dated June 10,
1700,
The son had seen him the day before he died, when he
stopped at Newbury on his way to hold court at Klttery,
4A

Ibid, and Diary. II, 15, entry for May 25, 1700.

49See Coffin, p, 13*

-15-

HSNRY SEWALL SENT BY HENRY SEWALL HIS FATHER
IN THE SHIP ELIZABETH AND DORCAS, CAPT. WATT
COMMANDER
ARRIVED AT BOSTON 1634
WINTERED AT IPSWICH, HELPED BEGIN THIS PLANTATION
1635
FURNISHING- ENGLISH SERVANTS, CATTLE AND PROVISIONS
MARRIED MISTRESS JANE DUMMER, MARCH 26, 1646
DIED MAY 16. 1700.

AETATIS 86.

HIS FRUITFUL VINE BEING THUS DISJOINED
FELL TO THE GROUND JANUARY 13 FOLLOWING, AETATIS 74.
The feeling of Samuel for his parents was one of warmest
affection and regard, and the diary records much visiting back
and forth during the son1s years in Boston.

When he stopped

to see his father two days before the old man died there was
a mutual kissing of hands, and he records with evident pleasure
that at the funeral Mr. Tappan, the minister, termed him
true Nathanael" (i.e. a man without guile).®®

Ha

A characteris­

tic reference to his mother appears in a letter to his aunt
Alice Duraraer In England.
munity there continues
my dear Mother was.

He wonders if his mother* s home com­

"to be fruitfull in such Christians as

If it doe,

it must needs be a happy place. mI

A suggestion of her character is in a short, undated letter
®® Diary.II. 13, 14, entries for May 14 and 19.
^ Letter-Book, I, 265, letter dated December 8, 1701.

-16-

copied by Samuel Into his letter-book several years after
her death.

After asking him about some correspondence for

delivery to England,

she continues:

"I can say but little

to you; But earnestly desire you to be diligent in Prayer
unto GOD, that He would be pleased to grant us his blessed
Spirit.

The Lord JESUS hath told us, that He is more ready

to give the blessed Spirit, than a father is to give good
5 ifts to

his Children.

This should encourage us to be con­

stant in his Service. Thus leaving you to the Lord, who
52
alone is able to teaoh you • • • M etc.
The following ex­
cerpt from a long description of her funeral,

which Samuel

attended January 15, 1700/1, tells us much of both the mother
and the son:
Nathaniel Bricket taking in hand to fill the Grave,
I said, Forbear a little, and suffer me to say That amidst
our bereaving sorrows We have the Comfort of beholding
this Saint put into the rightfull possession of that Hap­
piness of Living desired and dying Lamented.

She lived

commendably Four and Fifty years with her dear Husband,
and my dear Father:

And she could not well brook the being

divided from him at her death; which is the cause of our
taking leave of her in this place.

She was a true and con­

stant Lover of Gods Word, Worship, and Saints:

And she al­

ways, with a patient cheerfullness, submitted to the divine
Decree of providing Bread for her self and others in the
52Letter-Book. I, 566-367.

-17-

sweat of her Brows*

And now her Infinitely Gracious and

Bountiful Master has promoted her to the Honor of higher
Employments, fully and absolutely discharged from all man­
ner of Toll, and Sweat*
and Neighbours!

My honoured and beloved Friends

My dear Mother never thought much of doing

the most frequent and homely offices of love for me; and
lavished away many Thousands of Words upon me, before I
could return one word in Answer:

And therefore I ask and

hooe that none will be offended that I have so ventured to
speak

one word in her behalf; when shee her self is become

speechless*
the Grave*

Made a Motion with my hand for the filling of
Note, I could hardly speak for passion and

Tears.53
Samuel's relations with his brothers and sisters need
not detain us long*

Though there is nothing to suggest that

they were anything other than affectionate, it is only his
brother Stephen who figures with any prominence in Sev;al <.'s
diary and letters.

"Froter Charissimus" to Samuel5^nd a figure

of prominence in the affairs of his town of Salem (magistrate,
major in the militia, register of deeds, clerk of the inferior
court— in the last of which capacities we find him at the fa­
mous witchcraft trials) , it was of him that the visiting Eng1
lish book-seller John Dunton wrote,

M. • • his care is to live

53Piary. II, 30-31.
54Ibid., III, 365, entry for October 17, 1725, and editors'
note.
In a letter to Joseph Thomson dated January IS, 1705/4,
Sewall writes of him as 'tay dear and only surviving Brother,
Major Stephen Sewall . . . at Salem . . ." (Letter-Book. I, 288)*

-18-

gO

as to be an example to the people; he Is the mirror of hos­

pitality, and neither Abraham nor Lot, were ever more kind to
strangers."5®

His brother John enters the record as little

more than the reason for Samuel's observation upon his death
that nov» after thirty years the three brothers and five sis­
ters are at last

"broken in upon# m56

The sisters, all of whom

married and lived at Nev/bury or Rowley, figure primarily as
begetters of 'taany deelreable Children#

The figure of the

"fruitful vine" might, indeed, be applied to all eight members
of this generation; for all married, none had fewer than four
children, and among them they replenished the New England earth
PQ
to the number of no less than seventy-three,
'Many children
Life and Errors(Mass, Hist# Soc,, Colls., ser. 2, II), p#
117# He visited New England in 1686, and his Impressions were
published in 1705# V7hen he visited Salem, Stephen Sewall in­
sisted that he stay at his home*
Letter-Book, I, 215, letter to Nathaniel Higginson dated
November*18, 1699.
57
Ibid., p. 256, letter to John Storke dated June 10, 1700;
xviii-xxi#
58Diary, loc. cit.
Since the subject of this study figured
prominently as a Massachusetts Judge, it is of some Interest to
note the company he had among the descendants of Henry Sewall:
(1) Samuel himself was a Judge of the Superior Court of Massa­
chusetts from the court's establishment in 1692 until his resig­
nation in 1728, serving during the last ten of these years as
chief Justice*
(2) Samuel's great grandson was a Judge of the
same court from 1800 to 1614 and chief Justice in 1814#
(3)Da­
vid, grandson of Samuel's brother John, was Judge of the same
court from 1777 to 1790 and afterwards long a Judge of the Unit­
ed States district court in Maine.
(4) Stephen, son of Samuel's
brother Stephen was Judge of the same court in 1739 and chief
Justice from 1752 to 1760#
(5) Stephen's nephew Jonathan was
Attorney General of Massachusetts from 1767 to 1775*
(6) Jona­
than's sons, Jonathan and Stephen, were respectively chief Jus­
tice and Attorney General of the lower province of Canada* (For
this information generally, see the Rev’. Samuel Sewall, •Memoir
P. 237.)

-19-

and Grand-children are Sprung of my Father1s Eight, " wrote
Sewall toward the end of his life,

“insomuch that I cannot

reckon them up. 1,59
II
When, in 1661, Samuel1s father, having decided to remain
in Nev/ England,

s --rii* to England for his family, the mother

"auickly . • • went to Winchester with 5 small Children . . .;
and John Nash and Mary Hobs her Servants there to be in a readi­
ness for the Fool Wagnrons. "

Relatives

“took leave with Tears, M

and (the old man writing this doubtless remembering what had im­
pressed the nine-year-old boy)

"Capt. Dummer of Swathling treat­

ed [the company} with Raisins and Almonds.
Prudent Mary at Graves-End,
out to sea. A
his

They boarded the

took on sheep at Dover, and stood

Thus Sewall left what forever remained to him

"dear Native Country," loyal son of Boston and Massachusetts

though he later became, ana to it he eagerly returned more than
pp
a quarter of a century later.
Little is known of conditions aboard ship during this pe­
riod, but for many who made the Atlantic crossing there can be
59

Letter-Book, II, 181, letter to Alice Dummer dated Decem­
ber 14, 1724.
69 "Gen* Letter, " xiil.
61Ibid.
6£Letter-Book, I, 360, letter to Nathaniel Higginson dated
March 10, 1707/8; Diary, I, 229, letter to Increase Mather
dated October 8, 1688.
One vivid memory that remained with him
through the years was of "being at Bishop Stoke and Badesly,
Anrll 23, 1661, the day of the Coronation of K. Charles the
second, the Thunder a.nd Lightening of it " ( "Gen. Letter, " xii)

little doubt that they were what the historians of the subject
have described as
called

•'well nigh Intolerable. "

The vague thing

"ship f e v e r " was known to every port physician.

Ordi­

nary passengers slept; In canvas hammocks slung below decks and
helped themselves In the galley,

though we may assume that the

Sewalls shared the somewhat better accomodations of the Cap­
tain' s Cabin.

"We were," says Sewall,

"about eight weeks at

Sea, where we had nothing to see but Water and the Sky;

so that

I began to fe-rr I should never get to Shoar again; only I
thought [again recalling the childish mlndj the Captain and
Mariners would not have ventured themselves if they had not
hopes of getting to Land again. "
again he was

When finally he did see land

"overjoyed" and, going ashore in a boat, was

"car­

ried out In arms July 6, 1661" at a place near what was later
Scarlet's wharf,
old.

"a poor little Schoolooy of Nine years and

Thus was he Introduced to the town of which he later

liked to s- y he had

"grown a little fond, " and the day would

be the occasion for anniversary notes in his alary after the
65
passing of more than half a century.
The father

"hastened to Boston and carried his Family to

Newbury by W a t e r , " where young Sam was carried ashore in a canoe.

At Nev/bury he remained for the next six years, until in

6^John Robinson and G. F. Dow, The Sailing Ships of New Eng­
land (Salem, Mass., 1 9 2 2 ), I, 35.
6 4 "Gen. Letter, " xiil, and Diary, III, 48, entry for July 6,
1715.
"Gen. Letter, " loc. clt.; Diary, III, 2 2 2 , entry for July
6, 1719.
"Gen. Letter, " loc. cit.

^

21

1667 he entered Harvaro 0ollege

the age of fifteen, and for

It he formed one of his many characteristic affections.

The

town as he first saw It Is described by Josselyn, writing In
1663:

'On the south side of Merrimack river, . . .

houses . . .

scattering, well stored with meadow, upland, and arable, and
about four hundred head of cattle* 1,67

It was less than thirty

years old, so that young Samuel doubtless heard many stories
of the days of its founding:

how the first small company came

up from Ioswich by water, through Plum Island Sound, up the
Quascacunquen (a river later named Parker), and across country
to the place where the town now stood;

fift

how the first religious

services were held Mln the open air under a t r e e h o w
meetincr house was built,

a rude

to the services at which all able

bodied men were ordered to bring firearms for watch against
70
Indians.
He heard of the hard winter two years prior to his
arrival, when snow stood four feet deep on the level, and
learned the reason, unknown to us, why a law had recently
been passed declaring a fine of five shillings for any man
who should

"discharge a gunn In the meeting house . . .

ride a . . . horse into [it3."

or

r?\

67Coffin, p. 68, cited.
6®Coffin, p. 15.
69
Currier, o. 16, citing testimony given at roswich court
in 1669.
70
Currier, p. 17. The law ordered that every able-bodied
man was "to stand sentinel at the doores all the time of the
public meeting, every one after another, either by himself, in
person, or by a sufficient substitute. "
7-*-Coffin, pp. 63-64.

The law was passed May 16, 1661.

Some of the matters In the tor/ i

;ch must certainly have

occupied his youthful attention were the work on the new meeting
house In the year of his arrival, "Uhe prison break at Ipswich In
the next year, and,

in 1663, Lydia Wardwell' s, being

"severely

w h l p t " for coming naked into the meeting house, "being given up
72
to the leading of the L o r d , "
On January 26 of this year also,
Just

"at the shutting In of evening, " occured an earthquake

which the boy long after remembered as shaking him while he sat
73
in his father's house "in a Jam of the Chimney,"
This also is
the year in which he saw Elizabeth Webster sitting out before
the meeting house on lecture day with a paper on her head beard­
ing In capital letters the words,

T ’OR TAKING- A FALSE OATH IN

CCURT, " an illustration for the future Judge of how such metters
were handled.
well was

On July 6, 1664, it was ordered that G-iles Crom­

"to keep the boys in order in the meeting house, and

to give notice to the selectmen of such as are out of order,
and to have six shillings for his paynes, "
twelve.

Young Sam was now

In 1665 the town voted to pay forty shillings for "ev­

ery wolf • • , killed within the Towne, " and seven were turned
in for bounties that year.
the third season running,’'’4

In 1666 the wheat crop failed for
Prison breaks, religious fanatics,

72
'Coffin, pp, 64-66,
The date of the whipping was May 5,
73
Ibid,, and Letter-Book, II, 229-230, letter to Benjamin
Wadsworth dated November 14, 1727,
The reminiscence occurred
to him because of the quake of this latter year, which rocked
ills bedroom "like a cradle" and was accompanied by a "crashing
Noise" which he found "very amazing,"
74Coffin, pp. 67-70.

— 23—

the shooting of* guns In meeting, rough Justice, harsh winters,
war on predatory creatures, unruly youths,

crop failures—

all thi 3 adds up to a picture that was to become standard in
the later American development,
community.

the raw, isolated frontier

It is, of course, a distorted picture, for it is

generally the violent and unruly aspect of things rather than
the sober and conforming parts that finds its way into such
records as are here drawn upon; but it is nevertheless a pic­
ture at considerable variance with what tends to be our con­
ception of the Puritan community.
What young Samuel Sewall was like in these years we can
only guess.

The only contemporary source is the highly dubious

one of a funeral sermon preached by the Rev. Mr, Prince on the
occasion of Sewall1s death.

In It we find a not unusual, per­

haps, but still surprising willingness to distort history in the
service of conventional piety.

Here is the early Sewall legend

in the making:
Let the very Children first come along with me, and
look thro'

the Glass of his Life, and see his Early Piety.

Look 0 Children, and see, How quiet and modest our Young
Samuel sits at the feet

of his pious

Parents; how full of

Reverence and Affection

to them, how ready and dutiful in

all his Carriage: and how full of the Fear of GOD, how
afraid of sinning against Him, how careful to read the
Scriptures, and to Pray
Look into the School,

in Secret in his early Days!
and see, How submissively He

behaves Himself; how full of Veneration and L 0ve to his

Master,

how mindful of every Instruction, how diligent

in Learning his Books and improving in Knowledge: behold
how pleas'd his Master is to observe it, and how greatly
loves Him,

There you may see the hopefull Bloom of his

future Usefulness: And do you 0 Children, Learn to follow
Him.75
One wonders if the pious speaker ever considered that he was
here engaging in the very thing for which he doubtless was In
cllned to berate writers of fiction.

Perhaps, of course, he

was speakinr the literal truth; we have no evidence to prove
the contrary,
is so.

Just as we have none to prove that what he says

Perhaps the young Samuel was the youthful paragon he

pictures, but the Intent to improve the occasion is too trans­
parent, and we may be permitted our doubts.
One thin-p concerning these years spent in Newbury about
which we need not speculate is the lasting affection they In­
spired for the town and its countryside.

This feeling is evi­

dent in a passage which for its homely, brocaded elegance de­
serves quoting at length.

It appears In his prophetical work

published in 1697 under the title of Phaenomena quae dam Apocalyotlea Ad Aspectum Novi Orbis conflgurata. Or some few
Lines towards a description of the New Heaven As it makes to
those who Stand upon the New Earth, which was written, as he
75A Sermon at the Publlck Lecture in Boston, Jan. viii.
1729.50.
Upon the Death of the Honourable Samuel Sewall.
Esq; Late Chief Justice of the Circuits (Boston. 1 7 3 0 ) , p. 31.
Duff is quite willing to pursue this fanciful line, remarking,
*ife know little about his childhood and youth except that he
showed from the first uncommon intelllp;ence and a remarkably
gentle and forbearing dispositionM (p. 26).

Phenomena quaedini

APOCALYPTICA
A d Afpetlum N O f''f

ORB IS

confljurata.

Or, fome few Lines towards a defcripncn of the New

HEAVEN

As It makes to thole who ftand upon the

NEW EARTH
By Satnnrl Sew.il/ lbmet ime Fellow of H a rv a rd C oiledge at
Cam lrudje in New F.ngljnd.

f

Pblm, 4.5. 10, F .rg e t nlfo ' b j cten pe-ple, t v
Mai II 14- B u t r r i j j b a u f ly u f o n t i e ( b o u l d e r t

A£F I.

6--8

ye I h . ilt

I.-a d , * ‘ (t thou

41

tbitt u n e

try fa th e r t b-<ufe.

c t t ! e P l n l i j l i r i t c tV a r d t h e w e fl.

re jh re

i f t i n the h jn g d o m to I f i j t l }

w i f n e ji - t u n to
m e u n to th e u t t c i i n J l p a r f t c f th e e a r th j
halt
S fa m fh B ib le .
L u k I 5 ~-l* For t ! 1i M y Hon oral d e a d , a n d i t a liv e
a g a in -, be w as b 'J l% a n d
i t f in d .
V 3 X. F t r t l . i t t b j B ro th e r C /e ,
be

ilo ultimo dc lariern,

>
{
1

I!!enon decrit Pnuiiidb; reflituet Rcgnutn F/r.te/i'j f<! fuo mndo, n co, ac
tempore. B u in * e r .
N^quis iliaa me didta, aut addudta accipiar, cjJalicon*
t<n.lend:,aut acwrrftndi Ih.dioi ac non difccndi potius,ac Confcrcr.di gi\.:ia.
F x

Med. Apoc. p. 371-

a d P i- ia U m Scxtam .

tS'WAS SAC H D SET-,
BO S TO U , Printed by Bartholomew d r a n d f i h n A llo t,
And 2 fc to be fold by Richard W ilkin s , 16 < jj.

says*

"to make a short Apologv for America in answer to those

76
vrho have laid it out for Hell, and I do not know what all* . • • "
He refutes the charge of the

"impossibility of subsisting here "

whus:
Mary Brown . . • the First born of Newbury is yet
alive; and is become the mother and Grandmother of many
children.

And so many have been born after her in the

Town, that they make two Assemblies, wherein GOD is solemn­
ly worshipped every Sabbath Day.
77
As long as Plum-Island shall faithfully keep the com­
manded Post; Notwithstanding all the hectoring Words, and
hard Blows of the proud and boisterous Ocean; As long as any
Salmon, or Sturgeon shall swim in the streams of Merrimack;
or any Perch, or Pickerll,

in Crane Pond; As long as the

Sea-Fowl shall know the Time of their Coming, and not neg­
lect seasonably to visit the Places of their Acquaintance;
As long as any Cattel shall be fed with the Grass growing
in the Medows, which do humbly bow down themselves before
Turkie-Hill; As long as any Sheep shall walk upon Old Town
Hills, and shall from thence pleasantly look down upon the
River Parker, and the frultfull Marishes lying beneath; As
long as any free and harmless Doves shall find a white Oak,
or other Tree within the Township, to perch, or feed, or
build a careless Nest upon; and shall voluntarily present
76

Letter-Book, I, 293-294, letter to Sir Henry Ashhurst dated
Ma rch 5, 1697/8.
^ P l u m Island 1 '.eg a short distance from Newbury, at the
mouth of the MerrJmac River.

26-

theraselves to perform the office of Gleaners after Barley
Harvest; As long as Nature shall not prow Old and dote; but
shall constantly remember to give the rows of Indian C o m
their education, by Pairs:

So long shall Christians be b o m

there; and being first made meet, shall from thence be Tran­
slated, to be made partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints
in Light*7®
What Sewall says concerning his education during the years
in England and at Newbury makes possible a reasonably sure esti­
mate of its character.

At Baddesly he was, as he says,

"by the
riQ

merciful goodness of God • • • taught to read English."

After

this he attended a grammar school at the neighboring market
town of Rumsey, of which a Mr. Figes was master*

Supposing that

the course of his studies followed that described by Charles
Hoole in A New Discovery (London, 1669), our best contemporary
source on the subject,®® he would enter Baddesly

"petty school"

73

°Page 18.
It was for this pas-age that Whittier, not being
familiar with his efforts at verse-making, termed him "a poet
who never measured rhyme "(Works. I, 214). Whittier wrote a
version in verse that is considerably less successful than the
nrose original.
7 9 "Gen. Letter," xii.
SO
Hoole was an English schoolmaster who, writing from "thrice
seven yeares experience in this despicable, but comfortable em­
ployment of teaching school" (page iii), describes his method
of proceeding and provides a highly interesting and detailed
picture of the "petty" and grammar schools at the time of Sewall's
attending them. My evaluation of this source is that of George
E. Littlefield, Early Schools and School-Books of New England
(Boston, 1904), p. 49*

27-

on
at the age of five or six and possibly m u c h earlier#
Arriv­
ing "fairly washed, neatly combed, and handsomlv clad, ” he
'muln learn here his letters and

"a smattering of some syl­

lables and words In the horn-book, ^ ^ p o s s i b l y by spelling
them a-loud In unison w i t h the other members of the class,
the master starting them off together w ith a blow of his
83
strap on the desk#
He would then pass from horn-book to
primer and the learning by rote of such things as the Lord* s
Prtyer and the Ten Commandments#

After this he would enter

on the Book of Genesis and such other
as would be

"remarkable Histories"

'host likely to delight h i m # F i n a l l y ,

there

would be catechizing In such a work as The Foundation of
Christian Religion gr.the red into slxe Principles

(London,

1590) by \7111iam Perkins.^® When, at the age of seven or
eight, he could read

"in any place of a book that is offered

him, ” he would be considered fit to enter grammar school and
Hoole, p# 20# His own son, Joseph, was sent to school
"to Captain Townsend* s Mother, his Cousin Jane CTappanJ ac«.
c^npanying him" on April 27, 1691, at w h ich time he was exact­
ly two years, eight months, and twelve days old (see the Diary.
1. 344).
82

Hoole, pp# 20,-33#

83

See Lit .lefield, Early S c h o o l s , p# 121#
Sometimes all
studying was done aloud, oriental fashion, to the occasional
disturbance of neighbors and a consequent passing of restrain­
in'* votes at town meetings#
qa.

"Hoole, pp. 21-23.
The line of progress here traced is
what John Locke, Thoughts Concerning Education (London, 1710),
P. 234, refers to as "the ordinary R oad of Horn-Book, Primer,
Psalter, Testament, and Bible."
85
Littlefield, p. 105.
This work was standard for children
until the appearance in 1656 of John Cotton* s Spiritual Milk
for Boston Babes#

begin the study of Latin.

The school calendar to w h i c h he

would now be accustomed provided for no free Saturdays and
no months of vacation.

The school day b e gan

"before eight

In tlie m o r n i n g " w i t h a p r a y e r and, with a two— hour b r e a k
from eleven to one,

ended In the same way

"about five a

clock in the summer, and four in the win t e r season, " at which
time the young scholars would
by one w i t h their . . .

"rise out of their places one

book in their hand, a n d make their

honours to their M a s t e r as they passe before his face, one
following another at a distance out of Schoole.
At Rumsey grammar school the hours w o u l d be somewhat
longer, beginning at six or seven in the mor n i n g

"both in

Winter a nd Summer, " a n d continuing, w i t h a break from eleven
to one,

till five

In the afternoon.

Scholars who arrived

before school began would be permitted to

"play about the

Schoole, till the clock strike, on condition they can say
their parts. "

Occasionally they might be excused to attend

a writing school, which, unlike the grammar school, was for
"them that have a prejudice against La tine " and therefore
taught things pro p e r to
metic and writing.

O r d i n a r y callings, " such as a r lth—

Otherwise there w o uld be scant attention

a6Hoole, pp. 233-239.
Q7
Hoole, pp. 25— 26, 240.
See also Henry F. Jenks, "Histo­
rical Sketch, ** in Catalogue of the Boston P u b l ic Latin School
(Boston, 1886), p. 6.
Jenks a n a Littlefield deal mainly with
New England, but the situation in the two countries was general
ly the same until after the Revolution (see fihe comment by
Littlefield, p. 93).
It might be noted here that Edward Eggle­
ston* s chapter on "The Tradition of E d u c a t i o n " 111 h i 0 Transit
Civ.ll.l.zatipn (New York, 1901) is a useful and most interestIng lhtroducfffion to the subject.

-29-

t.o 'inch secondary concerns;
rare for the university,
and Greek.

the business at he.nd w s

to pre-

and that meant tho mastery of Latin

Texts would probably be H o o l e 1 s Ilonencla t ure, a

sm^ll LatIn-Engllsh voosrulery; H o o l e 1s or Brinsley1s Sententiae Puerile?,

or Sentence? for Children: one of the same

author*s Colloquies of Corderius, with texts in Latin and
Err-1 lsh whereby

"Children, by the help of their Mother-Tongue,

may the better learn to speak Latin in ordinary Discourse";
and Brinsley* a A c c i dence.
Lily and Camden, ana,

There would be the G-rammars of

if a venture were made into Hebrew,

those of William Shickard or John Buxtorf.
mastered by

88

“patterTing3 then over by heart*

Rules w o uld be
In addition to

Corc.erius, the authors most frequently read would be Aesop,
Cicero, Ovid, Homer, and V i r g i l . N o t

to mention,

of course,

88Littlefield, pp. 241, 243, 245-246, 268, 275.
Diary, II,
52, entry for January 31, 17Q1/2: "Cousin Moodey of York
comes to see me; upon enquiry about a Hebrew word, I found
he had no Lexicon; and I gave him my Buxtorf. "
89
Hoole, p. 4o»
90
Kenneth B. Murdock, "The Teaching of Latin and Greek at
the Boston Latin School in 1712, " Col. Soc. of Mass. P r o c .
XXVII (1927— 30), 28.
On June 10, 1700, when his son Joseph
was eleven and attending grammar school in Boston, Sewall wrote
to his agent, John Love, in London to "send In School Books":
"• • • Esops Eng. and Lat., Corderius Eng. and Lat., Terrence
Eng. and Lat., Ovid de Tristibue, Metamorphosis, Virp;il, Tullies
de Officljs, Grammars constrru]ing Books" (Letter-Book. I, 238).
Cotton Mather wrote that *te.t the Age of little more than eleven
y e a r s " he had "conversed with Cato, Corderius, Terence, fully,
Ovid, and Virgil" (see Barrett Wendell's Cotton Mather TNew
York, 18913, p. 35).

— 30—

trie Bible, of whieh there would be

"a Chapter every morning,

and every noon in the N e w Testament. " for, as Hoole says,
"variety in the Mastery of his Accidents*
The family* s removal to Newbury meant,

if anything, an

Improvement in Sewall*s educational environment*
nothing of

'Mr. Figes ” of Rumsey,

We know

but his dimensions would

have had to be truly heroic to compare w ith those of the ven­
erable Reverend Thomas Parker of Nev/bury, who lived but a
short distance from the S e w a l l s ^ n d to whom, in the absence
93
o/t
of a regular grammar school in the town,
Sewall was put*"'
Son of a renowned father, he was a graduate of Magdalen Col­
lege, where he received the master* s degree* His scholarly
95
attainments were formidable and had cost him the sight of
91

Page 43*

QO

Coffin, p. 390, says that the Sewall home was "in Parker
Street (formerly South Street), on the n o rth side, a few rods
IT. \7« from Mr. Noyes* s house, " which was where Parker dwelt
Chamberlain, Samuel Sewall and the World he L i ved i n . p* 86,
mistakenly states that he was educated by Parker at his father's
house*
95
W. H* Small, "The New England Grammar S c h o o l , " School Re­
view . X (September, 1902), 518*
In 1658 the town was required
to pay five oounds toward the maintenance of the Latin school
in Ipswich "unless they by the next court provided a Latin
schoolmaster according to Law. " There is no record that they
did so until 1G87# when Seth Shove, a protdge" of Sewall*s,
became
the schoolmaster for the year*
See also Samuel E*
Morison, Harvard College in the Seventeenth Centurv fCambrldcrA.
-----Mass., 19’£SJT~I, 533-334.
94 "Gen. Letter," xiii*
95
The story is told of him (Coffin, p. 374) that some fellow
ministers, being "dissatisfied with some of his opinions, came
to reason with him * • . ; they addressed him in English, he
replied in Latin; they followed him in Latin, he retired to
Greek, and to Hebrew; they pursued, but in Arabic he stopped
them.
He then refused to be examined by them. "

-31-

kis eyps, but he would remark

’tefter a Christian and pleasant

m a n n e r , M as Cotton Mather says, "Well, they*11 be restored
Q/^
shortly, at the resurrection, ,K° His nephew, Nicholas Noyes,
said of him:

"He kept a school, as well ap preached,

H *3 ordinarily had about 1? or 14 scholars,

• • •

Ha took no pay

for his pains, unless any present were freely sent him,
Thour-h he was blind,

yet such was his memory,

that he could

in his old a^e teach Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, very artificial
ly.

He seldom corrected a scholar, unless for lying and fight

in'", which v/ere unpardonable crimes, , • • "
olas Noyes was but four years Sewall*
Sewall was six years with Parker,

3

Since this Nich­

academic senior and

it is possible that the

following event, described by Noyes, found Sewall present:
‘•Once hearing some of us laughing very freely, while,

I sup­

pose, he was better busied in his chamber above us, he came
down, and gravely said tc us, * Cousins, I wonder you can be
so merry, unless you be sure of your salvation!*
Parker was to Sewall

’b y ever honoured M a s t e r , a n d

when he died in April, 1677, at the age of eighty-two,
twenty-five year old diarist wrote:
96

the

"The Lord give me grace

Magna1 la, I, 48?,
Except as otherwise noted, the Mag­
na 1 la , I, 430-487, is my source for Parker*
Mather describes
his blindness as *<a miserable defluxion of rheum upon his
eyes, "
97
Noyes was of the class of 1667, Sewall of 1771,
QQ
Letter-Book. II, 113, letter to John V/oodbridge, school­
master at Newbury, dated March 85, 1780,

-32-

to follow ray dear Master as he followed Christ,

that T may

at last, get to heaven whether he has already gone* ,r~ ‘ The
fact that he had remained unmarried provided Sewall with
matter for the following characteristic lines of verse,
titled

"A specimen of New England Celibacy":
Though Rome blaspheme the marriage bed
And vows of single life has bred
Chaste Parker,

Stoughton, Brinsma.de, Noyes,

Show us the odds *twixt force and choice.
These undefiled contracted here,
Are gone to heaven and married t h e r e . ^ ^
He might have written of Parker, as Cotcon Mather did of the
famous Ezekiel Cheever of 3oston:
He taught us Lilly,

and he Gospels taught;

And us poor Children to our Savior b r o u g h t . ^ ^
The details that have thus far been miven concerning
Sewall*s educational background,

though of considerable in­

terest in themselves, deserve consideration for a better
reason than that*

Sewall*s nature was a conforming one*

He

9^ Plary,I. 41, entry for April 23, 1677.
lOOpated December 13, 1717, they were published in the Bos­
ton News-Letter for February 13, 1721*
The lines are not to
be taken as suggesting any disparagement of the institution
of marriage*
On October 9, 1705, Sewall wrote to Nicholas
Noyes: "God has honoured the virginity of Nev/-England in [the
men of the poemj. • • • But this was not in any contradiction
to Marriage.
If any word be dropt against that, and maintaind
I will draw my Arrows to the head, and let flv" (Letter-Book,
I, 318).
%
-----------^ ^ T h e poem, "Gratitudinls Ergo, " appears in Barnard' e
"Ezekiel Che e v e r , " American Journal of Education (March. 1856
a-. 29-31.

had no Inclination to decry with Locke the practice whereby
.ri.'h a youth as himself was

“chain'd to the Oar,

or Ten o-r the best Years of his Life,
t'"0 *

To o

Seven,

Eight,

to yet a Language or

To Locle the making of Latin verses was

'%i foolish

custom, *^^°buo It was one in which Par k e r encouraged his
s t i i d o n t s , - a n d Sev/all took a life-long satisfaction in the
"motlca

of it.

It was true, as Locke said,

school wouldn't wive him the
Trade and Commerce and t h e

that grammar

"qualifications requisite to

Business of t h e

’world, “MJSth the

result that as a merchant, k e e p e r of public monies,
possessor of one of the largest estate?

and

in the Hew England

of his day,

he w o u l d suffer some embarrassment In the keeping
T nfi
of his ’
a ccounts;
but there is no evidence that it ever
occurred to him to r e s e n t
in

th e

fact.

There was compensation

being among those who could employ an appropriate tag

102
Th o ughts , p. 225.
Locke was not, of course, opposed to
the acquisition of such languages, %/bsolutely necessary in
a Gentleman" (p. 241); what he lamented was that they got no
more than that.
^ ^Thouwhts, p. 264*
IQ4I.Iagnalla, I, 486.
ine

Thought s , p. 242.
106

See chap. 3. Littlefield, p. 47, quotes a Mr. Avscough,
writing in 1797, as follows:
• • fifty years ago, there
were sent from capital schools, to the universities, youths
of good abilities, and not by any means w anting in grammar and
classical learning, yet so little versed in common figures, as
to be obliged to have recourse to a m a s t e r of a day school in
the town for Instruction in the four fundamental rules in a r i t h ­
metic. " There is considerable evidence that this was Just about
Sewall*s situation.

of Latin or Greek or spend an evening with n •friend rending

Latin verse and find, it, as Sewall did,

"very entertsinin'r*

It is interesting to note that Parker took
delivht in singing of psalms" and that he

"extraordinary

"bent himself unto

the study of the Scripture prophecies, " ^ ^ f o r in both things
Sevall did the game.
his

In both there is the probable

"dear M aster" of Newbury*

influence

The thing of immediate im-

•-vortance, however, was that at the usual aye of fifteen.
had so far advanced in the mastery of Latin and Greek,
Testimony of his townrdlinesse,

10*5

he

"meet

that his father took him

down to Cambridge to be examined by President Chauncy , and
he was admitted to Harvard College.^'"*’
107 Diary, III, 163, entry for January 29, 1717/18: *Mr.
Bradstreet read to me Chrysostom*s going out of Constanti­
nople into .-anishment; and I read, his return; both in Latin,
very entertaining* "
•^%Iagnal l » , I, 485, 480*
Only a work on Daniel was pub­
lished.
This was in English, but ordinarily he worked in
Latin.
109
Morison, Harvard Col l ege. II, 450.
"^^The admission requirements under Chauncy read:
"When
any Scholler is able to read and understand fully Virgil or
any such ordinary Classical authors, and can readily make and
sneake or write true Latin in prose and hath Skill in making
verse, and is competently grounded in the Greeke Language; so
he be able to Construe and Grammatically to resolve ordinary
Greeke, as in the Greek Testament, Isocrates, and the minor
poets, or such like, havin ; withall meet Testimony of his
towardlinesse, he shell be capable of his admission into the
Colledge. .
(Harvard College R ecords, in Col. Soc. of Mass.,
Pubs. [Boston, 19253# XXXI# 329; and sec Morison, Harvard Col­
lege, I, 81, 169, and Mag n a l l a . II, 12).
11,1 "Gexi. Letter, " xiii.
The details of such an examination
are given by Sewall on the occasion of the entrance into H a r ­
vard- of his son Joseph.
See the Diary. II, 80-81, entries f
June 23 and July 5, 1703.

Chapter Two
%

HARVARD COLLEG-E AND IIHELLECTUAL LIFE
Sever1’! years before Sewa.ll arrived a.t Cambrid.ge the
t e n a n . college le d been described fis be in'" in a

"scltua-

tlon • • • very pleasant, at the end of a spacious 'lain,
no re like a bowling green, then a. Y/’llderness, neer a. fair
navigrble river, environed with many Neighbouring Towns • • •
so near,

that their houses joyn with her suburbs,

• • •

The building which the college occupied when Sewall was in
attendance and which in 1643 had been Judged
end comely" having

"very fairs

%. spacious H' 11 (where they daily meet

at Commons, Lectures, Exercises)

. • • a large Library

v:ith some Bookes • • • [andj Chambers and studies • • •
2
fitted for, and possessed by the st u d e n t s , M was of timber
^nd evidently of poor construction,
graduation it had

"fallen doune, a part of it, and thereby

rendered not habitable,
Iiad begun in 1672,

for soon after Sewall*s

Y/ork on the so-called ITew College

", , , a fair pile of brick building

"^Edward Johnson, V/onder Norkln;; Providence of Sions
Saviour in Nev.’ En gland (London. 1654) , p. 164,
2
Harvard R e c o r d s , I, lxxlii, citing N e w England* s First
Fruits (1643), pp, 12-13,
Edward Johnson," pp. 164-165,
referred to its "fair Hall, comfort-’bio studies and a good
Libra.ry, "
2
Edward Randolph's "Narrative" of 1676, in Thomas Hutchin­
son, A Collection of Original Pane rs( Bos ton. 1767} . r>- 501 :
Hass. Archives. L V I I I , 32,

-36

covarsd rlt': tiles, " It v;?.s not yet completed ’ lien Sewp.ll
to ;li

is seccnu de cree in 1674.

the small brick Indian College,

A

A third structure was
from which a single Indian

student had been successfully graduated and which now contained the colony1s only printing press*
During Sewa.ll's residence (1667-74)

the college load

entered on sorry days*

The average graduating class in the
6
decade from 1661 to 1670 was seven, and though, Sewall en­
tered with what his bed-mate Edward Taylor described as

"a

treat and yet clvill class" (eleven being graduated in 1671)
the resurgence was only temporary.

During the years that

he remained for his second degree there were not more than
Q
twenty-five other students,
and the condition of the college
was described as

"a 1 anguishing and decaying" one,® the

“Hutchinson, Papers, p. 501*
Sewall saw it raised a
we eh before he took his leavu in August of 1674 (Dl'~ r y , I, 5,
entry for August 7).
In the winter of 1672 Savall, at home
in Newbury for a rest at the demand of his father, noted that
«the College Interest • • • Is remissly promoved h e r e "(LetterBo o k . I, 18, letter dated Ilarch 16, 1671/2),
In this year
forty— four towns, of which Newbury was one, contributed better
than two thousand pounds for the erection of the new building
(11 i d . , p. 20, editors* note)*
It was not completed until
1682, a n d Randolph attributes the delay to "the late Indian
warre, " by which, of course, he refers to the colony’s bloody
and e::hr us ting stru ;gle with the forces of King Philip.
According to Isaiah Thomas, History of Printing in A m eri­
ca (V/oroester, Hass,, 1810), pp. 84-85, John t'oster was oermltted to set up his press in Boston In 1674.
c*

r»

Hagnalia , II, 13,
'Thomas J* V/ertenbaker, The
Puritan Oligarchy (New York, 1947), p. 150*
3
llorlson, Harvard College. II, 391.
9

Hass* R e c o r d s , V, 20; Llorlson, Harvard College, II, 406-

-37

buildings

"ruinous and almost Irreparable#

In the year

after he took his Master* s degree there were but three stu­
dents left In Cambridge#
llorlson concludes,

"Harvard College, " as Professor

"had reached her nadir#

She could sink

no lower and yet remain alive#
The causes of this sad and decaying condition of the
college are not clear#

Sewall night presumably have given

us some insight into the natter,
ly to do so#

but he falls almost entire'

A f ter going home from college in 1674, when

he load completed the prescribed seven years of study, he
was p*sked by the General Court to return to give his views
■^llorlson, Harvard College. II, 391, citing a. letter to
the Board of Overseers to Governor Bellingham#
li
“ Ibid,, pp. 406-407,
A t the end of the decade, v;hen
attendance was bach to approximately what it was during
Sewall*s graduate years, the Dutch visitor, Jaspar Danckaerts,
set down in his Journal (Journal of Jr.spar Danckaerts. ed#
Bartlett B. James and J. Franklin Jameson, in O r i g . N a r r # of
Am. H i s t ., ed. J. Franklin Jameson [New York, 1 9 1 3 J, p. 2 6 B J
a description of his experience at the college which, though
quite obviously from a prejudlc £3Cl. en, is most revealing#
After a drive to Cambridge over % very pleasant road, " he
and his companion arrived at the college "expecting to see
something unusual " in an institution which was the only one
of its kind in America.
They were disappointed#
Finally,
after wandering about in the darkness and silence of the
summer evening, they heard what Danckaerts* companion guessed
was a disputation#
'We entered, " says Danckaerts, "and wemt
upstairs, when a person met us, and requested us to walk in,
v.'hlch we did#
We found there eight or ten young fellows,
sitting around, smoking tobacco, with the smoke of which the
room was so full, that you could hardly see; and the whole
house smelt so strong of it that when I was going upstairs
I said, *It certainly must be also a tavern.1 " Finding the
students unable to carry on a conversation in Dutch, French,
or Latin, the visitors proceeded in the little English they
could command and learned that the college was without pro­
fessors because "there was not enough money to support one. "
Instead, the teaching was entirely in the hands of such

-38-

on the

"lowness of the Colledge, " and on October 16 he notes

having spoken to the effect that the causes were
as v/ell as Internal.

tlore he does not say.

"external
A suggestion

of what he had In mind Is in a n observation he made two years
earlier thrt the people of Newbury seemed to him to

give no

more attention to pleas of the college for support than
pines on the beach.

"the

Frontier conditions, we surmise, were

havin'.' their customary effects, v;lth the result that the
children of the founders did not feel quite the same press­
ing concern as their fathers lest the pulpits be occupied by
an illiterate ministry when living ministers should
the dust. "
volved,

The

"lie in

"internal causes " to which Sewall refers in­

strangely enough, what rope- rs to have been a stu­

dent rebellion.

Charles Chauncy had died at the end of 1671,

ana Leonard Hoar,

first of Harvard's home-grown presidents,

was Inaugurated on September 10, 1672.
worthy man, he

O-enerally reputed a

"fell under the displeasure of some that made

a figure in the neighbourhood, " as Cotton Mat h e r says, a nd
"the young men in the Colledge took advantage therefrom, to
ruine his reputation, as far as they were able.

. . .

The

young plants turned cud-weeds, and, with great violations of
college fellows a.s Sewall had recently been*
The library
they found to be "nothing particular, " an d after lookingground a bit more they accepted a glass of wine a n d left.
The visit was made on July 9, 1630^ a Tuesday.
1 2P l a r y .I. 5-6.
15Letter- B o o k . I, 18, letter to Daniel Gookln (?) dated
1.1arc h 16, 1671/2.

the fifth Commandment,

set themselves to travestle rhatevcr

he did and said, a n d aggravate every thing i.i his behaviour
disagreeable to them, with a design to make him odious;

• • •

several very good m e n did unhappily countenance the u n g ov—
erned youths in their ungovernableness.

Things finally

came to such a pass that student? began leaving the college,
mb

the unhappy Doctor resigned in the spring of 1675.

N ow

the years 1672 to 1674 were the years in w h i c h Sewall stayed
on as a teaching- fellow, and v:e should expect some light on
this curious situation when he begins the diary in 1674, but
again there is only a suggestion,

the k i n d of oblique refer­

ence to a troublesome state of human affairs which the reader
of the diary learns to recognize as a Sewall characteristic.
CJune

5, 1674, Urlan Oakes, pastor of the Cambridge church

and president of the college a f t e r Hoar*s retirement,
Sev'F.ll to understand
as formerly,

gave

Hthr t though he respected and l o ved me

yet he desired th-t I would refrain coming to

his house, a n d tk~-t he did it se d e f e n d e n d o . least he should
be mistrusted to discourage and dissettle me. **^®

O t her hint

of Sera 11* s partlclpatlon in the affair there is none.
During S e w a l l 1s undergraduate years,

however,

the re­

doubtable Chauncy was still President, a fact which allows us
^•^ M a g nalla . II, 15.
^5 D i a r y . I, 3.
Urlan
Oakes is described by Cotton Mather
as a good m a n who *U.ike a full ear of corn . . . stoop*d with
a most profound humility ** and who as a preacher was "an Orphe­
us that would have drawn the very stones to d i s c i p l i n e " (Mag—
na lla. II, 116)•

-40-

to estimate the situation prior to 1671 (the year in which
he preached his last comrnencement sermon)^® in rather more
impressive terms*

Like Parker of Newbury, he was a man of

large learning, particularly in Oriental languages, and
17
especially in Hebrew,
a fact which possibly accounts for
Sewall*s fondness for study of the Old Testament scriptures
"in their insplr*d Originals."^8 Like Parker also, he was
indomitable in the pursuit of his ministerial calling, push­
ing through the snows of a Cambridge winter when past eighty
and telling- the concerned students accompanying him how glad
he would be if he might die in the pulpit*

The similar po­

sitions which these two teachers of Sewall occupied in his
regard is suggested in the fact that when he was returning
from England in 1689 and conceived that

"there wanted not

Some Probability of my being beholding to the sea for a burl­
ing place, " he took particular thought of

"the kind obliga­

tions of Mr. Thomas Parker, and Mr. Charles Chauncy • « •
those Nobly Learned and Godly men, " and decided to leave
OA
some books in their memory.
Cotton Mather*s lines on Chaunrnalla, I, 470*
17

Ibid.. p* 465.
Mather describes him as "Incomparably
well skilled in all the learned languages, especially in the
Oriental, and eminently In the Hebrew. * . .
Edward Ran­
dolph remarked in 1676 that at Harvard "they teach Hebrew
before they well understand Latin" (Hutchinson, P a p e r s . 501).
18
Boston News-Letter. Issue for January 8, 1730.
See
Sewall's obituary.
19M a g n a l i a . I, 470.
20

~
Letter—B ook, I, 93, letter to Israel Chauncy dated Dece

cy in the role of college president help us to understand
the significance of Sewall*s association with hln:
learnedly, ** says Mather,

'How

"he • « • conveyed all the liberal

erts unto those who'eat at his feet*; how wittily he moder­
ated their disputations and other exercises; how constantly
he expounded the Scriptures to the College-Hall; how fluently
he expressed himself unto them, with Latin of a Terrentlan
phrase,

in all his discourses; a n d how carefully he inspec­

ted their manners « • • will never be forgotten by many of
our most worthy men, who were made such m en by their education
-21 _
under him, • • • **
In our estimate of the man it is interest*
ing to note that an heretical belief to which he was greatly
devoted was that sprinkling of an Infant at baptism was in22
sufficient, t}r t it should, rs.ther, ,fbe washed all over, **
If in this study the reader is occasionally astonished at
Sewall*s concern for what must seem to him hopelessly trivial
matters of belief, he should remember that it was with Just
such things that the best minds in the colony were continually
ber 25, 1689: "Now God having brought me safely hether into the
affectionate Embraces of my Dear friends and Relations, I
could not give
self a Satisfactory reason why I might not
become my own executor in expressing that Gratitude which I
intended should have been done after my decease,
I therefore
Intreat your acceptance of Pool[e]s Latin Synoo[s]is in five
books.
They are at second hand yet I hope Legible, ** See the
Diary. I, 282, entry for November 20, 1689, for what amounts
to a last will and testament, of which this is but one provi­
sion,
^ M a g n a l l a . I, 468,
22

See Josiah Quincy, History of Harvard Universitv (Boston.
1360), I, 47.

-42-

engaged.

He should, also remember tijat in the great game of

“seems " It often hapoens that the vital concern of one age
is apparent nonsense to the next.

To the Puritan* nothing*

was small in his service of the G-r&at King* of Heaven.

’Vhat

now may seem no more than a theological quiddity may have
been to him,

therefore, a mat t e r of awful and pressing moment

involving nothing less than the question of whether a m an
would be saved or eternally damned#
A f ter a short oral examination in which he satisfied
Chauncy of his qualifications for admission,

the fifteen-year

old Sewall obtained a copy of the college lav/s, probably by
transcribing; them himself, which the president and one of the
fellows then signed as evidence of his entrance into the college*

Under these laws he agreed, among other things, to

board at commons, be diligent,

speak in public eight times

during his freshman year, be present twice a week at the pub­
lic debates, keep good company, leave tov/n only with permis­
sion of the president or a tutor, stay out of taverns, avoid
“rich and showy clothing, " not go out of the yard
his gown, coat,

or cloak, M and

“unless in

"abstain from dice, cards and

every species of gaming for money. 1,24

His hair was cut in

conformity with the college rule against the

"wearing of long

haire after the manner of Russians and barbarous Indians, "
a practice regarded as a
23

"thing uncivil a n d unmanly whereby

See Morlson, H arvard College, I, 81.

^Magnfil l a , II, 25-25.

nen do deforme themselves • • • and corrupt good manners* "£5
One of the few thin ,s than the alary tells us of S e w a l l1s
life at college (It does not begin until December of 1675,
me. he left the following August) Is that Goodman 3arret
^0
trimmed his hair.^
Apparently not all of his fellow stu­
dents were thus willing to conform,

for in 1672 the citizens

of Roxbury, led by John Eliot,
'lust” for Ion ; hair which

declared their outrage at the
27
"brake out at the Colledg.”

This natter of hair dress became, e.s we srnll later see, a
natter of life-long concern.
Assigned a tutor a n d a place In the L ong Chamber where
he would sleep and keep his small chest of personal belongiigp,
he began his life as a college freshman, which,

since he was

not a. fellow-commoner, meant that outside of study hours he
would be compelled to act as

"a kind of Servitor • • • to the
29
whole College • • • to go of Errands & c . "
On a typical day
he would make his appearance In College Hall for morning
50
prayers at six.
These would be led by the indefatigable
^ Harvard Re cords, I, 57-58, 197-198.
26Diary. I, 2, 4, entries for M a rch 25, 1675/4 and July 6,
1674.
27
Morlson, Harvard College. I, 85.
28
Ibid. Morlson conjectures that the Long Chamber served
as a freshman dormitory.
On August 16, 1705, Sewall brought
his son Joseph to Cambridge to enter.
The boy had "only his
little Trunk . . . w ith a few Books and L i n e n ” (D i a r y , II, 87).
on

Daniel Neal, The History of New England (London. 1720).
I, 185.
---5Q Harvard R e c o r d s , III, 552; llorlson, Harvard College. I,

28

ChP-uncy, who had himself been up since four and lira, already
31
spent an hour in private devotions.
Here, in addition to
a short prayer to begin with and a longer one to close,

there

v?as 0X230 sit ion by Chauncy of a chapter from the Old Testament
accompanied by sight translations of the text, each scholar
in turn, from He brer into G-reek, unless he were a f re simian,
in v’hich case the translation would bo from English into
32
Greek.
In accomplishin : this it would not be unheard of were
33
he to use a crib, a joractice called "hoguelng. "
After prayers came
meals of the day.
as

'taornln g bever, " the first of four

Unlike dinner and svroper, which were consumed

"commons, " it and

A f t e r n o o n bever, " were

buttery h- ten and consumed in chambers or,
in the yard.

The staple items for such

"sized out " at the

in pleasant weather,

"slzings" were bread

and beer bought for a ha'penny,

though for another farthing
34
or two cheese and butter were sometimes available.
Once,

in a notable entry,

Sewall records havln ; spent three pennies

for nilk.35
31

Uagnfilla, I, 469.
In this as in other things, as Mather
remarks, he "set the scholars an example of diligence hardly
to be followed. "
32
Ibid. ; Harvard Records, III, 352-353; Horison, Harvard
College, I, 189, 195.
33lIorison, Harvard College, I, 195.
^ Ibld.. pp. 90-91.
The rules of Chauncy's administration,
the so-called Chaunceian Code, make no provision for afternoon
bever, but since dinner was at eleven and supper at seven thir­
ty, Morison assumes that sons provision for afternoon refresh­
ment was made.
35P i e r y , I, 3, entry for April 10, 1674.

-45-

Glasses net; froa sight to eleven,
the Hall, when beef (or veal,

or lamb,

added to the Inevitable bread and beer.

followed by dinner In
or pork, or mutton) was
Th? hours from two to

f:ur were devoted to public disputations moderated by Chauncy
or one of the teaching fellows and,

021

Friday,

declamations.

Evening prayers at five were like those of the mornImp except
th- t the chapter expounded would t»his time be from the New
rrther than the Old Testament.

Supper was at seven thirty,

rnd at nine the day ended except for seniors and fellows, who
36
mi ;hv remain up until eleven.
This pattern of early-to-bed^nd-early-to-rise,

with scant permissible recreation, was prob­

ably, we should remind ourselves, more stringent in theory than
in fact.

Sewall allowed himself at least the pleasure of a pip

and we are pleased to learn that his friend Gookln missed hear­
ing Sir Thacher commonplace because he was
his b r o t h e r s . A

"gone a fishing with

few days before this, however,

he entered in

his diary a description of an episode which carries grimmer sug­
gestions.

A Thomas Sargeant,

"being convicted of speaking

blasphemous words concerning the H. J-. , " it was ordered that
he be

"publickly whipped before all the Scholars . . .

ded as to taking his degree . . .
Hall uncovered at meals,
36

suspen­

sit alone by himself in the

during the pleasure of the President

llorlson, H arvard College. I, 96, 94, 109; Maprnalla. I.
469, and II, 12.
37
Diary. I, 3, entry for April 15, 1674.
38
Ibid.,p. 4, entry for July 1, 1674.

-46-

r na Fellov.'s "Sewall being present as onej,

and be In all things

obedient • • • or else be finally expelled.

• • •"

The v,’hip­

ping wa.s done In the library before the assembled students.
The culprit knelt down

"and the Instrument Goodman Hely at­

tended the President* s word as to the performance of his part
in the rork.

Prayer was had before and after by the President.*

The Harvard curriculum in Sewall1s day,

2

except for a ten­

dency to emphasize the study of Oriental languages and to slight
somewhat the study of natural philosophy, was, as llorlson repeated­
ly observes, essentially what the student wo Id have experienced
40
in England.
The Chaunceian Code, drawn up in 1655 and in ef­
fect until 1636, read in part as follows?

"In the first year©

after admission for foure dayes of the weeke all Students shall
bee exercised in the Study of the Greeke and Hebrew Tongues,
onely b e g i n n i n ; Logicke in the H o m i n y towardes the latter end
of the yeare unless the Tutor shall see Cause by reason of
their ripenesse in the Languages to read Logicke sooner.

Also

they shall spend the second yeare in Logicke with the exercise of
the fonner Languages, and the third year in principles of Ethickes and the fourth in metaphlslks and Mathematicks still carryon their former studyes of the weeke for Rhetoricke, Oratory
and Divinity."^*In addition, as already mentioned,
39
40

there were

Diary . I, 4, entry for June 15, 1674.
llorlson, Harvard College, Vol. I, chap. 5.

^ Harvr rd R e c o r d s . Ill, 333-634; Morlson, Harvard College.
I, 144-145; Quincy, History of Harvard. I, 190-191.

the periodic disputations,

twice a week for undergraduates,

declamations once ever;' two months, and the twice— da iiy
42
eaposltion of Holy Scripture.
A t the end of four years
the student stood for his degree by makin ; himself available
ir. Hall at a p p ointed iiours during a period of three weeks
for

’Vis i t a t i o n " by all that had a n l n d to

l:is Skill in those Languages and Sciences,
to be master of, " a procedure known as
stices.

"eo-anlne into
timt he pretends

"the Sitting of Sol­

If it were evident that he could

enplair* the Holy Scriptures,
ment, " and was

"logically . . .

b oth of the Old and New Testa­

"thoroughly acquainted v.-ith the principles of

natural and moral philosophy, " a n d was "blameless in life and
ch a r a c t e r , " he p r o ceeded to commencement,
his ability as a respondent
44
a chosen thesis.

where he displayed

in formal disputation by upholding

As a student staying on for the II. A.
that Sewall was preparing fjr the ministry.

it was recognized
Paylng no tuition,

he received no regular Instruction but read divinity u nder the
45
direction of president Hoar.
Like the typical graduate stu­
dent of today,

he h e l p e d himself financially by obtaining ap46
polntment as a teaching fellow a n d found it necessary to borZ.2

* Harvard R e c o r d s . Ill, 555-554.

43Neal, H i s t o r y . I, 186.
44M a p n a l i a , u , 25.
45
Llorlson, Har v a r d C o l l e g e . I,
46
Harvard Records, I, 57, d27.
Chosen on November 5, 1675,
he was installed at a meeting of the Overseers three weeks
later.

-48-

row against pay day.

Uni lice the teachln ; fellow of today,

however, he occupied a position providing some percjulsites
and considerable dignity.
He could live, as Sev;all did, out48
side the college, was distinguished by the title of "31r, " and
was accorded respect by the town and colony authorities.
Sewall notes, for example,
by the

that he and Gookin were consulted

'Townsmen

of Cambridge 11 with regard to the s e a t i n ; of
49
studen:s at meeting and- were treated "very civilly."
Later

the two young men

"were invited and went to dinner with the
50
Magistrates in the Court Chamber, "
and after graduation, as
has already been noted,

the General Court consulted w ith him
51
•about the condition of the college.
Though the actual govern—
47

Diary. I, 3, entry for A p ril 17, 1674.
Two days earlier
Sewall ana his friend Daniel Gookin were ordered p aid 'te. years
Salary of their proportion out of Piscataqua-gift. . . .
Also
fifty shill: apiece due them in February last from Mr. Glover's
gift" (Harvard R e c o r d s . I, 223).
He had a^jparently been grant­
ed a scholarship while still an undergraduate, it being ordered
on October 4, 1669, that "Sewall he made a scholar of the house;
ana succeed Sir Eppes . . . in his scholarship" (Ibid.. I. 49.

211

).

At the time of the death of the Reverend Samuel Mather of
Windsor he wrote:
"There was the greater intimacy between us
because we boarded together at Fessenden's, where I have *seen
his Grand Father Mather bring a load of grain to pay for his
board" (Letter— B o o k . II, 263, letter to the Reverend Samuel
Mather in England, dated March 6, 1728/9). Again, at the death
of Thomas Fessenden: "God's distinguishing Goodness to me was
very Affecting, to see poor Cousin Thomas dying and dead in the
very Chamber and Lower Room where I lodg'd and Liv'd 2 years
(a great Sinner). . ." (Diary. Ill, 93, entry for July 20, 1716).
His brother John married Hannah Fessenden in October, 1674
(Ibid.. I, 5, editors' note).
49
D i ary. I, 2, entry for M a rch 24, 1673/4.
50 Ibid.. entry for April 7, 1674.
5-*-Ibld. , pp. 5-6, entries for October 13 and 16, 1674.

- 49-

men t of the college was in the hands of the President and
Board of Overseers, he shared with the President the daycp
to-day responsibilities of instruction and discipline.
As a matter of fact, the tutors were the only regular instruc­
tors there were, it being assumed that they were capable, as
Cotton Mather remarks,
all the liberal arts.
were

of lea dint the undergraduates

Their instructions read that they

"to advance in all learning, divine and humane,

every student . . .

"through

each and

according to their several abilities; and

especially to take care that their conduct and manners be hon—
54
orable and without blame. "
The pedagogical result was not*
apparently, what we would consider fortunate.
for example,

Sewall notes,

tlv t in teaching a lesson in Heereboord,

the

standard physics text, he "went to the end, and then red it
-55
over from the beginning,
in which procedure he was follow56
lng standard practice.
^%Iorison, Harvard College. I, 15.
5°Uagnalla, II, 12.
54l'orison, Harvard College. I, 19.
55
Diary. I, 2, entry for December 5, 1673.
This is the first
entry in the diary and the single referen oe to his teaching du­
ties.
It is interesting to note in tills connection that though
Heereboord taught the new physics, Sewall as late as 1714 remarked
on hearing Cotton Mather speak of the sun being the center of
the solar system that he considered it "inconvenient to assert
such p r o b l e m s . " This, says Professor Miller, New England Mind:
the Seventeenth Century (New York, 1939), p. 221* rtie the n e a r ­
est thing to opposition [to the teaching of the new science] to
be found in the annals of early New England. "
56
See Morlson, Harvard College. I, 166.

In addition to his teaching duties, he was ordered
by the Corporation on M a r c h 1, 1674, to

,rbe from hence
56
forth the keeper of the Colledg-Llbrary. *
Whether he

ras then in charge of "nothin; in particular" (Danckaerts1
57
phrase) or of something "handsome" (the word of a visiting
English scholar, Samuel Lee) 5^e can only guess.

Of one

thing we may feel sure, that its facilities were far better
suited to the pursuit of divine than of secular studies.5®
Since it had had no keeper since Solomon Stoddard (grandfin
father of Jonathan Edwards) seven years earlier,
we are
not surprised to learn that in the year Sev/all took the Job
President Hoar made a survey, found books missing, and or­
dered the new keeper to search them out.5^*
Requirements for the M. A. under the Cbaunceian Code,
which, as we have already noted, remained in effect during
Sewall * s graduate years under Hoar,

read as follov?s:

^ H a r v a r d R e c o r d s , I, 58, 223.
57
Journal. p. 266.
58
Morlson, Harvard College. I, 296. Lee*£ visit was in
1690.
59
See Palfrey, IV, 384, note 1, for a discussion of the
catalogue of the college library which appeared in 1723.
Mot
only were the works of the secular writers of Queen Anne*s time
absent, but Shakespeare and Milton were quite recent acquisi­
tions.
GO
A. C. Potter and Charles K. Bolton, The Librarians o f
Harvard College, 1667-1877, Harvard University Library, Biblio­
graphical Contributions, No. 52 (Cambridge, 1897), p. 3.
63*See Morlson, Harvard College. I, 287-288.

-51-

’.7hat Bachelours soever shall present unto the President
a written Synopsis,

or Compendium of Loglcke, Natural

Philosophy, Arlthmeticke,

Geometry or Astronomy within

a weeke of the Summer Solstace in the third year after
taking his first degree (which Synopsis shall be kept in
the Coll edge Library) and shall bee reads'- to defend his
posltio :s, and be Skilfull in the Orlglnall Tongues as
aforesayd, having Staid three yeares after his first
degree, and herein thrice problemed,

twice declaymed,

and once made a Common place or else some answerable
exercise in the Studyes that he is most Conversant in and
remayning of a blameless Conversation, at any publlque
Act having the approbation of the Overseers and the Presi­
dent of the Colledge,

shall bee Capable of his Second
^p
degree, viz to be Master of Arts*
62Harvard Rec o r d s . Ill, 335; Llagnalio , II, 25; Morlson,
Harvard College. I, 148*
There were, in other words, no course requirements*
The
"staid three years " did not mean residence, except for a fellow
of the college like Sewall, but only "wait three years# " The
thesis requirement was handled in perfunctory fashion, and the
somewhat formidable sounding "Synopsis, or Compendium" was
little more than a useable outline and notes for some one sub­
ject which would provide freshmen with a ’Worth-West Passage "
to knowledge of the kind the Puritans liked so well# (See Mil­
ler, pp. 102-103.
The phrase quoted is Cotton M a t h e r ’s, ap­
plied to a more pretentious compendium of Johann Alsted called
Snc.vclooaedla Sclentiarum O m n i u m , which in its four folio vol­
umes makes a circuit of everything in the heavens above and
earth beneath#
Another favorite author was BartholomHus Keckerraann, who turned out "systems" for all arts and sciences# To
neither of these, however, does Sewall make any reference.) The
"thrice problemed" refers to logical expositions of philosophi­
cal questions, and to "commonplace" was* to deliver a* brief ser­
mon in Hall, the term being derived from the Puritan passion for
o r anizln^ nic. ueri&l under convenient headings o r common places
(see .. i l l e r , pp. 96, 102—105).
Sewall, for example, kept a

In the days before ills graduation in the summer of 1674
Sewall performed his "comnonplace " to a disappointing auai63
ence of six
and worked up a thesis on the subject, appropri­
ate to the divinity student, of

“Whether

both sin and its punishment? 11 handled,
ana stated as

original

S ln be

of course, In Latin

g/
“A n Peccatum Origlnale sit & Peccatum & Poena? 0

Commencement was one of the few Important social occasions for
the colony, and for it persons of hlKh and low degree made the
65
trip to Cambridge, as Sewall himself often did in later years.
The nature of the occasion nay be seen in his description of
one he attended on July 1, 1685:
there were
brew . . .
an Oration,

“Besides D i s p u t e s , M he writes,

“four orations, One Latin . . .

two Greek, one He­

and Mr. President after giving the Degrees made
In Praise of Academical Studies and Degrees, He­

brew Tongue. . . .

G o v e m o u r there. . . .

After Diner the

third part of the 103 Psalm was sung in the H a l l . "

His

feelings at his own Commencement were, we may suppose, like
those he described when he attended that of his son Joseph
commonplace book between 1677 and 1686 where he arranged his
reading under such heads as "De Infantlous, " "De O r a t i o n e , M
"De Sabbato, 11 "De Paulo Apostolo, " "De Honore, " "De Obedientia, "
"De Tempore, " "De Resurrectione mortuorum, " "De Conselatione, "
etc. (Exceot as otherwise indicated the material in this note
is from Llorlson, Harvard Col 1 er;e . I, 143-150, 155, 159-161.)
65
D iary, I, 4, entry for July 10.
fZ/l

“John Lan don Sibley, Blog. Sketches of Graduates of Harvard
University (Cambridge, 1873), II, 345.
65
See Llagnalla, II, lo.

(at; which, lie says, he

"could not; hear one word while the

decrees were g i v i n g ") many years later.

He was

lest <in his presentation Joseph might fail;
him and he managed . . .

very well, " ^

sult, we may again suppose,

"concern'd"

^but God helped

in which happy re­

the father saw a repetition of

his ov;n experience some thirty years before.

There was at

least one person in the audience who was impressed with
Sewall*s performance at that time, namely sixteen-year old
Hannah Hull, daughter of John Hull, wealtliy Boston merchant
and master of the colonial mint •

A relative of the Hoars,

she had been invited to Cambridge for a visit over commence­
ment.

"She saw me when I took my Degree, “ says Sewall,

set her affection on me,
after our marriage.

"and

though I knew nothing of it till

. . . ,,6S
II

Thus after spending

"seven long years . . .

in studious

toil" in satisfaction, as Mather rema.rks, of the Horatlan
prp

D i a r y , II, 190,
68

entry for July 2, 1707.

"Gen. Letter, " xlll.
Vernon Louis Parrington, The Colo­
nial M i n d . 1620-1800 (New York, 1927), p. 90, remarks of
Sewall *s m a r r i a g e : "V7ith excellent thrift he fixed his atten­
tions upon the only child of a wealthy merchant, the richest
heirocs in the colony; no penniless 'wRitinr: woman* for
Samuel Sewall, such as had contented the unworldly Thomas
Hooker.
He understood how desirable it is to put money in
one's purse; so he made a shrewd alliance. . . . "
This is
critical deduction with a vengeance, in line with Parring­
ton' s somewhat casual disparagement of Sewall as a kindly,
small-minded representative of the school of rise and thrive.
His essay contains m uch sharp a n d valuable insight, but in
this instance at least (and it is representative of m u c h of
the tone of the piece) what we get is not fact tout merely an
illustration of the writer's critical inclination.

-54-

character of an artist,
P re s id e n t

words:

th e

Sewall received iron t h e

Hoar the cerenonir 1 b o o h a.r.«~ h e a r d

pronounce

"Admit uo te a d Secundum Grnc.um in Articus, pro

Acadeaiarnvi in A n :11a . . . "—

ro re

h im

han.s of

ond decree in Arts,

accorain ; to t h e

"I admit you to the sec­
custom of t h e

English

Universities; and I deliver to you ttis booh, with the privi­
leges

of practisin" a profession, whenever you shall be
70
called on to do so. "
The profession of the twenty-two

year old jradunte was to be, as he thought,
and partially for tl.ls reason, no doubt,

the ministry,

the effect of his

Harvard years as we see them reflected in his later intellec71
tual Interests was overwhelmingly theological.
Indeed,
69
70

I.Iar-nal l a . II, 15.
Ibi d . and Neal,

I, 186.

^ I t is unnecessary her to enter the controversy concern­
ing the degree to w h i c h the curriculum was Intended to p e r ­
petuate a literate ministry a n d the degree to which it was
intended to offer a liberal education.
James Truslow Adams*
Provincial S o c i e t y . 1690-1765 (New York, 1927), p. 135, would
have it that the school was from the beginning simply 'te trainring school for the ministry, " a fact he feels is made suffi­
ciently clear in the number of its approximately five hundred
seventeenth century graduates that became ministers, Just
half (see Quincy, I, 190-191), a n d that "the course of study
had bee n designed for that end a n d must have been unsatisfac­
tory to those who a i m e d at a liberal education rather than a
mere preparation for clerical life. "
Morlson, H a r v a r d College.
I, 150, would see in the course of study, on the other hand,
*Viot a specialized course for Proteste.nt pastors,
but a Chris­
tian gentleman's education . . . offered to the youth of N ew
E n g l a n d . “ True, he says, it educated for the ministry, but the
Puritan concept of a n adequately trained minister was that he
be a liberally educated man. Miller, N e w England Mind. n. 76.
accepts what M o r l s o n says as "all very true, and the broad
alms of the founders indicate decisively that Puritans did not
reject the Intellectual heritage of their age.
Yet we may
question whether P r o f e s s o r M orlson has sufficiently emphasis

-55-

anyv.'here but In a community like seventeenth century Hoston
the avidity and predominance of his theolo ;ical interests
must have seemed singular for one whose main apparent occu­
pations in life were those of merchant, magistrate, and
Judge.

Even in the little New *7o rid Israel they were notable.

The arcana of scriptural prophecy, which are of about as much
concern to the modern mind as the riddle of the Sphinx, were
his special deli ht.

They are the found" tion of what he con­

sidered his most important intellectual effort, the earliermentioned Phaenomena quaedam Agocalyotlea. the thesis of which
is that

"America's N a m ? is to be seen fairly Recorded in the

Scriptures • • • that it stands fair for being made the Seat
of the Divine Metropolis [andj . . .

that the New-English
72
Planters were the Forerunners of the Kings of the East. "
Nothing so stirred his mind as what he called "bickerings "
ry'I

about such matters as "the slaying of the witnesses, "

"the

the unduestioned premise, that the advancement and perpetuation
of learning was one and the same with a succession of literate
ministers in the churches.
Other and more secular purposes
were present in the founding of the College only insofar as
in the Puritan mind there was no conflict between them and
the purposes of Christianity.
Certainly it is not correct to
hail the statement £of the foundersJ as a disinterested dedi­
cation to the pursuit of learning in the abstract. "
There is no question of what the college training was
for Sewall, who planned to be among the fifty per cent of
the college's graduates who entered the ministry.
It was
theological.
7?

73

"Dedication. "

E.g. , Dla-ry. I# 441, entry for December 19, 1696; ibid..
II, 99-100, entry for April 17, 1704; Letter-Book. I, 374,
memorandum of a letter to Samuel Moodey dated September 25.
1708.

-56-

ng

Drying up of the Apocalyptical Eupiirates, M'
"guesses • • .
73
about the Subject of the Fourth Vial, " and the "dispute about
the Fifth Seal."77
Other matters of lively interest to him, though not pro­
phetical, are similarly remote from present day concerns.

A

sufficient illustration of their character is the following
passage from a letter he wrote to his

"learned and worthy

Kinsman," the noted, and later notorious, Jeremiah Dumner,
75

78

Letter-Book, l o c • clt.

n -r

Phaenomena, p. 20.
77Diary, I, 453, entry for May 24, 1697.
The dispute on
this day was with Nicholas Noyes of Salem, the most constant
companion of his prophetical "bickerings. "
73
Letter-Book, I, 404, letter to Sir William Ashhurst dated
November 29, 1710.
This relative of Sewall* s merits separate
study, both for personal and intellectual Interest.
The ra­
tionalistic character of his trial sermon in Boston in 1704 on
the nature of the Sabbath shocked men like Sewall and he wa.s
not ordained. Several years later he became the colony* s agent
in England, from whence in 1716 there came reports of what
Sewall terms *taonstrous Crimes ** which he "discountenanced the
propagating of" (Letter-Book, II, 57, letter to Sir V/llliara
Ashhurst dated August 8, 1716).
Sewall, curious to say, re­
mained friendly despite what he knew of Dumr.ier* s ideas and
what others at least knew of his character.
The correspondence
between them lasted into bhe last years of Sewall*s life.
On
a copy of Dumner* s sermon on the Sabbath in the Massachusetts
Historical Society* s library there is a manuscript note which
reads in part as follows: "The author of this Sermon was em­
ployed many years as agent for the Massachusetts Province in
England.
In his latter days he grew a Libertine & keot a
Seraglio of Misses round him to whom he was lavish of his
favours.
Col. S._______ who was in England in 1738 went to
wait upon him at his Se^t in Plastow on a Sunday after Church
& found him with his Ladles sitting round a Table after dinner
drinking Raspberry Punch. As he entered the room he observed
a confusion in Mr. Dummer* s countenance & the G-irls fled out
of the Door like Sheep— almost over one another* s back" (see
the Letter-Book, I, 305, editors' note).
Sewall would not,
needless to say, have been friends with such a man were he in
Boston, and the spectacle of the two in friendly communicati©
through many years is something to contemplate.'

then studying for his doctorate at Leyden:
You will pleasure me if you send me word, when the Jev/s
observed their last Jubilee; and whether with them, a
Jubilee do not contain Fifty years*

A n d whether the

Jews in Holland and elsewhere doe begin their weekly
Sabbath in the Evening*

V/hat the condition and state

of Religion in Bohemia now is:

and how the Reformed

were treated at the talcing of Buda.

V/hether there be

pure churches and Learned Orthodox Ministers in the Dutch
Plantations in Asia; and the number of them*

A n d whether

the V baomadal Revolution was known and observed in the
East— Indies before Christianity entered there*

V/hat

Church there is at C«pe-bon-Sperance; and what the Fami­
lies of French that were lately entertained there, and
what else of Christianity there nay be yet surviving in
other parts of Africa,

Whether the Religion of the Famous

Synod of Dort is now professed in Holland.
Ministers are silent at Funerals;

‘Whether the

If any Cross be made

in Baotisme; and what they think of its being retained in
79
England*
Such matters,we are apt to conclude, are the trivial occupa­
tions of a provincial Puritan mind*®®

But as we must repeatedly

An appreciative but somewhat vague essay on Dummer is in Moses
Coit Tyler, A History of American Literature (New York, 1897),
Vol. II, chap. 13, sec. 6* Tyler does not recognize the sig­
nificance of Dummer’s sermon on the nature of the Sabbath.
79
Letter-Book. I, £65-269, letter dated March 12, 1701/2*
There are many such passages in the letter-book.
For a good
example, somewhat less diverse, see ibid., pp. £16-217, lett
to Nathaniel Kigylnson dated November 18, 1699.
®®See,

for example, Farrington, p. 93.

-58—

remark lu the course of this study,

such a Judgment merely

indicates what seems trivial to us; It characterises us, not
the things themselves.

They weren*t trivial to Sewall.

As

he said to Dumner at the time of his, to Sewall, objectionably
rationalistic sermon on the nn.ture of the Sabbath,
ever li h t some mry na>e of these things,
very great Consequence.

.

.

.

". • • how­

to me they are of

Furthermore, a thing may

appear trivial to us only because we are not sufficiently
aware of its historic? 1 context.

Sewn.11' s interest in the

"Hebaomadal Revolution, " for example, may very well
us to smile and is an excellent case in point.

cause

A n apparently

trivial matter by itself, its implications were such as to
make it oulte otherwise.

The New England Puritan had long

been Interested in demonstrating the rationality of that
"Hebdomadal Revolution, " but Jeremiah Duramer chose to make
its rationality the test of its divine institution.

The

resulting sermon was what Professor Wilier sees as

"one of

the most important marks of the 1transition*
England thought; it shows us, as it were,

in early New

the ’Age of Rea­

son* in the very act of emerging from the *Age of Faith*
• • • •

The matter was not trivial.

If the effects of Sewall*s education are a p a r e n t in
his relish for theological speculation,
apparent in his reading.
81
82

they are equally

It is impossible here to examine

Letter-Book, I, 302, letter dated October 19, 1704.
New England Mind, p. 200.

-59-

in detail the i n n m o r a c l e
lis te d

items which could quite easily be

to demonstrate the validity

the conclusion arrived

01

at by Evan A. Evans in his study of* Sewall' s reading*
was, he says,

It

"intense and almost e x c l u s i v l y religious.

"Dr* Calamy's Abridgment of* Hr* Baxter's Life,"
upon the H e b r e w s , all the 4 Eooks, "

"Dr. Ov/en

"Cosmologla Sacra by

Nehemioh irev:, " 'tPoroJles Synopsis critioorun in five volumes, "
H r . Henry's Annotations so far as he has
Commentaries,"

,'on, "

"All Calvin's

"Dr. Calamy of the ejected Ministers two Vol.,

and his Answer to him that insult ,d him, "

Hr.

Thomas Ridg-

ley's body of Divinity "— these are the sort of books,

to name

but a random few, which appear in overwhelming preponderance
in the long order lists
land.®4 These lists,

sent to his commercial agents in Eng­

however,

though doubtless not without sig­

nificance, are not a completely reliable index to Sewall's
reading, because the student was also the merchant,
we hear of

%

so that

parcell of Englands Duty, va.ich are 25, the

Sale of which in N.

S. I am to warrant.

It is obviously

"Literary References in New Englp.nd Diaries, 1700-1730, "
unpublished thesis at Harvard.
See Thomas G-oddar*d \7right,
Literary Culture In Early New England (New Haven, 1920), pp.
148, 150, 194, for some random notes.
84
See tue L e t t e r - B o o k , II, 58, letter to John Love dated
August 21, 1716; ibid., p. 53, letter to John Love dated March
SO, 1715/16; ibid. , I, 261, letuer to John Love dated October
11, 1700; ibid. , pp. 327-328, letter to John Love dated June
10, 1700 (one of the longer lists); ibid., II, 10-11, letter
to John Love dated January 7, 1712/13" (another of the longer
lists); ibid. , 253-254, letter to Samuel Storke dated October
2, 1728; ibid., p. 271, letter to Samuel Storke dated July
23, 1729.
85

D i ary. I, 284,

entry for July 13, 1689.

— 60

this we must remember v/hen we sea
mans Kalendar, "

entered

'IS-. Colsons Sea­

"6. V'akely's Compas rectifier,"

Epitome of Navigation" along with
divine attributes " and
order for his beloved
companied by one for a

"6. Norwoods

"Dr. Bates*s Harmony of the

"Flavels mental errors, " ^§r when an
’*Po[ojle*s Synopsis Criticorun" is ac­
"gross of Horn-books.

Assuming that he knew and approved of works he gave as
■gifts, such items offer a more reliable indication of his
reading tastes.

Here again the number is great and the char­

acter mainly theological.

Receivin

seven

"Folios of Dr*

Owen*s Life, " for example, he gave one to Mr. Appleton, at
whose house he was when he opened the bill of lading,
Increase Mather,
one to his

one to his

one to

"dear Son, Mr. Joseph Sewall, "

"loving 3on-in-Law LIr. William Cooper, " one to his

"dear Son Mr. Samuel Sewall of Broo^J-in, “ one to his

"dear and

only Brother Stephen Sewall esqr of Salem, " and one, as he
says,

"I keep for my self. "8Q A t a meetlnp of Superior Court

at Cambridge he distributed to his fellow Judges copies of
•Maroll's Martyrdom, Marbled."89

The speaker of the House

^ ^Letter-Book, I, 248, letter to John Love dated December
25, 1700.
B7
Ibid.,
letter to John Ive dated December 20, 1700.
Con­
cerning Poole v/e find, for example:
"This day I sent Joseph
my PoTojle's Synopsis Critlcorum.
I have enJoy*d them one and
thirty years; and now have the pleasure to bestow them on . . .
my son" (D i a r y , II, 418, entry for January 29, 1713/14).
88
D i a r y . Ill, 289, entry for June 24, 1721.
on

Ibid.,

II, 391, entry for July 28, 1713.

-61

of R e p r e s e n t a t i v e s r e c e i v e d
-vins
works

'Hr.

Colman' s Book of the Vir-

his pastor, M r . hlllard, "two volums of R i v e t s
91
E d w a r d Taylor, his college b e d mate, "Centurlae

Lla•;debur;-:&nses, "

a. chur c h history

his cousin Coffin at Dunstable,
teuch";^ a n d so on,

in t h i r t e e n v o l u m e s ; ® ^

"Ainsworth on the P e n t a -

indefinitely.

Occasionally, b y w a y
94
of secular relief, he m i g h t give a l m a n a c s
o r old copies
95
of the L o n d o n Gaz e t t e o r Boston N e w s - L e t t e r .
This was
the great day in N e w E n g l a n d of the p u b l i s h e d sermon,
copies of the w o r d s of,
ton,

for example,

d i s t r i b u t e d with a truly p r o d i g a l hand.

there were

b y letter,
sermons,

figs, almonds,
90
91
92

Ibid.,

on the circuit,

7,

II, 1,

Samuel V/lllard, he
A t home,

at court,

a l w a y s a n d e v e r ywhere

d r a w n from t h eir c o m p a n y of

a n d o t h e r p l e a s a n t e dibles

D i a r y . Ill,

and

the M a t h e r s a n d o f Cot­

of B i s h o p B u r n e t a n d his o w n pastor,

in council,

Qg

“Chockalett, "

in his saddle bags

ent r y f o r J u n e 3, 1714.
entry for J a n u a r y 17,

L e t t e r - B o o k , I, 76,

1699/1700.

l e t t e r d a t e d M a r c h 6, 1687/Q.

" ° D i a r y . II, 223, entry f o r J u l y 14, 1719.
94
See, f o r example, the L e t t e r — B o o k , I, 25, m e m o r a n d u m of
a- l e t t e r of M a r c h 6, 1635/6, a n d i b i d . . p. 324, l e t t e r to
John Willi a m s d a t e d J a n u a r y 18, 1705/6.
95
See the L e t t e r - B o o k , I, 16, editors* note.
S e w all n e v e r
identifies f u r t h e r t han " G a z e t t e " a n d " N e w s - L e t t e r . " He re­
ce ived " G a z e t t e s " f r o m his E n g l i s h agent, J o h n Ives.
See, f or
example, the L e t t e r - B o o k , I, 38, 204, l e t t e r s d a t e d S e p t e m b e r
4, 1686, a n d O c t o b e r 28, 1698.
96
See Wright, L i t e r a r y C u l t u r e . p. 161.

and in the capacious pockets of his outer garments and hope99
fully given to the world.
Perhaps the best single index of Sewall*s reading tastes
is vhe commonplace book which he kept between the years 1677
and 1 6 8 6 , which he gathered together extracts from his
reading under such headings as
"De Sabato, " and

"De Honore, " "De Obedientla,"

"De Conselatione• "

Here again the matter is

almost entirely theological, being drawn from such favorite
Puritan sources as Augustine,
kins, Barrow, and Helancthon.

Foxe,

Calvin, Owen, Pareus, Per­

Only one secular extract appears

some verses from Dryden*s Indian Enroerour.

which Sewall

%cci-

dentally met with" at Samuel Green's and read on his way to
101
Hog Island in Boston harbor on April 9, 1683.
But though
the matter is secular, Sewall* s interest in it is not.

V/hnt

interests him is the subject of Mexico anu the spread of the
102
Catholic faith in the Nev; World.
It is for this that he
Letter-Book, II, 127, memorandum for letter of December
22, 1720: ^ I 7 presented the Council and Deputies, and many
others with . . . sermons. . • . " Such an instance is but one
of many.
See, for example, ibid. , I, 253, letter to Edward Tay
lor of March, 1700/1; ibid. . p. 351, memorandum for August 19,
1797 ( '•&. Hundred" of a sermon for "Her Majesty* s Forces East­
ward"); ibid., p. 396, memorandum of letter to Edward Taylor
dated. June 27, 1710; ibid. . II, 3-4, letter to Edward Taylor
dated August 1, 1712; ibid., p. 30, letter to James Noyes dated
March 9, 1713/14; ibid., t>. 31, letter to Seth Shove dated July
14, 1714.
100The manuscript Is at the New York Historical Society.
101Under entry of this date.
See the discussion by R. W.
Dykema, "Samuel Sewall Reads John Dryden," American Literature.
XIV (May, 1942), 157-161.
in 2
J For the Mexican interest see the Phaenomena; Diary. II,
53, entry for February 19, 21, 1701/2; Letter-Book. I. 297.
letter to Henry Newman dated March 6, 1703/4.

-63-

sets down a part or the dialogue between Montezuma
conquering Cortes.

\nd the

I; Is for the seme reason that he sets

about riant night seem the secular projedt of getting

"a

3r.v tterlng of the Spanish ton u e . m100

Theological also was
104
ills pass In-; Interest In such languages as Turkish
and
Italian.105
10°Letter-Book, I, 123, memorandum, undated but with the
material for iL691. He has written to a Mr. Streuton to buy
him "Some Spanish Books; Barthol. de las Casas In Spanish,
t-nd In English too; Grammar end Dictionary, if to be had.
..."
Seven years later, April 2 5 , 1698, he wrote to Amster­
dam for the "Spanish Bible of Cypriano Valero" (Ibid., p. 199),
end in 1700 he received from Colonel Dudley the "surprising • . .
favour" of an "Old Testament in Spanish" (Ibid., p. 246, memo­
randum for November 20)• His study of this language of the
enemy was thus more than a passing whim.
1(14 Diary. I, 54, entry for January 30, 1676/7. He sent to
England for the "Turkish Alcoran . . . second H a n d . "
105Lettei— Book, I, 199, memorandum for April 25, 1698.
He
sent to fmsterdar.i for "Deodats Italian Bible. " Italian and
Turkish were apparently matters of passing curiosity.
Sewall*s linguistic acquirements were certainly respec­
table if not impressive.
See, for example, his discussion of
the ammendment of the word, "fold" to "flock" in John 10:16:
"And other sheep I have which are not of this fold. • • , " a
change that was made in the Revised Version of 1881 (LetterBook. I, 297-298, letter to Henry Newman dated March 6, 1703/4),
or his "Vindication of Ovid* s Beginning of his Metamorphosis "
which he wrote to Cotton Mather, who bad charged the poet with
"Stumbling, and blundering" (Letter-Book. I, 372-373, letter
dated September 27, 1708, and ibid.. p. 375, memorandum of
letter to Edward Taylor dated November 9, 1708).
Sewall* s own
Latin verse (for representative examples of which, see Diary.
II, 136, entry for August 24, 1705; ibid.. p. 137, entry for
September 10, 1705; ibid.. p. 140, entry for October 15, 1705;
ibid., p. 141, entry for October 28, 1705; ibid., p. 143,
entry for November 25, 1705), fhowever feeble, " as William
Everett has remarked, is metrically "irreproachable, accord­
ing to the rules of quantity as recognised by the scholars
of his time." He Judges that Sewall*s verses show a "very
sound classical scholarship" (Mass. Hist. Soc., Proc., ser. 2,
IV, 80).
Such scholarly concerns, however, occupied no central
place In his Interests.
They were rather, so to speak, of his
left hand: appropriate as respectable flourishes for one of
Harvard background and some intellectual pretension. Like the

-64<

To one not acquainted with the Puritans' attitude
toward their Intellectual heritage Sewall's fondness for
such heathenish writers as Hora oe, Ovid, and Vergil maycome as something of a surprise and be taken as an indi­
cation of undiluted secular Interest.
however, would be mistaken.

Such a conclusion,

The Puritan quite as much as

the schoolman of thirteenth century Paris held with the
idea of the unity of all knowledge.

If theology was queen,

then Just as surely were all other subjects of humane study
her legitimate servants.

Classical authors were rich sour­

ces of teleological and moral Instruction, and they were
studied with such alms in mind.
Ezekiel Cheever, his students he
train. "

As Cotton Mather said of
"from Virgil did to David

The stud,/ of G-reek and Roman authors might be secu­

lar in effect,

but the intent was quite o t h e r w i s e . ^ ®

Occasionally, however, but only very occasionally,

the

rea.der of Sewall will be surprised by the appearance of
lines for which plain enjoyment can be the only Justification.
Once, for example, on the way down to his Naragansett lands
to examine boundaries he stopped off for dinner and while the
meal was pre^a.ing

"read in Ben Johnson, a Folio:

tag ends of Latin quotations, which are frequent in his letters
and conspicuously rare in his diary, they are a mark of caste.
106See Miller, New England M i n d , pp. 76, 98, 105-107, for
a careful and elaborate demonstration of this point.

-65-

Wake, our Mirth begins to d y e :
Quicken It with Tunas and dine.
Raise your Notes; you*r o t; fie, fie,
This drowsiness is an 111 sign.
These are followed by a dozen more lines of a similarly non
107
moral character.
No point of "Improvement" is made and
none is apparent.

This, however,

is the single such Instance

In the half-century long diary record.

A single comparable

instance in his letters occurs when he encloses to Governor
Saltonstall of Connecticut the lines of Prior* s epitaph:
Monarchs, and Heraulds> by your leave
Here ly the bones of Matthew Prior;
The Son of Adam and of E v e :
Let Bourbon, or Nassau,

goe h i g h e r ! ^ ®

Why, unless it be simply the communication of something he
relished, he wanted the governor to see the lines is not
clear.

It is interesting to note that the lines were circu­

lating in New England before they appeared in published fora
at home, a fact which allows us to believe,
fessor Wright says,

that

if not,

as Pro­

"some of the colonists were in close

touch with English letters, " at least that the literary iso109
lation of the Puritan settlement was not complete.
107

Diary, II, 167-168,

entry for September 16, 1706.

1Q^Le t te r- Bo o k , II, letter dated January 15, 1721/2.
1Q9Llterar.v Culture, p. 154. The lines were not published
until after Prior died in September of 1721 and Sewall quotes
them in January of 1721/2.

-66-

A n interesting a n d more extensive evidence of* s e cular
poetic Interest Is c o n t a i n e d In S e w a l l 1 s me m o r a n d u m book,
where,

In a d d i t i o n to the usual pious a n d memorial

"tributes

of* tears " of* the k i n a that he him s e l f turned out on various
funereal o c c a s i o n s , h e

set d o w n others

for w h i c h the

reader of the diary Is scarcely prepared.
for example,

Is a

One of these,

'(Letter w r i t t e n from a young m a n In the

Country fo a B o o n Companion In the City concerning a M o u r n ­
ing Cloak; A n d his c o n ceited A n s w e r t h e r e u n t o , f o u r
lines of w h ic h read:
You say that I shall Smart for the Cloak
Tho I care not a fart for the

Cloak

I'le study the b l a c k A r t in the Cloak
R a t h e r than yeala [?J to part w ith the Cloak.
One stanza of a n o t h e r r e a d s :
There

Is but one a n d only one

a n d I am only he
That L o v e s

but one a n d only one
113
a n d thou art only She.
^ ^ H a r o l d Jantz, "The First Century of N e w England Verse, "
Am. Ant. Soc., P r o p . , ser. 2, L I I I (October, 1943), 219,
describes this Item as "one of the most Important single
collections of our early v e r s e . "
^
See chap. 5.
The selections of this k i n d are eighteen
in n u m ber with B e n j a m i n T o m p s o n contri b u t i n g the most.
Others are by Thomas Wally, W i l l i a m Adams, a n d Joshua Moody.
The authors of some are unidentified.
*

112P a r t 2, pp. 14-15.
113P art 2, p.

2«

-67-

Another,

entitled

"IVit a n d F o l l y In a Llap, " consists

s crambled lines of v e r s e f o l l o w e d b y the

of*

invitation,

Come try y o u r v;its for a m e r r y P o t
In h alf a n h o u r y o u read, it not,
In its true sence a s

it o u g h t to be,
114
T h e n l a y a w a g e r stake a n d see*
H o w e v e r damni n g of S ewall's critical
tions m a y be,

s t a ndards

such s elec­

they ce r t a i n l y a d d a f r e s h t o u c h to o u r p o r ­

trait of him*
III
In a d d i t i o n to e n c o u r a g i n g h i m in a t h e o l o g i c a l b e n t
of mind,

S e w a l l 1s years at H a r v a r d p r o v i d e d h i m w i t h a n

important center of a f f e c t i o n a n d a c t i o n t h r o u g h m o r e t han
half a century.

H e r e m a r k e d of Cambridge

h e r P o m p a n a Glory • • • c o u l d not be
Julius a n d A u g u s t u s
arid the concept of

that

so m u c h

'Slome, in all
• • • to her

• • • as that T own m u s t needs be to me,
"our class " was v e r y d e a r to him*

a v i sit to his home at Newbury,

During

whi l e still a student,

w r ote from his

" W i l d e r n e s s - C o n d i t l o n " a s k i n g his f r i e n d

iel Grookin (?)

to

ly a n a severally.
114

'Tlemember m e k i n d l y to a l l o u r Class;
. . .

“1 1 6 This was in M a r c h 1671/2.

he
Dan­
Joint­
Fif-

P a r t 2, p. 1.

115

L e t t e r - B o o k . I, 18,
HArc h 16, 1671/2*
1 1 6 I b i d . . p.

20.

l e t t e r to Daniel G o o k i n

(?)

dated

-63-

ty-five y^?.rs Ip.ter, a f t e r the funeral of Mr. T h a c h e r of
Milton,
sadly:

a n d but f o u r years befo r e his own death,

"I have now b e e n at the I n t erment of f our of m y

G l a s s - m a t e s C .3

First,

the Rev'd. Mr. 7/llliam A d a m s of Ded117
19, 1685.
Second, Mr. J o h n Bowles,

ham, Midweek, Augt.
at Roxbury, March,
Capt.
1725.

31, 1691.

Was one of his Bearers.

Samuel P h ips at Charles to v/n. . . .
Fourth,

the Rev* d Mr.

go to no more F u n e r a l s of m y
mine;

for the survlvers,

a n d the R e v e r e n d Mr.

Class-mates;

the R e v ' d Mr.

Ssmuel M a t h e r died,
a n d Chamberfellow,
bedridden and

Third,

Inter* d A u gt.

T h a c h e r at Milton.

9.

Nov; I can

n o r none be at

Samuel M a t h e r a t Windsor,

T a y l o r at Y.estfleld,

Miles off, a n d a r e en t i r e l y enfeebled.

117

he w r ote

[arej one H u n d r e d
In the n e x t y ear

l e a v i n g o nly Sewall a n d his

"dear Colleague,
119
a n d Bedfellowi " E d w a r d Taylor,
who was

'longing a n d w a i t i n g for his Dismission.

In

On tills o c c a s i o n Sewall n o tes that there were there "Four
of our Class, viz:
Mr. Thacher, BowlTeJs, Norton, Self.
I
took one Spell at c a r r y i n g h i m " (D i a r y . I, 95, entry f o r A u ­
gust 19, 1685).
118
P i s r y . Ill, 338-389, entry for D e c e m b e r 22, 1727.
Two
years b e f o r e this he h a d w r i t t e n to the R e v e r e n d P e t e r Thacher,
who is the subject of this entry, "Congratulating his R e c o v e ­
ry.
M e n t l o n d his L e t t e r of J u l y 14, 1676, from London. . . .
Our Class.
I a m u n d e r s u c h decays that they oug h t to n u t me
in m i n d to cry out, I fallI " (L e t t e r - B o o k . II, 187, m e m o r a n d u m
Df l e t t e r dated J u l y 13, 1725).
Classmates w h o m Sewall does
not m e n t i o n are Isaac Foster, d e a d In 16Q2; Samuel Danforth,
lead in 1676; T h o m a s Wold, d e a d in 1702; J o h n Norton, d e a d in
L716 (D i a r y , l o c . c i t .. editors* note).
119
L e t t e r - B o o k . II, 105, l e t t e r to T a y l o r d a t e d F e b r u a r y 16,
L7, 1 7 1 9 / 2 0 . See also, i b i d . . 274, l e t t e r to Elisha W i l l i a m s
lated A u g u s t 22, 1729.
A n o t h e r "former B e d f e l l o w " was a Henry
Smith of Hingham, w h o m Sewall on one o c c a s i o n tried u n s u c c e s s ­
fully to place in a t e a c h i n g p o s t in B o s t o n (see Dlarv. I. 35.
intry for Febr u a r y 15, 1676/7).
120
L e t t e r - B o o k , II, 241, l e t t e r to J o h n Da n f o r t h d a ted A p r
.8, 1728.

-69-

these c i r c u ms t a n c e s

Sewall p r a y e d

have run their Race,

I also m a y be m ade ready.

note ", the pas sing of this

. . .

He

"old F r i e n d "In the summer of 1728

and f o und h i m s e l f , w i t h his
Hands, 11 a n d

"that as m y dear C l a ssmates

"Dlsorder[ edj| . . .

"feeble Knees, ***22 the last

Back, ""weak

s u r v i v i n g m e m b e r of

his class*
What has b e e n said of the st r u g g l i n g state of H a r v a r d
is not to be trhei as a n I n d i c a t i o n that the a u t h o r i t i e s d id
not recognize

the importance of the role

their W i l d e r n e s s

Israel;

It had to p l a y in

for quite the c o n t r a r y is true*

In

the struggle d u r i n g the last years of the s e v e n t e e n t h a n d
first years of the e i g h t e e n t h cen t u r y b e t w e e n the c o n s e r v a ­
tive forces of the M a t h e r s

(which i n c l u d e d Sewall)

hand a n d the m ore l i b e r a l forces
tles on the other,
college.

of J o h n L everett a n d the Brat­

the great central obje c t was control of the

The Importance

crease M a t h e r when,
le c r ied out:

of the prize was w ell stated b y In­

w i t h control of it s l i p p i n

NEW-ENG-LANDl

NEW-EliG-LANDJ

;he G-lory be n o t r e m o v e d from thee*
ind if the Fou n t a i n
Hory

on the one

sho u l d f a i l :

is like to be gone

from his grasp,
L o o k to It,

that

For It begins to go...

I m e a n the COLLEDG-E . . .

. • • in less than one Generation.

• .
the
•

a m123 The i n a u g u r a t i o n of L e v e r e t t inl708 was in the nature
lgL I b i d .
1 PC
Ibid., a n d Letter-Book, II, 270, l e t t e r to Mrs. S t e p h e n
e wall da ted J u l y 7, 1729.
12 3
I c h a b o d : a Di s c o u r s e S h e w i n g w h e t Cause there is to F e a r
hat the G-l o ry of the L o r d , is d epa r t i n g from N e w E n g l a n d tBosto
702), pp. 45-46.

-70

of a victory celebration.

1 24

The walls of the old conservatism

had been breached at their most strategic point.
As an Assistant of the Colony and later as a member of the
Council of the Province,

Sewall was automatically one of the
125
Overseers of tiie collegeThis body was not the compara­
tively meaningless tiling it has since become, when, as Pro­
fessor Morison says, like the English House of Lords,
"does nothing in particular, ana does it very well.
vnp the governing board.

it
It

As such it was actively engaged in

the Mather-Leverett struggle over the control of the institu­
tion ana the determination of its character.
1£4

Sewall1 s -oosltlon

See 7/ertenbaker, Puritan Oligarchy, p. 156.
Sewall was at
the ceremony and registers a complacent satisfaction rather than
the resentment we should more naturally expect.
This acceptance
of the inevitable was characteristic. Possibly the fact that
his student son, Joseph, delivered a Latin address on the oc­
casion partially accounts for his attitude (see Diary, II, £09,
entry for January 14, 1707/8).
125
That is, from 1684,when he first became an Assistant (his
presence at a meeting of the Board of Overseers is first en­
tered for July 1, 1684, in Hr.rva.rd Records, I, 76, 255), until
he resigned as Councilor in 1725 (the last meeting with the
Overseers noted in the Diary, III, 354-555, is on May 13, 1725),
with the exce tion of three years during the inter-charter
oeriod (1686-92) when he was out of the government (1686-89,
the years of Andros).
Except for a meeting of the Overseers
noted in the Diary, I, 322, on June 12, 1690, a meeting not
entered in the college records, this body was in abeyance from
1686 (the year the Charter was lost) until 1708 when the old
charter of the college was finally revived.
The charter of
1692 made no provision for Overseers, and those of 1687 and
1700 specify "Visitors, " of which Sewall as a Councilor would
be one (see Harvard Records, I, xxxlv-v). For the magistrate
as Overseer see M a s s . Records II, 30, and Magna.1 1 a , II, 11.
•*~26Harvard College. I, 21.

-71-

In -cl.is s t r u ^ l e was one which he assumed run in and again as
the nature of the Puritan state gradually changed:

that of

the rear guard resister, whose retreat Is less angry than
sad, who sees what is happenin _ as t i m »

of a. falling away

from the spirit of the fathers w ich he may hinder but can­
not prevent.

It is an attitude which finds expression In

his ouestlon at the time of the loss of the precious

Colony

Charter;

“vVhen the foundations are destroyed, what can the
,.l27
Righteous do?
The most positive action against the liberal forces of
the Leverett-Brattie party In which he engaged was In giv­
ing his encouragement and advice to the men In Connecticut
undertaking the establishment of a new stronghold of the
unta.inted faith at New Haven.

128

In 1701 they appealed to

Sewa.ll and his friend Isaac Addinwton (then Secretary of
State for the Province and, like Sewall, a man of the old
cast) for help In framing a charter.

In the suggestions

which the two sent off the matter of greatest concern was
12 ?

Diary. I, 13S-139,

entry for May 17, 1686.

128
In 1698 occurred the famous secession of the Brattle
Street Church from the principles of the Cambridge Platform,
and in 1699 the religious qualification for Harvard had been
negatived by Governor Bellomont.
The result was a widespread
feeling that apostasy was aoroad In the land.
Brattle was
against the public recital of religious experience as a re­
quirement for church member ship, preached a.t his own ordina­
tion, wouldn1t allow an elder to lay a hand on his head during
the ceremony, etc.
Both Brattle and Leverett had been active
in the opposition during the witchcraft episode. (The situa­
tion Is summarized in Quincy, I, 197-199.)

-72-

tkrt

"the president be enjoined to reau and Expound the

Scripture in the Hall mornin • and Evening,

practice

vdich had long been standard at Harvard but in v»hich there
had been a recent fallin ■ away.

Furthermore,

they were

not satisfied v:ith the va.aie injunction in the Harvard
charter for

“the instituting,

guiding, and furthering • • •

of nlety, nora.lity, and learning,

Apparently desiring

something* more definite anc, safe, they asked that students
he recuired to recite

'benoriter" from the ’
.Westminster Cate­

chism and from Dr, Will lam Ames' s Lledulla and Cases of Conscience,"
ture,

in all of which, as in the expounding of Scrip­

the charter which was drawn up reflects their wishes*

’.'Whether this was a direct result of their suggestions or not
132
Is a matter of dispute.
The letter w ich accompanied these
TCQ

Letter-Book, I, 260, memorandum of letter to James Pierpont, one of the founders of Yale, dated September 17, 1701#
120See Quincy,
icl
4,
Ibla.
1 ^2

I, 198,

Inasmuch as these suggestions do find expression in the
charter (see Y/illiam L, Kingsley ed,, Yale College: A Sketch
of its History [[New York, 1 379J, I, 25") it is somewhat curi­
ous th^t scholars should differ as markedly as they do on
their significance.
Palfrey, IV, 372, remarks that ", , •
whether it was that the arrangements had been already matured,
or that a different Judgment prevailed, their proposals do
not appear to have invluenced the projectors, • , •"
He
cites, of all people, Quincy, whose conclusion is that "the
founders of the College In Connecticut adopted, without any
material alterations, the draft made by Sewall and Addington,
. • . " Kingsley, I, 22, says that though the suggestions
arrived in time to be considered, ", , , It appears that only
the form and to some extent the phraseology was employed, "

-73-

"Hints for an Act, " as they calleo. them,
statement o f
taking :

is an interesting

the conservative attitude toward the new under­

,rV/e should be very glad, 11 it says in part,

"to

hear of flourisliing Schools and College at Connecticut; and
it would be some relief to us against the Sorrov; we have
c o n c e iv e s

for the decay of them in this Province.

-o on to say that
se a rch

They

. • as the end of all Learning' is to

the Scriptures • • • we make no doubt but you will

oblige the Hector to Eg-'ound the Scriptures deligently,
morning and evening.M
This matter of the exposition of Scripture by the
college head was a sore point with Sewall and one which,
curiously enough,

brought him into conflict not only with

the Leverett forces but with the Mathers as well.
Mather was eager eno

Increase

h to assume control of the college, as

Indeed he had at various times done, but only if he could do
so with his left hand.

He was unwilling to leave his Boston

congregation and devote his full time and energies to the
Job, preferring' to commute between the tov/ns and enjoy the
positions both of pastor and president.
asked,

"Should I, M he

'L ;ave off preaching to 1500 souls . . .

expound to 40 or 50 children?

only to

sewall felt that the an-

^•5^Letter-3ook, I, £63-264, letter of Sewall and Addington
to the Rev. Thomas Buckingham dated October 6, 1701.
•^3^ J u 3 tin Y/lnsor ed., Memorial History of Boston (Boston,
1332), II, 202.

_74<

swer to this auestion should be Yesi and In a memorandum
■10

wrote that In his opinion even if Mather* were willing

to reside in Cambridge but yet

"not Expound the Scriptures,

and Pray in the Hall . . .

the Example of it would doe more
135
hurt, than his going thither v-ould doe good.
He had de­

livered a speech in Council to tills effect and had apparent­
ly therefore favored the appointment of President Y/lllard
over Mather.
Wilkins'

The result was that Cotton Mather came to Mr.

shop where youn?; Sam, Sewall's eldest son, was work-

in , and voiced the opinion that Sewall
worse than a Neger;
mi.-gnt hear him."

"had used his father

spake so loud that people in the street

That morning Sewall had read

rllr. Dod's

saying; Sanctified Afflictions are good Promot i o n s , "
t ought which he now found a

"cordial,"

a

Recalling that a

few days earlier he load sent Increase Mather

"a Hnnch of

very good Venison, "

he hoped that in that he

him as a Negro.

Next day he wrote Cotton Mather expres­

sing his

"3urprlse and 3-rief" over v/hat he had learned and

suggested that the;/ meet at Wilkins'
and there

"did not treat

with some mutual friends

"try to give an Instance of the Truth of that old

Proverb; Anantlum Irae Amorls Redintegra11o est. T h e
1 *35
Letter-Booh. I, 164.
136Diary. II, 43, entry for October 20, 1701.
137

Letter-Book.

I, 263, letter dated October 21, 1701.

-75-

follo'-lnmorning at half past nine Sewall met with the
nnnry man of God and

“expostulated with him from 1 Tim.

5.1. Rebuke not an elder. “

Cotton Mather replied that

“he had consider'd t h a t " ana wont on to charge the Council,
as Sewall says, with
not what all.

'living, Hypocrisy, Tricks, ana I know

I ask'd him if it were done with that Meek­

ness as it should; answer'd yes.

Charg'd the Council in

general, and then shew*d my share, which was my speech.

. ..

I ask'd him If I should suppose he had done somthing amiss
iii his Church as an Officer; whether it would be well for
me to exclaim against him in the street for it (Mr. Y/ilkin
would fain have had him gon into the inner room, but he
vould not.)

I told him I conceiv'd he had done much unbe­

coming a Minister of the Gospel.

• • •"

away to Council at t .is point, where he

Sewall was called
“Hammer'd out an

Order for a Day of Thanksgiving, " a job for which the events
of the afternoon could scarcely have been much encourage138
nent.
Next day, again at V/llkins* , Increase Mather ap­
peared and announced his pious opinion that

“if I am a Ser­

vant of Jesus Christ,

some great Judppnent will fall on
139
Capt. Sewall, or his family."
Two days later, after
Sewall had circulated a copy of his speech

"that all might

see what was the ground of Mr. Mather's Anger, “ the storm
133
139

Diary. II, 44, entry for October 22, 1701.

Ibid., entry for October 23.
The title of Captain refers
to Sewall*s role, first with the South Company, one of the
town's train bands, and later with the Ancient and Honourabl
Artillery Company.
He had at this time been a Judge for man
yer-r s , out it was the military title by which he was most of
called.

-76-

-3

v;.n to subside an^. Sewall was able to note:
calm."3*"0 On December 51 follov:lng,

•row

: is being tie last da;

in

"They seen to

"conslderr. t ion of

of tie y e a r 11 and inasmuch as Cotton

Ilather ha a honored Sev/all's pew by sitting with him in meeting
'last Tuesday was fortnight, " he wrote saying that he did

"non

Remise, P.elease and forever quit claim, as to any personal
Controversy we were lately managing at Mr. ’.Yllhins's . "
signed the letter
vsnt.

He

“your truly loving friend and humble Se 2>-

Besides affording us an idea of Sewall's partici­

pation in Harvard politics,

this crachling episode gives us

soag insight into at least a part of the reason why the Math­
ers found themselves pushed from their dynastic place*
Seventeen years later found the dogged Sewall still wag­
ing his fight for a more regular exposition in Hall and gain­
ing at least a. paper victory.

On November 12, 1718,

the bu­

siness before the meeting of Overseers concerned the dimen­
sions of the proposed Massachusetts Hall.

The motion being

called for, Sewall arose and said that though the matter in
hand was of

"great moment " he

of greater moment. "

"apprehended there was an affair

"I had h e a r d , " he writes,

Exposition of the Scriptures in the Hall had not been
carryed on [and] • • • enquired of the President [Leverett]
whether 'twere so or no.
140

Was silence a little while;

Ibid., entry for October 25*

^4^Letter-Booh» I, 266.

then

-77-

the President seem'd to be surprised at my Treating of
him in that Manner;

I did not use t„ do so* • • •

spake earnestly that what I did was out of Season*
7/hen I was fallen so hard upon,

Many
• • •

I said I apprehended the

not Expounding the Scriptures was a faulty Omission, and
I was glad I had that Opportunity of shewing my dislike of
It*

President said, he had begun to take It up agen; I

said I was glad of it.

• • • Mr. Belcher stood up, and

mov'd earnestly that Exposition might be attended.

At

last Mr* Wadsworth stood up and spake In favour of It,
and drew up a vote that the president should as frequently
as he could entertain the students with Exposition of the
holy Scriptures.

. . .

I mov'd that as he co Id might be

left out; and It was so voted.

Mr. President seem'd to

say softly, It was not till now the Business of the Presi­
dent to Expound In the Hall.

I said I was glad the Over­

seers had now the Honour of declaring it to be the Presi­
dent's Duty.3*42
A week later the President spoke to him again

"and Intimated

that twas not the President1s Duty to Expound before this Or­
der, "

to which Sewall replied that

"twas a Shame that a Law

should be needed; meaning ex malls morlbus bonae L e g e s . "
14 gPlary, III, £02-203.
l4^Ibid., p. 203,

entry for November 19, 1718.

- 73

-

T h r e e years later he was less successful In his

conserva­

tive opposition iso the course of change at the school.

Ahe

issue this time was the acceptance or rejection of the Hollis
endovnnent for a divinity professorship,

one of the stipulations

of which was that the occupier of it should be

"in Communion

with a Church of C o n g r e g a t l j n a l [ i s t s P r e s b y t e r l a n [ s J ,
Baptists*"

Sewall objected to such a condition,

rether to lose the Donation than to Accept it. "
debate he finally said:

or

"chusing
After much

" One great end for which the first

Planters came over into New England, was to fly from the
Cross in Baptlsme.

For my part,

I had rather have Baptisme

administered with the Incumbrance of the Cross, than not to
have it Administered at all.
nity Professour,

This Qualification of the Divi­

is to me a Bribe to give my Sentence in Dis­

paragement of Infant Baptisme:
my hands from holding it. "

and I will endeavour to shake

When it came to the vote

"but

very few a pear'd in the Negative. *^*4^ Two weeks later Ed145
ward Wigglesworth was appointed to the post,
and at the
installation on the following October 24 it was Sewall him146
self who administered the oath.
In doing this he took what
was frequently his conservative course: register resistance
and, failing in It, sadly resign himself.

Whatever his oppo-

144 Diary, III, 298-299, entry for January 10, 1721/2.
l45Ibid., p. 300, entry for January 24.
146Ibld. . p. 311.

-79-

pit Inn to developments at the college it was never such as to
shake his allegiance to It.

Even at the time that he was sup­

plying advice for the charter of Yale, he was using his Influ­
ence for the passing of Harvard's charter of 1700 in what he
14-7
felt to be a satlsfactory forti.
While continuing to be, as
he said,

"a Well-wisher" to the neiv college In Connecticut,"^®

he likewise end at the same time continued to send up his
prayers for the welfare of his alma m a t e r .-*-4 ®It was

to Har­

vard that he gave five hundred acres of his Naragansett hold150
ings,
and it was to Harvard that he sent In precious trust
his son Joseph to be trained for the ministry.
Letter-Book, I, 241-242, letter to Governor Bellomont
dated August 5, 1700.
Support from the Governor would, Sewall
assures him, cause his 'Praises to spring up amongst this peo­
ple; which shall flow as long as Merrimack or Hudson* s River
siiall pay any Tribute to the Ocean. "
~®Letter-Book, I, 354, letter to Thomas Buckingham dated
October 7, 1707.
It is easy to imagine the shock and dismay
"■hich Sewall felt at the growth of Episcopal influence at Yale
in the 1720*s, the "plain and loud Thunder-Claps" of which he
took as "a Demonstration that the Drying up [of] the Great
River Euphrates is near at hand" (ibid.. II, 144, letter to
Governor Saltonstall of Connecticut dated October 5, 1722).
149
Ibid., I, 354, letter to Samuel Sheuard dated December 29,
1707.
Harvard Records, I, 272; 'On June. 24. 1696.
The Honorable
Samuel Sewal Esquire and Hannah his wife . . . gave to the col­
lege a farm at Petaquamscot in the Narraganset Countrey . . .
containing five hundred acres more or less.
The Incomes or Prof
its of this Farm are by the donors direction ‘for and toward
the Support and Education at the said College, of such youths
whose Parents may not be of sufficient ability to maintain them
there; especially such as shall be sent from Petaquamscot aforecp 3d, English or Indians if any such there beC'J."
On November 30, 1698, Sewall asked that the province grant
money for building of a house on this land "that it may be rgn»

-30-

Cn t h e
t:

be

le d ,
re a lm

subject of Sewell and Harvard t h e r e

remains only

considered the marriage to which his years a t

Cambridge

a marriage which In th_ hands of Hawthorne entered the
of New England legend and which,

was certe-inly t h e

in a practical sense,

most important result of those years.

Ab­

ruptly it changed the course of his life, as the minister-to-be
fcund himself born willy-nilly into

she world of property and

merchandise.
area capable of yielding an annual Income to said College "
(liass. Arc':Ives, LVIII, 181).
The income in 1731, the year
cf Sewall*s death, was six pounds,ten shillings per annum
(Harvard Records. II, 595).

Chapter Three
MERCHANT A N D MAN OF PROPERTY
In the library of the New England Historic and Geneal­
ogical Society there is a large folio volume bearing on its
cover the words

"Samuel Sewall His Ledger•"

Among some

loose pages at the front of the volume is one headed:
inventory of the Estate of[John} • • • Hull*
ventory are listed
•dwelling h o u s e s , "

"An

In this in­

"warehouses, " l a n d s , " shares in ships,
•taoney and g o o d s , " and

"Debts owing" to

the estimated value of twelve thousand and sixty pounds*
In 1680, or shortly after the time at which Hull drew up
^The word "John" is torn away, but the contents of the
paper identify the owner beyond any question*
This docu­
ment has remained unnoted by writers on Hull, with the re­
sult that Hermann F* Clarke, for example, in his extremely
careful John Hull : A Builder of the Bay Colony (Portland,
Me,, 1940}, chap* 10, pas s i m , the editors of his Diary,
American Ant* Soo*, Trans * ■ III (Boston, 1857), 124-125,
and Samuel E, Morlson In his Builders of the Bay Colony
(New York, 1930), chap. o, are able only to speculate on
the subject of his wealth*
The document is undated but from
the ledger entries which accompany it (also Hull's) it is
apparently of the 1 6701*, or around the time that Sewall
became a member of the Hull establishment*
Since Sewall* s possessions, as will be demonstrated
later, were,with the exception of holdings at Newbury and
in England received from his father, either a part of the
Hull estate or purchased with Hull capital, it is the best
evidence we have of his wealth as well*
The listing, with
values estimated by Hull, is as follows:
To my dwelling house • • • several warehouses and the
house that Mrs. Johannah Evans liveth in [570 pounds}
To my warehouses Land and wharffs thereby [400
poundsJ
To Cotton House and Land [327 pounds}
To my orchard by Partner Sandersons [120 pounds}
To my pasture by Mandltt Inge [200 pounds}
[Shares in ten different ships: Hopewell. Blessing,

this list, Governor Simon Bradstreet,

In response to an In­

quiry from the Lords atf the Privy Council, wrote:

" . . •

Tryall, Seaflower, etc. (1,943 pounds).
Clarke, p. 106,
states that Hull had part ownership in fifteen ships dur­
ing the years 1670-83.3
To quick stock . . . money and goods in the ware­
house [2,200 poundsJ
To dead stock in Debts owing [3,000 pounds3
Lands at Brantry [1,000 pounds.
Clarke, p, 85, states
that 500 acres were bought in 1658 and more later.3
To Lands at Sherborn [800 pounds3
To Lands at Muddy R iver [500 pounds.
The place of
this farm, in what is now Brookline, is still called Sew­
ell's Point.
Clarke, p. 85, says that 300 acres were pur­
chased in 1658 and more later.3
To Lands at Narriganset or Pettaquomscat [1,000
pounds.
In 1657, according to Clarke, pp. 88-89, Hull
was one of five in a venture called "the Pettlquampscut
Pu r c h a s e . " The present Point Judith, at the southwest
entrance of Narragansett Bay, was named by Hull for his
wife* Here and on near by Block Island he raised horses.
In 1714, after having "sold much . . . t h e r e " a n d having
given "Five Hundred Acres . . . toward the Support of a
School there; and Five Hundred Acres to Harvard-Coliege,"
Sewall still had la considerable Interest left . . . the
very Point of Point-Judith, containing about Twelve Hun­
dred A c r e s H (Letter-Book. II, 33, letter to Jeremiah Dummer dated August 17, l?i4).I
The list does not mention Maine lands "upon Uarrlconeg
Neck in Casco Bay, " near the present Portland, a tract of 1,000
acres or more granted to Governor Endicott in 1657 and bought
by Hull for fifty pounds in the next year.
The boundaries
had not been specified, and Sewall in 1693 asked the General
Court for one thousand acres.
The request was granted, but
when it later appeared that the same tract had been granted
to Harvard College, Sewall resigned his claim in return for
500 acres at Pennicook. (See M a a s . A r chives. XLV, 211; Har­
vard Records. I, 278-279.)
Another Maine holding not mentioned in the list was tim­
ber lands and mills at Salmon Falls on the Piscataqua River,
near the southern end of the boundary between Maine and New
Hemp shire (Clarke, p • 91) •
Clarke also mentions a "1,000 acres at Boxford, " for
which the Hull heirs made petition in 1696 (p. 96, citing
Mass. Archives. XVI, 520).

there are two or three £merchants3 in our Corporation that
may be worth sixteen or eighteen thousand pounds a piece,
some few others worth eight or ten thousand pounds a piece,
a third sort worth four or five thousand pounds a piece*

• • •

Hee is accounted a rich man in the Country that is worth one
2
thousand or Fifteen hundred pounds* " Edward Randolph, re­
porting to the home government in 1676, wrote:

"There are

about thirty merchants that are esteemed worth from ten to
twenty thousand pounds*

• * • 1,3

In short, John Hull was one

of those Boston merchants to whom Josselyn,
to as being

in 1675, referred

"damnable rich*

It is not possible to trace here the extraordinary rise
of the indigent but dutiful young John Hull from silversmith
to colonial worthy*

Some mention, however, of the man and

his career is necessary for understanding both the society in
which he prospered and the young man who became his son-in-law
It is suggestive of much, for example, that as a youth his ex­
treme dutifulness to his aged mother,

"then weak in body, and

poor in estate, " was supposed to have caused the Reverend John
Wilson to remark:

"I charge you to take notice of what I say;

God will certainly bless that young man; John Hull * * * shall
grow rich, and live to do God good service in his generation! "
2&eorge F* Dow, Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay
Colony (Boston, 1935),P * 150*
2
Hutchinson, P a p e r s , p* 485*
4

An Account of Two Voyages to New England (London, 1675),
In Mass. Hist* Soc*. Colls*, ser* 3. Ill (Cambridge. 1832). o
331.

-84-

Cotton Mather, who tells the story, concludes by saying:

"It

came to pass accordingly that this exemplary person became a
very rich, as well as emphatically a good man, and afterwards
e
died a magistrate of the colony. "
To the middle-class mind
of the Bay Puritan John Hull was an Impressive and,

Indeed,

almost heroic example of the kind of happy combin tIon of
wealth and righteousness appropriate to the thriving New
World theocraoy, a man of w h o m John Danforth, on the occasion
of his death, could write:
Choice HULL the fifth Command observ'd so well.
His Carriage to His Parent did Exoell;
Wilson Pronounc'd the Promis'd Blessing then;
The LORD of Providence too said AMEN.
The Hull,

soon Built upon, became a n Argo;

Deep fraighted with Terrene & Heav'nly Cargo;
Immortal Vertue gave Immortal Name;
Long Life, Power, Honour Added to his Fame*
Stretching his Course, Refresh'd with Prosperous Gales,
Quitting New-England's Coasts,

to Heav'n he sails*

6

The inevitable aocompanlment of piety and riches In seven­
teenth century Massachusetts was public office.

A t various

times between 1668 and 1680 John Hull was deputy for the towns
^Magnalia. I, 314*
ft

"Greatness & Goodness Elegized, " a broadside at the Massa­
chusetts Historical society*

-85-

of Wenham, Westfield, Concord, and Salisbury at the meetings
of the General Court.
Philip*■

For three years (1676-79) after King

War he served the hard pressed colony as Treasurer,

digging deep into his private coffers to support its totter­
ing finances,® and from 1680 until his death in 1683 he was
annually elected to the high, sacred, and oligarchic Court
9
of Assistants.
In the role of Boston citizen he was at
various times selectman of the town and member and officer of
the South Military Company and the Ancient and Honorable A r ­
tillery Company,

serving in the latter as Captain from 1671

to 1678, a post of m uch honor.19 The significance for the
present study of such details as these lies in the fact that
Sewall succeeded not only to Hull*s wealth but to his social
position and responsibilltes as well.

When, in 1683,

Sewall

became a member of the General Court, it was as representative
of the town of Westfield, which Hull had represented ten years
M a s s . Records. Vol. IV, part 2, pp. 363, 484, 507, 553;
ibid., II, 98, 260.
The early laws of the colony did not
require residence in the community represented.
8 Ibid. . V, 78, 131, 184, 210. On December 5, 1683, " . . .
Judith Hull, and Samuel Sewall, administrators of the estate
of the late John Hull, Esq., sometime Treasurer," petitioned
for the payment of *te,bove seventeene hundred pounds due to him
from the country" for which he had "charged but fower hundred
twenty five pounds fiveteen shillings and fower pence interest.
• • •" The Court found at "five hundred forty five pounds
three shillings ten p e n c e , " and the matter was so discharged.
(Ibid., pp. 427-428, 434; and see Charles H. Douglass, The
Financial History of Massachusetts ^Boston, 1935^# pp. 40-41.)
9M a s s . Records. V, 265, 308, 350, 407.
10Hull, Diary, p. 122.

-86-

before.

When Hull*s death In 1683 left vacant his seat among

the magistrates (I.e., the Court of Assistants), Sewall was
elected to that lofty post In the next year.

Hull was one of

the founders and chief supporters of the South Church, and it
was not long after Sewall*s marriage before he was also one of
its stoutest pillars.

In his military career with both the

South Company and the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company,
Sewall followed directly in the steps of his

"father."

He

was, in short, the political, religous, and social, as well
as the financial heir of John Hull.

Except for his career

on the bench, he did not create a life for himself; he merely
entered upon his duties*
The aspect of John Hull's career which, more than any­
thing else, gave It and the marriage of his daughter their
legendary character was his work as Mlntmaster of the Colony,
in which capacity he and his partner, John Sanderson,

turned

out an estimated five million dollars worth of the famous
pine-tree s h i l l i n g s * ^ When, in 1652, the colony undertook
to supply Itself with specie,

it turned to the devout and

able silversmith for supervision of the Job, making a con­
tract with him under which he was
one shilling out of every twenty*
^Dow,

%llowed . . .

to take

It was not long before

Every Day L i f e , p. 169.

l gMas s . Records. Vol IV, part 1, p. 84, date of May 26,
1652.
The arrangement was not only for shillings but for
sixpences and threepences as well.
The colony's coinage was
one of the things objected to by the home government, and It
was finally discontinued in 1686. No new ooins were made in
Massachusetts until 1775. (See Morlson, Builders of the Bay,
p. 153.)

the authorities recognized the extravagence of this arrange­
ment and sought to reduce the rate of seigniorage, but he de­
clared himself eminently satisfied and it was not until 1675
that the mintraaster* s share vs.3 reduced to twelve pence per
13
twenty shillings.
Since it would thus appear that the for­
tunate Hull had enjoyed a gross return on the project of
somewhere around two hundred thousand dollars hard money,
an enormous sum in the specie-short colony,

it is little

wonder that old wives*

gossip in Boston placed his daughter*s
14
dowery at thirty thousand pounds
or that Hawthorne, giving

voice to New England legend, should provide him with a strong
box “large enough to play at hide-and-seek in • . . full to
the brim of bright pine-tree shillings fresh from the mint.

II
In the sharp curve of John Hull*s rise from a low con­
dition to one of material affluence and power we have an epit­
ome of the experience of the colony as a whole in its first
half century.

The

"howling wilderness, " as Cotton Mather

liked to describe the land to which the first settlers came,
was, after fifty years, a place of which William Harris, an
English observer, could write:
^ M a s s , Records. V, 43— 44, date of July 9, 1675. See Mori—
son, lo o , clt. . and Douglas, Financial H istory, pp. 43-44.
Douglas gives the 1675 rate as fifteen pence, an apparent e r ­
ror.
l 4 I believe the figure is first given by Hutchinson, History.
I, 178, who prefaces his statement with the phrase, •ta.s common­
ly reported.
l5Works, V, 45.

-33—

The merchants seem to be rich men, and their houses [are}
as handsomely furnished as most In London*

In exchange

of fish, pipe-staves, wool and tobacco, they have from
Spain, Portugal and the Islands,

the commodities of those

Islands; their wool they carry to France and bring thence
linen; to England they bring beaver, moose, and deer skins,
sugar and logwood, and carry home cloth and ironwares; to
Barbadoes,

In exchange for horses, beef, pork, butter,

cheeses, flour, peas, biscuit, they have sugar and Indigo;
when they trade with Jamaica, as they do sometimes, they
bring home pieces of eight, plate and pigs of silver* • • •
Already In 1654 Edward Johnson was exclaiming enthusiastically
of

"this Clty-like Towne • • • whose continuall enlargement

presages some sumptuous C i t y 11— and this were but a few years
before

"Wolfes and Beares nurst up their young*

Industry,

frugality, and thrift had quickly supplied an overplus of the
"Wheat, Pork>Bisket, Beef, and Beer, Masts, Pipe-Staves, Fish"
18
of which Samuel Danforth exuberantly wrote in 1648,
and which
enabled the New Englander to enter Into the great Yankee her­
itage of shipping and trade*

"Upon this tree, " wrote Danforth,

P L E N T Y groweth much*

God had given wonderful en—

16
17

• • •"

Dow, Every Day L i f e , p. 149*
Wonder-Working Providence, p* 43*

18Marion H* Gottfried, "The First Depression in Massachusetts, "
New England Quarterly. IX (December, 1936), 671.
The poem ap­
pears In a 1648 almanac*

-89-

couragement to his people.

The earth is the Lord* s and the

fullness thereof, and the saints of the New England Israel
set busily to work in subduing and possessing It in his name*
Laborare est orare.

That prosperity should result was a

matter for thanksgiving certainly, but not for s u r p r i s e . ^
As Cromwell had written when he attempted to interest the
New Englanders in removing to Jamaica

"in order to the bet­

tering their outward condition, God [had]

• • • promised
Cf\

his people should be the head and not the tall. "
In Josselyn*s Account

is a description of Boston at

the time of Sewall* s entry into its life as the protege'" of
John Hull.

"...

the houses, N writes Josselyn,

are for the most part raised on the Seabanks and wharfed
out with great industry and cost, many of them standing
upon piles, close together on each side the streets as
in London, and furnished with many fair shops [;] their
materials are Brick, Stone, Lime, handsomely contrived,
with three meeting-Houses or Churches, and a Townhouse
built upon pillars where the Merchants may confer
in the Chambers above they keep their monethly Courts,
Their streets are many and large, paved with pebble stone
19

See the discussion by E.D. Bebb, Nonconformity and Social
and Economic Life (London, 1935), p. 96.
pn
Hutchinson, History. I, 190, citing a report by John
Leverett to Governor Endecott in a letter of December 20, 1656.
See Hutchinson's account (pp. 90-92) of the transition from
husbandry to trade and of the great increase that followed as
other immigrants arrived "for the sake of gain when they saw
a prospect of i t . ■

-90-

and the South-side [where the Hulls and Sewall lived]
adorned with Gardens and Orchards,

The Town Is rloh

and very populous, much frequented by strangers, • • •
There Is a small but pleasant Common where the Gallants
a little before Sunset walk with their Marmalet-Madams
as we do In Morefields, &o, till the nine a clock Bell
rings them home to their respective habitations, when
presently the Constables walk their rounds to see good
orders kept [Sewall served as constable in 1678, his
first public office], and to take up loose people#

Two

miles from the town at a place called Muddy-River the
Inhabitants have Farms [one of them Hul3s, later Sewall1s,
its occupant finally being Sewall*s fanner son, Sam
Junior] to which belong rich noble grounds and meadows
where they keep their Cattle in the Sumner, and bring
them to Boston In the Winter; the Harbour before the
town is filled with Ships and other Vessels for the most
part of the year#

21

Boston was, as Edward Randolph noted, "the metropolis of the
-22
23
colony,
With its twenty-five hundred houses,
its busy
shipyards, wharves,
21

Pages 319-320.

shops, and counting houses, its imposing
The work appeared in 1675#

^ S e e his "Narrative" of 1676, in Hutchinson, P a p e r s , p. 487,
23
Evarts B, Greene and Virginia D. Harrington, American
Population before the Federal Census of 1790 (New York, 1932),
p, 14,
The figure is their estimate for 1676, Randolph, loo,
clt.. gives the number as •te.bout 2000."

-91-

military installations,

24

its several churches, its govern­

mental pomp, it was a thing to excite satisfaction in the
breasts of its founders,

such of them as were yet alive.

Certainly the young Samuel Sewall, returning to it from the
drowsing atmosphere of rural, outlying Newbury, must have
looked about him, considered the position he had suddenly
reached by

"graduat[lngj from Harvard Into the arms of a
25
Boston heiress, " as one writer has remarked,
and thought
of God*s kindly providence in his life.
Unfortunately, however, neither Sev/all nor his fellow
Puritans in the colony felt themselves able to enjoy un­
disturbed so simple and pleasant a reaction to their pros­
perity,

The doctrine of stewardship, by which the Puritan

came to terms with the v/orld, setting xbout Industriously
to subdue it for the glory of God instead of rejecting it
for the same reason, was logical and righteous— In theory.
Its effects, however, were sometimes disturbing; for proper
stewardship frequently brought great wealth, and great
wealth offered grievous temptation even to the elect.

The

proper middle course was easy for a preacher to talk about
^4See Samuel Maverick, A Brlefe Description of N e w England,
in Mass, Hist, Soc,, P r o p , . ser, 2, I (October, 1684), 257-258,
Manuscript written about 1660,
25Greorge P, Winship, •Samuel Sewall and the New England
Company, " in Mass. Hist, Soc,, P r o p , . LXVII (1941-44), 65*
"Sewall introduced a new factor into the social and civic
life of Boston, , , , He was the first noteworthy instance
of a youth from an outlying community who graduated from
Harvard into the arms of a Boston h eiress,"

and most difficult for the man of every day business to p u r ­
sue*

John Cotton, for example,

could speak of

"diligence In

v/orldly businesses, and yet deadnesse to the world" as a "com­
bination of vertues 11 desirable

in "every lively holy Chris­

tian, " 2%ut the sad practical fact was that the second of the
two virtues had a way of being consumed in the exercise of the
first,

so that the early prosperity of the colony was accompa­

nied by a sense of defection from the primitive glory of the
first years*

This sense of a

"falling a w ay" continued through

the first century a n d was finally lost in the indifference of
the second*

27

For Sewall it provided a mournfull and domi­

nating theme throughout his entire adult life*
In the same years that Edward Johnson waxed enthusiastic
over the commercial prosperity of the colony (l*e*, the 1650*s
John Norton expressed concern lest New England forget that it
was

'^originally • • * a Plantation Religious, not a plantation

of T r a d e " and that in forgetting her first profession she
28
should earn the name of Ichabod*
His point was well taken.
26Miller, Puritan M i n d , p. 42, cited*
See Bebb, Noncon­
formity. p* 94*
27
See the discussion by Henry B* Parke a, *!New England in
the Seventeen T h i r t i e s , " New England Quarterly, III (July,
1930), 397-419*
The early Calvlnistlc spirit, product of
an essentially aggressive and fighting creed, had died, not
from opposition but from a m uch more deadly foe, namely in­
difference and apathy*
^ T h e Heart of New England Rent (London, 1660), p. 79*
Election sermon of 165*7* Johnson* s work had appeared three
years before.
M y reading in early New England sermons has been guided
for the most part by the references in Wertenbaker* s Puritan
Oligarchy*

or so at least It seemed to Increase Mather, who shortly after
the turn of the century (1702) chose to apply that very name«
In fact, he called up the memory of John Norton to mark the
passing of the glory from Boston*s pulpits.

When, he asked,

will the town see the like of him or Cotton again?

"And al­

most every where *tis so, whether In our Ecclesiastical, Mili­
tary, or Civil St-te.

So that what our Great Hooker long

since predicted, that the People of New England would be
punished with the want of Eminent Men to manage Publick af­
fairs, both in Church a nd State is in part sadly verified al­
ready, *

The first generation lived for the church; their

sons live for the world.
placed by

The cause of the church is dis29

"Trade and Land, ■

The unclerical Ned Ward, writ­

ing of the people of New England at about the same time, put
it more succinctly,

"Interest," he said,

"is their Faith,

Mony their God, and Large Possessions the only Heaven they
30
covet,"
In their hunger for land, lamented the Reverend
Joseph Eaeterbrook, men had abandoned the old village system
under which the clergy had at one time been able to control
the life of the various communities; the result was
of ignorance, profaneness and atheism.

^nurseries

Cotton Mather looked

^ I c h a b o d . pp.69, 71, 85,
30A Trip to N e w England(London, 1699), p. 5. This work,
printed in 1699, though quite obviously prejudiced, is a de­
light to read,
"The Buildings, like the women, " he writes (loo.
oit.). are *Neat and Handsome. A n d their Streets like the Hearts
of the Male Inhabitants, are paved with Pebble. "
31
Wertenbaker, Puritan Oligarchyf p. 183. Wertenbaker make
much of this point.

-34-

back to the times, for him only a matter of sad report, when
ministers were regarded as
advice the people

"Angels of G o d , " without whose

"would rarely do anything that was consider­

able. "32
Turning specifically to the decade of the 70*a, In which
Sewall entered on the Boston scene and was himself forced to
make the troubling choice between ministry and merchandise,
one finds Eleazar Mather reminding his prosperous audience
that though such prosperity as theixs might be taken as a sign
of blessing to a people In "hearty obedience" to God,

". • •

when men have prosperity, outward riches, and know not what
to do with them, besides making gods of them, this is a sign
that the Lord's gracious presence" is not among them.
wants

He

*Less Trading, Buying, Selling • • • more Praying • • •

more close w a l k i n g * "
you not?

"Ybu had once another Spirit, had

A right New-England Spirit. • • • Are you the same

men you were?

Are you not strangely changed. • • ?"

was commanded to prophecy over dead bones.
the speaker,

Ezekiel

"I know, " said

"I have dead hearts to deal withal. . . .

■All sides are agreed, " cried Sewall*s Cambridge friend,
Urian Oakes,

"that things are in a declining posture,

there is a great degeneracy . . .
and declension.

..."

that

that there is a defection

He reminded his audience, as he may

^ 2The Good Old Way (Boston, 1706), p. 3.
®3A Serious Exhortation (Cambridge, 1671), p. 9.

very well have reminded the ministerially Inclined Sewall,
that ministers were now reckoned
hoped never to see the day when

"Bills of Charges."

He

"houses and lands, lots and

farms and outward accomodations are of more value . • •
than the Gospel and Gospel ordinances.

. . .

Surely there

were other and better things the people of God came hither
for than the best spot of ground, the richest soil*
Samuel Torrey asked that the colony recover Its

"first

Nev/-England Interest. " "We have been changing * * * our * * *
*35
fundamental Interest*"
The calamities of King Philip's
War were, concluded William Hubbard, a bloody sign of God's
recognition of

falling away from first glories*"

to be Interested in his New England vine*
to look on* • • •

Now he

God used
"seems only

"God sifted three Nations, " declared

Increase Mather in 1679,

"* * * so he might bring over choice

grain into this wilderness* "

"There never was a Generation

that did so perfectly shake off the dust of Babylon. "
"this Generation Is not like the f i r s t * "

But

• the Interest

of New-England is now changed, from a Religious to a worldly
Interest* • . • "

"• * . this thing is the great Radical

Apostasy of New-England*

In this same year there was

54 New England Pleaded With (Cambridge, 1673), pp.24# 30, 33*
3®An Exhortation J[Cambridge, 1674), pp. 27-28*
36
The Happiness of a People (Boston, 1676), p. 50.
37a Discourse Concerning the Danger of Apostasy (Boston, 1679)
pp. 55— 56*

published, as a result of a meeting of elders and ministers
in Boston, a work entitled The Necessity of Reformation,
which Professor Wertenbaker terms

landmark in the history

of the Bible Commonwealth, hardly less significant than the
loss of the Charter*
deterioration,

One was significant of political

the other of moral*

It spoke of the

"Great

and visible decay of Godliness, " of "Oathes * * * in ordi­
nary discou r s e , " of Sabbath breaking and irreverence at wor­
ship , of the debauching through liquor of Indians

“by those

who call themselves Christians, " of increase in adultery,
of "farms and merchandising * * * [beingj preferred before
the things of G o d , " of the languishing of schools through a
decline of public spirit, of selling at
of deceitful dealings with the Natives*

"excessive rates, "
39

Statements such as these may undoubtedly be accounted
no more than the mouthings of unfriendly critics and disap­
pointed divines*

Gathering lugubrious Judgments from scat­

tered sermons, one might say, is a meaningless exercise* one
that would produce similar results for any age*
There are many facts, however,

Possibly so«

that give the appearance of

truth to these Judgments, the most significant of which are
those having to do with the loss of the Colony Charter*

The

story has been often told, and it Is beside our purpose to
repeat it here*
38
39

The precious document,

Puritan 0 1 igarchy, pp* 181-132*
Pages 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, Q.

suffice It to say*

embodied the very

"foundations, " to use Bewail * 3 word,

of

the great theocratic experiment, and its I 0 3 S marked the
ruin of the old order.
colony were nothing new;
the settlement*

Attacks on it by the enemies of the
they dated from the first years of

What was ner; was the timorous spirit with

which men of Sewall*s position met those attacks when they
were renewed during the reign of Charles II.

In 1634 Gorges,

supported by such other disgruntled men as Morton, Ratcliffe,
and Gardiner (all of whom had suffered at the Puritans* hands—
Morton at Merrymount, for example, and Ratcliffe through the
loss of his ears),had obtained a Quo Warranto and appoint­
ment as Governor.

The colony*s decision was

him, but defend our lawful possessions.

"not to accept
Endecott in his

wrath tore the hated cross from the English flag.

Fortifi­

cations were begun on Castle Island, and a military committee
was appointed*

The colony was prepared for the worst*

For­

tunately for it, events at home kept the threat from material­
izing, and it entered an unmolested quarter century during whidi
its sovereignty was very nearly complete.

When the threat was

renewed the men of the first generation were largely gone.
"Friday, December 18, 1685, " wrote Sewall in his diary,

"Far­

ther John Odlln, one of the very first Inhabitants of Boston,
dies; know not of above one more besides the Governour CBrad^■O
M a a s .Records. I, pp. 136-139.

street}.

This m s

brooding over

at the same time that the colony was

Rumor that the Government will be Changed,

this Fall or Winter, by some Person sent over, or a Commission
42
to some h e r e . "
Effective resistance to sudi a change, of
the hind undertaken fifty years before, was apparently never
considered by the leaders of Sewall1s generation and certainly
not by him.

Instead, he merely records, fatalistically,

the

developments leading to the destruction of the old system#
His feelings, apparently, are mainly of sadness and resigna­
tion; his voice is the voice of submission#

His affections

are touched, moving him to tears; but of passion there is
nothing.

On January 7, 1684/5, they “had the newes of . # #

[the] Charter1s being condemned,

Just as going to Meeting#

Diary. I, 112. A month before (November 12) Mr. Moodey
preached on the death of Rev. Israel Chauncy of Hatfield and
said that there were "but 2 of the First Generation left"
(ibid.. p. 103).
O n the same day, significantly enough, the
ministers of the town "come to the court and complain against
a Dancing Master who seeks to set up here and h ath mlxt Dan­
ces, and his time of Meeting is Lecture-Day. " This person,
a Francis Stepney, was reported to have said that "by one
Play he could teach more Divinity than Mr. Willard of the
Old Testament. Mr# Moodey said 1twas not a time for N. E#
to d a n c e # " By the use of fines and restraining orders the
authorities were able to rid the colony of him by the follow­
ing July, when he "runs away for debt" (Ibid., p# 112, entry
for December 17; ibid., p. 121, entry for February 4, 1685/6;
ibid. . p. 145, entry for July 28, 1686)#
Recalling Merry
Mount of a half century before, we can imagine what treatment
would have been accorded Mr. Stepney then.
Diary. I, 105, entry for November 13, 1685; similarly,
ibid., p. 107, entries for November 19 and 20.
43Ibld., p. 116, entry for January 7, 1685/6.
He is re­
calling the event in the year following#
Because of the
loss of one manuscript volume, there is a gap in the diary
for the period 1677-85#

-99-

On July 24 following there were

"very sharp debates about

submission &c. upon a Governour*a Arrival, occasioned by
a vote from the Deputies to the purpose that the Court be
Adjourned till third Wednesday in August except some demand
of the Government from His Majestle be made b e f o r e . "

The

decision, finally, was to so adjourn, Sewall taking the 1n44
decisive course of not voting.
In December, Samuel Shrlrapton refused to appear at court because if

"proceeded

a Law made since the vacating the Charter . . .
remarks Sewall,

"...

upon

so that, "

we begin palpably to dye. 1,45

This

case dragged on through several months, engendering con­
siderable

"Heat between the Members of the C o urt1,40 and no

decision.

"3uch discourses and arguing before the People, "

says Sewall, made the government
"...

"grow weaker and weaker. "4^

the symptoms of Death are on us. "4®

On May 21, 1686,

the magistrates and deputies went to the home of Governor
Bradstreet.

There

"Adjournment . . .

Weeping Marshal-Generall.
p a r ting."

was declared by the

Many Tears Shed in Prayer and at

•taoved to sing, so sang the 17. and
49
18. verses of Habbakuk. "
Two days later Joseph Dudley took
44.
4.K

Sewall was

Ibid., pp. 89-90.
Ibid.. p. 110, entry for December 4, 1635.

46Ibid., p. 128, entry for March 23, 1685/6.
47

Ibid.. p. 131, entry for April 1, 1686.

48

Ibid., p. 118, entry for January 20, 1685/6.
See also,
pp. 133, 134, 135, entries for April 15, 22, and 24.
4 9 Ibid., p. 140.

-100-

office as President of the provisional government in accord­
ance with instructions from England, and on December 19 fol­
lowing:

"As I was reading the Exposition of Habakkuk third,

which this morning aung and read in the family, I heard a
great G-un or two . • • which made me think Sir Edmond might
50
be come. "
He was right, and five days later: "About 60
Red-Coats are brought to Town, landed at Mr. Pool's Wharf,
where drew up and so marched to Mr. Gibbs's house at
Fort-Hill.

The old order was dead; so that on the day-

assigned for the meeting of the Court of Assistants,

there

was nothing for the deposed magistrate to record in hie
diary save that it had been "a. great day of feasting on
52
Board Capt. Head. "
When the General Court should have
met there was instead a celebration of the King* s birthday,
with a firing of guns and people marching through the
streets

53
"with Viols and Drums, playing and beating by t u r n s . "

Such is Sewall's record of the great change that came
to Massachusetts during the reign of James II.

Of anger

or outrage over the course of royal policy there is not a
word.

Instead,

there is self-recrimination, a feeling ex-

50Ibid.. p. 159.
51
Ibid., p. 163, entry for December 24, 1636.
52
Ibid. . p. 151, entry for September 7, 1636.
53

Ibid.. p. 154, entry for October 14, 16S6.

-1C1-

pressed in the words, "we • • • deserv'd to be turn'd out
54
long ago* "
There was the vague feeling, too, that God
had failed his people, the Wednesday night meeting of the
South Church Society at Sewall*s house asking itself:

"• • ,

How shall we attend known Duty with cheerfullness and Con­
stancy: though God impart not so much of his Counsel as we
could d e s i r e ? T h e

sense of hopelessness and tired resig­

nation was aptly expressed by Sewall when, at the time of
Dudley's exhibiting to the General Court the condemnation
papers, he rose to speak against a protest,
spake f o r , "

saying,

"which some

"• * * the foundations being destroyed

what can the Righteous do* • • •
Certainly it would be oversimplifying merely to say
that an adheren oe to radical principle in the leaders of the
first generation had been supplanted by a conservative re­
gard for property in their sons.

Many other foroes were

at work to change the spirit of the colony besides that of
the growing property interest*

Foreign trade and the arriv­

al of strangers in ever-increasing numbers worked inevitably
to destroy the intellectual isolation of the colony's first
years*

The concentration of authority in the hands of the

ministers and magistrates which accompanied the village sys^ L e t t e r - B o o k , I, 24, letter to his Aunt Rider in England,
dated March 1, 1685/6.
55Plary. I, 123, entry for February 24, 1685/6.
56Ibid., PP. 138-139, entry for May 17, 1686.

-102-

tom to ruled to disappear as villages became flourishing cities
and the common fields gave way to Individual farms.

cry

Most

important of all, the grest Puritan movement of the seven­
teenth century had spent Its force, as all such movements
must finally do#

The creation of the fathers had become

the inheritance of the sons, and the psychology of the buil­
der had given way to that of the conservator.

No one who

reads Sewall can doubt his devotion to the old Charter gov­
ernment and ell that It meant in both church and state, but
caution to him and his kind was always the better part of
valor.

It was not that they were less devoted than their

fathers; it was only that they were lesser men, or, if we
would be sympathetic, lived in lesser times.

A n Endecott

rending the idolatrous cross from the English flag, a
Hooker ready to

"put a king in his pocket "-— such things

were but memories.

The desire now was for safety, and

safety said Submit.
But if we thus account for what was happening in the
colony in terms of other causes than merely that which In­
crease Mather described as the change
a worldly Interest,"

"from a Religious to

we should not make the mistake, so

far as Sewall is concerned at least, of falling to recognise
the Importance of this faotor.

The inability to act from

which, as we have noted, he suffered at the time of the los­
ing of the charter, was suddenly overcome when it became
57

See the discussion in Wertenbaker, Puritan Oligarchy,
pp. 184, 206, 250.

-105-

plain that the rights of property were at stake, the Andros
government contending that the cancelling of the charter
cancelled rights to property granted or sold under it*58 On
July 12, 1688, Sewall heard that there was

Writt out

against [him} • • • for Hog-Island [a Sewall property in
Boston Bay}, and against several other persons for Land,
as being violent intruders into Kings Possession.

Next

day he tried to go to the island to see if such a writ had
been served on his tenant there but had to give up because
CA
of the wind and tide a n d a broken oar. u This was on Fri­
day#

On Saturday he wrote to Influential friends in England

through his agent, Edward Hull,

enclosing fifty pounds "to
Cl
pay them • * • If they call*d for it#"
On the following
Monday he wrote to Ephraim Savage, from whom he had bought
the property, asking him to

"consider seriously what may be

most proper for defence#

A few days*

thought on the sub­

ject brought him to a typical decision, namely to try making
his peace with Andros through a petition

"humbly praying"

for "Grant and Confirmation of the said Hogg-Ieland • • •
upon such moderate Quit-Rent as your Excellency shall please
58

There is a long and able discussion of this Involved
legal point by the editors of the Letter-Book. I, 71-73, note#
Diary. I, 219.
60 Ibid.. p. 220.
^Ibid.
gp

Letter-Book.

I, 87, letter dated July 16, 1688.

-104-

to order*

It was not an easy decision to make, for, as

he wrote to Increase Mather, Massachussets1 agent In England
during these years,

"I was urg* d by my friends two contra.ry

wayes; but at last have • • • petition*d.

• * *

Mr* Dudley,

Stoughton and several principal men having taken Patents,
and intend to doe it; some of which were formerly most averse* "
Then follows this illuminating statement:

"The generality of

People are very averse from complying • • • and look upon me
very sorrowfully that I have given way*

Sewall had chosen

to identify himself with Dudley and Stoughgon, leaders of
what has been described as the
submission, " men who were

"party of prerogative and

"trusted by the people, and were
gg

ready to betray them and become servants of En g l a n d * "

Lat­

er in the same year he wrote again to Increase Mather on the
same subject, repeating the facts already stated and adding
these troubled words:

"Am so sensible of the miseries this

people like to undergoe,

if that course be follow*d [i.e., the

course he had already takenj, that I shall be very willing
to give more than comes to my share, if some general way of
Relief might be obtain*d*

I was so concern*d, that I had

cast myself on the sea to come for England before petition­
ing, but knew not how to get away * . ., " his wife being
63

Diary. I, 220-221, entry for July 24, 1688; M a s s * A r ­
chives. CXXIV, 110, date of July 83, 1688.
^ I b l d .. p* 231.
The letter is dated July 24, 1688.
65
Henry Cabot Lodge, Studies in History (Eoston, 1884),
p. 30*

-105—

“very near her time, " as he had noted In the earlier letter*
He ends with:

“Praying God you may hapily finish what you

have so well begun,
• • •,

*

especially about Property,

I take leave

etc* 66

He cast himself on the sea, as he says,

In the following

month and arrived In an England that had undergone Its Blood­
less Revolution*

William was on the throne and Increase Math­

er was at court working to obtain for Massachusetts a new and
more favorable charter.

Sewall* a English Journal shows him

doing what he can to help, consulting with Mather about

*te.

virulent Libel ** which had appeared against N e w England a n d
67
helping him frame his reply,
visiting influential persons
"to promote our Interest, **^® going to Westminster

"to give
69
Evidence for N. E* " and finding his testimony unwanted,
appealing for a new policy for New England In the name of
70
■^Religion, Liberty and Property. ■
That the third of these
principles provided him with a livelier motivation than the
other two seems fair enough to say*
of the charter, the threat to

A t the time of the loss

"Religion" and

liiberty" had

found him unable effectually to move; it was only the threat
gg 1 1■■
Dlar.v. I, 229-230, letter dated October 8, 1688*
6^Ibld. . p. 256, entries for May 18 and 20, 1689*
68 Ibid. . pp* 251, 257, entries for April 25 and M a y 31, 1689*
69
Ibid. . pp* 266-267, entry for July 18, 1689*
70
Ibid. . p* 251, letter to Thomas Papillon, merchant and
member of Parliament*

-10G-

to

'^Property" that brought him,

though his temper was still

a submissive one, to a more effectual course of action than
resort to prayer.
A final bit of Insight into Sewall*s character as re­
vealed In his actions and attitudes of these years may be
gained from the record of his relations with Andros.

On

June 28, 1689, as he sat In a London coffee house reading
a letter from home, he found himself

"surpris'd with Joy*

The cause of his pleasure was news of Andros' overthrow.
The reader of the diary may at that point recall that this
same Andros

the man with whom he had gone to considerable

pains to remain on agreeable personal terms.
1688, for example, he

On July 30,

"went to Dedham to accompany his Ex­

cellency in his way to New-York and Jersy . . .
Government of those places.*^

to taks the

A week earlier he had engaged

in friendly discourse with Andros'

chaplain, Mr. Ratcliff,

whose Episcopallanism was to him a hateful thing, about his
73
proposed Journey to England.
Shortly before he left In
November, having business at the Town House, he stopped to
'te.sk his Excellency" if there was any
might perform for him in England.

"service" which he

Andros

"said none In

particular; Ask'd whom I went In; said in Capt. Clark.
71 Ibld. . I, 261.
72
Ibid. . p. 221.
7 3 Ibid., p. 233, entry for October 24, 1688.

He

74
said * twas very well, and passed, away out of the Porch# "
This relationship with Andros may be taken as a type of the
sort that was repeated again a n d again throughout Sewall*s
life.

It bespeaks a trait of character which may be de­

scribed as either friendly or submissive,

conciliatory or

opportunistic, amicable or meek, according to choice#

A

man whose natural friendliness and real gentleness chiefly
account for the attraction of his character, he was also
one who was quite able to recognize on which side hie politi­
cal bread was buttered and to act accordingly#
III
Eighteen months passed between the time when, as Sewall
later declared, Hannah Hull

"set her affection" on him at his

graduation in the summer of 1674, and their marriage at the
house of her father#
two brothers,

Upon leaving Harvard,

Samuel went with his
75
Stephen and John, home to Newbury.
Here he

whiled away the next year and a half, apparently doing nothing
in particular, but watching his brothers and friends marry and
become settled in their various callings, visiting his old mas­
ter, Thomas Parker, and tending to odd Jobs,

such as family

correspondence with relatives in England, getting in the beans,
and felling an oak near the house as his mother and sister
74

75

Ibid#. p# 235, entry for November 7, 1688.
Ibid., p# 5, entry for August 14, 1674#

-1GS-

stood near by weeping' copiously flfcatre et 3orore ve.lde plan76
gentlbu^*
The time and. reason for giving up his plans for
the ministry are not told us*

Soon after arriving home he

received a oall to Woodbrldge, New Jersey, a town settled by
people from Newbury,
accept.

to be their pastor,

nrt

but he did not

In the following April he took over Parker's pulpit

for one service and had a discouraging time of it*

"Being

afraid to look on the glass, " he says, "ignorantly and unwll*73
lingly I stood two hours and a half* "
That his marriage, with the duties and responsibilities
to which it made him heir, was the decisive,

if not the only,

factor in his decision to abandon the ministry, one can scarce­
ly doubt*

He would have been less than human had he not told

himself what the Reverend Thomas p rince told the South Church
congregation at the time of hir death, namely that he was
76

"by

Ibid* , pp* 5-12, passim* entries for August 18, 1674 through
January" 10, 1675/6*
77
Ibid* . P « 7, entry for November 24, 1674*
78
Ibid*, p* 9, entry for April 4, 1675*
Whatever his abilities
as a preacher, his staying power was in the best Puritan tra­
dition* As Horlson, Puritan Pronaog (New York, 1936), p* 162,
says:
*Phe sennon was timed by an hour glass for m i n imum, not
maximum length* A preacher who ended before the hour was up
was considered deficient in his duty; and Edward Johnson de­
scribes listening with rapt attention to a sermon by Thomas
Shepard which must have been over two hours long, since 1 the
glasse was turned up twice*1 "
One is reminded of George
Whitefield1s saying to an audience:
"Well, my brethren, since
this is the last time we are able to be together. I'll take
another glass with you, " turning up the hour glass once more
(see William Everett, "Six Provincial Worthies" Cunpublished
manuscript at the Boston Athenaeum], p. 43).
Sewall*s appar­
ent erabarassment at standing two hours and a half is under­
standable, however, it being understood that the sermon would
ordinarily draw to a close as the sands marked the end of the
first hour (see Ezra H. Bylngton, The Puritan in England and
New England CBoston, 1896], pp. 152-153).

-109-

the call of Providence directed from It, " a nd that his being
"put Into the early Possession of Secular Wealth" offered
him

larger Sphere and Power of Employing his Talents for
79
the Glory of God. "
There is good evidence that during this

period of indecision over his vocation he experienced spirit­
ual distress,but Whether or not as a direct result of the
problem of his

"calling" it is possible only to guess.

earnest Puritan youth faced such a problem,

Every

for getting into

the wrong calling meant a diminished glory for God, whose
title of Taskmaster w a 3 a very apt and meaningful one.

Sew-

all faced the problem long and distressingly in his son, Sam
Junior, whose troubled search for a role in life caused hie
father to pray for his

"settlement in a Trade that might be

good for Soul and b o d y , a
abide with God.

"Calling . . .

wherein he may

A t the time when his own decision had to

be made, and only three months before his marriage, he wrote:
•Morning proper fair, the wether exceedingly benign, but (to
me) metaphoric, dismal,

dark and portentous,

some prodigie

appearing in every c o m e r of the skies. It was four
after his marriage before he went with

Hull

months

"to Mr. smith* s,

79

A S e r m o n . . . Upon the Death of the Honourable Samuel
Sewall . . . (Boston, 1730), p. 32.
^ D l a r y , I, 413, entry for December
I b i d .. p. 393, entry for February

23, 1695.
19, 1694/5.

8 2 Ibid., P* 11* entry for November 11, 1675.

-110-

there to sea the manner of the Merchants, " ^ a n d eight months
later the question was apparently still unsettled:
1676/7#

Mr.

"Feb. 23,

CSamuel3 Torrey spake with my Father £HullJ at

Mrs. Norton* s, told him that he would fain have me preach,
and not leave off m y studies to follow Mercha n d i z e . "

Sewall

had been meaning to speak with Torrey about becoming a mem­
ber of the 3outh Church and
to fear#

"the temptations that made me

But he went home when I v:as at the Warehouse about

Wood that Tho# Elkins brought. 1,04

Two months earlier Rever­

end John Reyner of Dover, a relation by marriage, had given
opposite advice.

Walking with Sewall in the orchard, he

urged him

'•not to keep over m u c h within, but goe among men, m
ac
that he should thereby '^advantage" himself#
A Mr. Dean

similarly urged him to become acquainted with the merchants
and invited him

"to their Caballs#

This was approximately

a year after his marriage and almost two and a half years
from the time of his graduation#
83
84

Gradually,

however, his

Ibid., p. 14, entry for June 16, 1676#

Ibid. , p. 36#
There are numerous other indications of
distress of spirit at this time (see, for example, ibid. . pp.
32-33, entry for January 10, 1676/7; ibid. . p. 37, entry for
March 6, 1676/7; ibid. p . 39, entry for March 31, 1677? ibid..
p. 44, entry for M a y 23, 1677), but these seem mainly to de­
rive from a rather ordinary sense of unworthiness at a time
of Joining the church a n d do not Justify an interpretation
involving his entry into business#
85
Ibid. . p. 32, entry for December 21, 1676.
AC
Ibid., entry for January 6, 1676/7#

-111-

uncertainty seems to have ended, not so m uch through decision
as through a rather passive acceptance of the Inevitable, and
by the spring of 1677 he was in active apprenticeship with
Hull, drawing up a

"Joynt Account between my Father in Law,

and m e ” involving "three Bayles and two Hoggsheds of Eng­
lish Goods received from on Board the Blessing.
ia this account as

Such items

"Calico, " "Blankets, " "Buggs, " "Blew

Llnnen, " "green Serge Cor t a i n s " with "French F r i n g e , " HMens
Felts," '^lens Castors" (a kind of beaver hat) , "Black Taffata, " ’lawn, " and

"Cambrick are concrete reminders of the

distance Sewall had travelled from the vocational interests
of the ministry.

However much his private Interests re­

mained theological— and, as earlier notea, they remained
strongly so— he nevertheless illustrates the movement in
New England away from the pulpit as a seat of power and the
QQ
growing attraction of wealth a nd secular interests.
Dur­
ing his visit to New England at thl3 time, Jaspar Danckaerts
observed the growing secular spirit and remarked;

"When

we were there, four ministers1 sons were learning the sil­
v e r s m i t h s trade.

Sewall*s course was more directs

8 7 "Diary and Commonplace Book, 1675— , " foil. 13-14, 16-17.
This is not the earliest evidence of his activity in Hull's
affairs (see D i a r y , I, 25-27, letter to Edward Hull, agent
in England, dated October 23, 1676, and entries for October
23-28, when he visited Hull's Naragansett lands), but it is
tile first in which he appears formally settled in his new role.
qq

See Adams, Provincial Society, pp. 63, 114.

" j o u r n a l , pp. 274-275.

he married a silversmith's daughter, the richest in the colo­
ny.

Let it be said once more that there is nothing which

should cause us to believe that in making this marriage he
was following a course of shrewd Yankee ambition, as Pro90
fessor Parrlngton suggests#
There is a rough truth in the
observation that there are two kinds of men,
upon life and those who are acted upon.

those who act

During these first

years in Boston, as at most other stages of his career, Sew—
all showed himself to be among the latter#
If the diary says little of his decision to abandon the
ministry,

it says even less of his courtship and marriage#

In fact, it says nothing at all,

in striking contrast to the

extreme detail it contains for the courtships and marriages
of his old age.

If he ever went down from Newbury and

"had

a discourse" with Hannah Hull,as he notes his brother doing
in his courtship of Hannah Fessenden of Cambridge,

he never

confided the matter to his diary, and during the month pre­
ceding his marriage, even on the day of the famous occasion
Itself, he is silent#
he said:

Writing to his son 3am many years later,

"Gov# Bradstreet married us • • • in the Old Hall

[of Hull's residence on High Street}; 11 was then all in one,
92
a very large Room";
and John Hull noted in hie diary:
"Feb.
^ C o l o n i a l Mind, p# 90.
91
qg

1720#

Diary. I, 5, entry for September 7, 1674#
"Gen. Letter, " xiv*

The letter was written August 26,

-11b-

28, being Monday, Mr. Broadstreet [sicj married my daughter
93
Hannah to Samuel Sewall, In the evening."
Clarke*s descrip­
tion of the wedding as a festive occasion, with great prep­
aration of cakes, puddings, ana.ale; articles arriving from
England for the bride to wear, and she spinning and weaving
for her wedding chest;

flames leaping in an immense fire­

place and silver tankards of Hull's making warmly reflect94
in g the glow; the aristocracy of the colony gathering— all
t"ls is pleasant speculation, of a more believable k ind than
Hawthorne's having John Hull wear pine-tree shillings for
buttons or his equally fantastic weighing-in of the bride,
whom he describes as being

95
"round and plump as a pudding, "

but it is still only speculation*
Of the dowry p aid in pine-tree shillings,

it has been

remarked that if it was the traditional thirty thousand pounds*
the daughter could i-ot have been weighed against it, however
round and plump she might have been.

Such an amount,

rating

a silver pound as four ounces at the time, would have come to
96
something over three tons*
As a matter of fact, there was
probably a settlement of five hundred pounds.

Such, at any

rate, was the amount Sewall entered about this time in his
account book, designating it as
Q3

"Uy Father-in-law, Mr. John

Page 162*

®4 John H u l l , pp. 162-163.
95
W o r k s . V, 42-43*
96
Dow, Every Day Life, p* 169.
See also the comment of the
editors of Hull's D i a r y , appendix, p* 275.

-114-

Hull, to his Free Promise.
conclude that this was
ry

The editors of Hull* s Diary

'Very clearly the amount of the dow­

and add, after pointing out that such an amount would

come to about one hundred and twenty-five pounds troy weight,
that this weight would be about right for a young lady of
eighteen.
For our understanding of Sewall* s position in the colony
after his marriage,

it means little that popular belief in

the matter of the dowry is without demonstrable basis in fact*
What is important is that in the eyes of the ordinary citi­
zen of Boston, Hull*s wealth was such as to become the mate­
rial for legend.

IV
Through the apparent loss of a manuscript volume of
Sewall*s diary, there is a gap in its existing form from
March, 1677, to February, 1635.

Since the letter-book does

not really begin until 1686, we are without any considerable
record for his activities during the years of his business
and political apprenticeship.

It is fairly clear, however,

^ " D i a r y and Commonplace Book, 1675--, " fol. 15.
There
is no record of his receiving this full amount.
Shortly be­
fore the marriage (February 11) he noted receipt of thirty
pounds, and shortly after (March 13) of thirty— five pounds
(ibid.).
He then transferred the balance of 435 pounds to
*riew Started Accts., " which we do not have.
98
Appendix, p. 275.
To say that it was "very possibly the
amount of the dowry" would be more accurate. Professor
Morlson, Builders of the B a y , p. 138, accepts the five hundred
figure.

that in the last years of his life Hull turned more and more
of his earthly affairs over to the younger man.

When, for

example, a business correspondent wrote suggesting a cargo
of hoops,

fish and pipe-etaves for the Canaries, Hull replied

that he wished more

Mto embrace oppertunyty of getting out

rather than running into the business of this v;orld Speacially
forralgne tr&ffique as desirous to be more thoughtfull of
Launching into that vast ocian of Eternity whether we must
all shortly bee carried. . . . " "

That Sewall was taking

over Hull's accounts is Indicated in Hull's writing to Daniel
Allen in London on December 27, 1680, that he had received hie
shipment of
to

^glasses and hate M and had turned the matter over

'tay Son-in-law,

Samuel Sewall. . . .

He hath sold your hate

and some glasses; and as he can sell the rest, and receive in,
so he will render you an account, and make you a return; and
I hope with prudence and faithfulness,
and faithful .

for he is both prudent

* 100

Because of his inexperience in business affairs,

it Is

probable that the prudence for which Hull here commends him
had not always been apparent.

There is something a bit pa­

thetic in a set of entries from the first year of his ap­
prenticeship with Hull which show the conscientious young man,
99

William B. Weeden, Economic and Social History of New
E n g l a n d : 1620-1789 (New York, 1890)7 I* 249, citing his
letter-book at the American Antiquarian Society.
^ 0 0 D i ary , p. 124.

D E C E M B E R hath X X X I Days.
h r i t Q u a rt.
F a ll-M o o n
U R Q u art.
N e w .M oon

7 day at 1 • M orn in g .
t j day at a N i^ h r.
11 day at 8 N ig h t.
>9 day a t ; N ig h t
M f^A ourt*. Spring ia.it** j k v»> a »•) pi. p.it
D (P { A rp cftt. W eather, f / r . h.m. h. D ^ M tr h m .
to
till. %. A . ti.imf .
7 VT ti
11
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'

-116-

fre8h from his theological studies, getting his fingers burned
In transactions with

'Some petty Debtours • . • to whom I de­

livered goods of my Father* s, trustingly,
goods Involved such things as
of Malt, " and

• • •

The

Barrel of Rum, " *13 Bus, ^

"2 Length, of Rope & a Bus. £ of w h e a t . "

On

one occasion his experience with Hull was so distressing that
he retreated Into Latin when writing of it in his diary.
Someone had angered Hull, as Treasurer of the Colony, by
bringing him, without prior consultation, oats rather than mon
ey for the payment of taxes.
fire a larger lo S

When, then, Sewall threw on the

than the old man thought proper, he found

himself suddenly told that if he would be so foolish Hull
could have no confidence in him,

"for that his mind would be

as unstable as if it were akin to the wind.
tient observation was that

Sewall*e pa­

%io godly man hath any more afflic­

tions than what he hath need of, " but one wonders if when*
103
in 1683, Hull "watched his-last, " Sewall* s sorrow was en­
tirely unmixed with a sense of relief.

The subordinate char­

acter of his position was definite; he was in his thirty-first
104
year, father of four children,
and still "son Sewall. "
101 iiDiary a n a Commonplace Book, 1675-, " foil. 10 and 11.
102
Diary. I. 35, entry for February 14, 1676/7.
The Rev.
Samuel Sewall's translation of the passage, whioh I have
used, is in Hull's Diary, p. 253, note.
103
Diary. I, 50, notes from Sewall*s interleaved almanacs,
entry for August 14, 1683.
For the diary gap from 1677 to
1685 the editors have supplied material from various sources.
104

Five counting the first son, John, born in 1677 and dead
the next year.

-117-

In the fall of 1681 he had made a move toward occupation­
al independence when he undertook the management of Boston*s
only printing press.

Located in a shop "over against the Sign
105
of the Dove" (an inn on Snow Lane),
the press had begun op­
eration in 1674 under the management of John Foster.
Foster*s death, Sewall,

After

■tet the Instance of some friends,

with respect to the accommodation of the publicke, " was "pre106
vailed upon" to take over*
Though the actual work of
printing the various governmental documents and the score
or so of books, all of them religious, which appeared during
the two years of his management, was largely in the hands
of his assistant, Samuel Green,

it is interesting to note
107
that occasionally he worked at the case himself.
On
105

George E. Littlefield, The Early Massachusetts Press:
1658-1700 (Boston, 1907), II, 12.
1 06
Mass. Records. V, 325-324, date of October 12, 1681.
Stephen Daye had set up a press In Cambridge in 1638, and
until 1674 printing was confined to that town.
In this year
the General Court ordered that printing might be done "else­
where than at Cambridge, " and John Foster, a Harvard gradt*ate of 1667, set up a press in Boston. (See Winsor, Memorial
History. I, 455-457.
Details of Sewall*s managership are in
Thomas, History of Printing in America. I, 84-86, and Little­
field, Massachusetts Press. II, 12-19.)
107
Littlefield, p. 19, says that during the two years of
Sewall*s management he published "twenty or more books, a
goodly showing." The titles in Charles Evans, American Bib­
liography (New York, 1941), I, 53-59, which carry his name
(e.g., P r i n t e d by S. Green upon assignment of S. Sewall,"
•Printed for Samuel Sewall, " *5>r. by S. G. for S. S. ") are
fourteen in number:
Samuel Willard, Ne Sutor Ultra Crepidam. or Brief
Animadversions upon the New-England Anabaptists . •
1681.
Samson Bond, A Publlck Tryal of the Quakers in Barmudas • • ., 1682.“
Increase Mather, Heaven* s Alarm to the World .
ond impression, 1682.

-118-

February 2, 1684/5, he wrote to his uncle Nathaniel Dumner
In England:
It so fell out that not long since I was the owner of
a printing press and Letters, and practised something
myself in that science.

Not to mention other things,

I composed the Assemblies Cathechlsm with the proofs,
Mr. Oakes's Artillery Election Sermon at Cambridge*
. . .

£12 have sent six hundred of them [the cathe-

chismsj in a small box, which lntreat the young per­
sons of Bishop Stoke [Sewall's birthplacej will kind­
ly accept from him who cannot but affectionately re­
member his native soil* • . •

If you have to spare,

let Baddesley [to which the Sewall family had moved
108
from Bishop Stokej next partake.
Increase Mather, The Latter Sign Discoursed o f .
1682.
Increase Mather, Practical Truths Tending to
Promote the Power of Godliness • • ., l 6 8 £.
Increase Mather, A sermon where in is shewed that
the church of God Is Sometimes a subject of Great Per­
secution. 1*552.
Urian Oakes, The Soveralgn Efficacy of Divine
Providence • • ., lo82.
Samuel Willard, Covenant-Keeping the Way to
Blessedness . • ., 1682.
Samuel Willard, The Fler.v Tryall No Strange Thing
. . ., 1682.
Cotton Mather, The Boston Ephemerls • • ., 1683.
Increase Mather, A Discourse Concerning Comets
. . ., 1683.
Samuel Torrey, A Plea for the Life of Dying Re­
ligion, 1683.
Westminster Assembly of Divines,
The Shorter Cat­
echism, 1683.
'
Samuel Willard, The High Esteem which God Hath of
His Saints . . . preached Oct. 7 . 1685.
Occasioned by
the death of . . . John H u l l . Esq., 1683.
108
The letter is printed in the New England Hist, and Gen.
fisg,» IK, 287-288. A letter to another uncle, Stephen Dumme

-119-

The lost diary record for these years would tell much about
which we can now only speculate.

Apparently his Interest In

managing the press was a somewhat casual one.

Samuel Wil­

lard* s sermon preached on the occasion of Hull* s dea th was
the last work he published, and In the next year he obtained
from the General Court a formal release from the post, which
109
then passed to Samuel Green.
V
At the death of John Hull, Sewall came into what he later
modestly described as

"an Estate that might afford a competent

Subsistence according to our manner of living in N. E. * ^ ® By
agreement among the heirs (Hull having died Intestate)

some­

what more than a third of the estate remained in the hands of
mother Hull, but since she and her son-in-law enjoyed a most
dated simply 1684/5, is similar in content a n d says of the
"Catechises," "They were composed with my own hand. * . "
(ibid.. p. 287).
109
Mass. Records. V, 452, date of September 12, 1684.
He
asks to be "freed from any obligation unto duty respecting
that affaire " as being "by the providence of God . . . unable
to attend the same . n
Littlefield, II, 21, is irritated with
Sewall for this action, taking it to indicate that he "wished
to magnify the importance of the office by having it appear
that it was an official appointment. As a matter of business
it was unnecessary.
Samuel Green, Jr., had continued with
Sewall during the whole time of his management, and when Sew­
all retired took his place." Inasmuch as Sewall*a public ca­
reer was notable in its absence of self magnification, and
inasmuch, also, as his managership of the press did involve
official action by the General Court, such a Judgment, while
possibly right, is more possibly quite unjustified.
^^Dlary,
1689.

I, 251, letter to Thomas Papillon dated April 26.

-120-

affectlonote relationship this was but a nominal limitation,
and it wag agreed that at her death (which occurred in 1695)
all that she possessed should go to Samuel and Hannah and
their children.

1 1 1

Rentals,

both in money and in kind, flowed

The agreement (Suffolk Court Files, number 2190) is en­
titled "Proposalls for Division and Setleraent of the Estate
left by John H u l l . " Its provisions are complicated ( "the
mansion house . . . wherein hee dyed, with all the land there­
to adjoining" and certain other houses and lands to go to her
alone and at her death to her grandchildren, Sewall to act the
part of trustee; household goods to be divided half and half,
etc.), but the one-thlrd-and-two-thirds lorinciple is its chief
feature. The items mentioned in it are all contained in the
earlier description of John Hull's properties.
Sewall* s devotion to his "dear Mother Hull, " as he re­
peatedly refers to her, was apparently very real. When he
named his daughter Judith for her he prayed that she might
"follow her Grandmother Hull . . . being not slothfull in
Business, fervent in Spirit, serving the Lord" (Diary. I,
328, entry for August 24, 1690). At her deathbed he "took
the opportunity to thank her for all her Labours of Love to
me and mine, and ask'd her pardon of our undutifullness; She
after a while, said, God Pity 'Em; which was the last prayer
I heard her make. About six I ask*d If I should call Mr.
Willard, (for had said to him that he should come again if
he could). As far as I could perceive, she said, Not so soon.
But I called, or sent; yet could not discern any attention to
the prayer . . . and a little before Sunset she expired, to
our very surprising Grief and Sorrow. Roger Judd was here
about noon, and said, that when some in the next room spake
about who should Watch, my dear Mother answer'd. She should
need no Watchers, she should be above at R e s t " (ibid., pp. 408409, entry for June 21, 1695).
In the broadside that Sewall
wrote and distributed after her death, he described her as.
An Humble Soul, Trimd with an High Neglect
Of Gay Things, but with Ancient Glories deck't.
(Printed, Am. Ant. Soc., Trans.. Ill, 2 7 2 J
When, on August 13, 1695, a fast was kept at his house "after
the death of my dear Mother" he "burst so into Tears" during
the singing of the twenty-seventh psalm that he could hardly
continue (Diary. I, 410).
More than a year later he sent
his friend Bridget Usher
small book . . . in remembrance
of my Dear Mother Hull, for whoes Loss I am still mourning and
that Justly" (Letter-Book. I, 171, letter dated September 28.
1696).
It is worth noting that there are no such expressions
concerning John Hull.

-121-

in from every direction*

Income from Boston property alone,

of which few men owned mors than he (in 1687, one of the
few years for which there are surviving tax lists, there
H P
were but four)
' was considerable* Looking through the
close-packed pages of
such entries as

2

fourteen from the
warehouse,"

"Samuel Sewall his L e d g e r , "

sixteen pounds a year from

"7/alker* s House, "

"House at Cotton Hill, " six from

four from

one finds

"rent of the stables,"

"the new

sixty from

Hog Island, six from the shop on Newbury street occupied by
V/llliam Howell the cabinet maker, three from
warehouse, " ten shillings from a
pounds from Joshua Lane,
Poles," twenty from
from

%. shop at the

HLot in Hull Street, "

shoemaker, for the

four

"Shop next Mr*

"Hoar*s House," four pounds ten shillings

’’Part of the house by the Dock, " and so on, innumerably*

i:

112 r ecord Commissioners of the City of Boston, Reports
(Boston, 1876-1909), hereafter referred to as Boston Records*
I, 91-133.
Sewall paid the immense sum of fourteen shillings
and ten pence.
Samuel Shrlmpton, Henry Maier, Edward Shlppen,
and Ephraim Savage paid more, Shrlmpton*s payment of three pounds,
one shilling,and eight pence being the highest.
Sewall*e taxes
for 1712-28 averaged about six pounds a year (Ledger, fol* 143).
This higher figure does not, presumably, result from a vast in­
crease in his holdings but from its being for his provincial
holdings generally and from the fact that the second and third
decades of the eighteenth century were years of intense infla­
tion, the price of silver, basis of exchange, rising 250 per
cent between 1712 and 1733 (Weeden, II, 473, 484)*
113
Polio pages cited are 25, 32, 54, 57, 91, 117, 126, 138,
145, 153.
Both here and in the material which immediately fol­
lows, no attempt has been made to arrive at a real meaning for
the figures given.
They are a representative sampling from
entries covering a period of several decades. Because of the
frequent vagueness of the property designations it would be
extremely difficult to arrive at even a rough estimate of his
income from Boston property in any one year or even at any one
period.
In the later years inflation was in progress, so that ^

-122-

Around twenty pounds a year came from property at Rumsey In
Hampshire, England, given him by his father In 1680.114 Narragansett holdings brought In anywhere from fifteen pounds
a year In 1694-97 to forty-six In 1711.115 Revenue from Hog
Island out In Boston Bay stayed at sixty pounds for several

V, g
years after 1715 and by 1729 was up to eighty.

Rentals

from other outlying properties were at various t i mes• twelve
shillings from his

"Share of Meadow In the Land of Noc^"^^

one pound for

*Rent of the Saw-Mlll Stream at Bralntry,
119
ten pounds a year from the lands at Muddy River,
one

pound for a
lings for

lieadow in Shrewsbury,

two pounds ten shil­

•'Elam Island In Merrimak River,

six pounds

the Income from the Cotton Hill house, for example, went
from ten pounds annually to forty pounds.
Even if a rough
figure were arrived at for, say, 1685, no one, so far as I
know, has arrived at a means of translating such a figure
into terms that are really meaningful.
While It is true
that the real value of money was, generally speaking, many
times what it is today, it is also true that someone like
Sewall was rich in terms of what he was able to buy of the
products of New England and poor in terms of what he could
afford to buy of manufactured products from abroad*
114
See Letter-Book. II, 90, letter to Governor Shute dated
February 11, 1717/18; Ibid. . 44-47, letter of John Storke,
his English agent for this property, to Sewall, dated Feb­
ruary 8 , 1714.
^ ^ L e d g e r , fol. 39.
116
Ibid. . foil. 138, 168.
117
Ibid., fol. 99, entry made in 1701.
1 1 8

119

120
121

Ibid. . fol. 46, entry made in 1706.
Ibid. . fol. 41; the account runs from 1693 through 1702.
Ibid. « fol. 163; the account runs from 1718 through 1720.
Ibid., fol. 179; the account runs from 1724 through 173

-IkO—

from Moses Adams of Sherborn for his farm there,

122

one
■igg

pound ten shillings for
etc.

"5 acres of Salt-Marsh at Newbury,

If some of these amounts seem unimpressive,

it should

be remembered that even the smallest had a purchasing power
for local products that surpasses belief.

This is illus­

trated in instances where the renting parties paid Sewall
off in produce rather than money.
rented four acres of

In 1694, for example, he

’M a r s h ” to Thomas and Joshua Gardener

at one pound ten shillings a year.

In the next five yee.rs

they supplied him with approximately twenty loads of oak and
walnut firewood, three pigs, end numerous

"fowl."

In doing

this they built up a credit of four oounds, leaving them
124
Sev;all,s debtors to the amount of three and a half pounds!
Sturgeon, corn meal, sides of pork, tubs of butter, hay,
cider, nr It, turkeys,

cattle— everything that the New England

countrywide produced and that the Sewall domestic establish­
ment could use flowed in from tenants at such places as Mud­
dy River, Sherborn, Hog Island, Shrewsbury, and Newbury.
If Hull's wealth was sufficient to enable Sewall to
lead a life of comfortable leisure,
he never entertained the thought.

it is quite, certain that
Regardless of his circum­

stances, the Christian, he knew, must have a calling and
"walk diligently" in it.

One who did not, though he have

1C p

Ibid. . fol. 153; the account runs from 1709 through 1718.
lg^Ibld.. fol. 157, entry made in 1716.
1 2 4

Ibid.. fol. 58.

-124-

wtwo thousands to spend, " was
been sent Into this world, not

"an uncleane b e a s t , "

Van had

"as into a Play-house, but

a Work-house, •^IRd those who would not sweat on earth would
^ pft
certainly sweat In hell*
Sewall, consequently, bent him­
.

self to his commercial tasks.

Though they were tasks to

which his abilities and natural temper did not strongly In­
cline him, he accepted them as marked out for him by divine
providence*
Statistical information on New England trade for the
127
period in which we are interested is meager,
but the pat­
tern of that trade, its extensive character, and its im­
portance to the prosperity of the colony are all clear
enough.

Since the balance of trade between England and

New England was heavily in favor of the mother country,

log

it was necessary for Eoston merchants to find a means of
supplying themselves with the necessary credit abroad*
This they did by maintaining a balance of trade with the
West Indies which was heavily in favor of New England,
125

Miller, New England M i n d , p, 44, source not named*

The remark of "silver-tongued Smith, " a popular preach­
er during the reign of Elizabeth,
See Knappen, Tudor Puritan­
ism. pp. 389, 397.
127
See Emory R* Johnson et a l . . History of Domestic and
Foreign Commerce of the United States (Washington. D.C,, 1915)
I, *73, note*
128
New England’s role as a supplier of raw materials for
the mother country was unimpressive, but as a market for Eng­
lish goods her importance was considerable and steadily in­
creasing,
By 1715 she was importing thirty thousand pounds
more annually than Virginia, which at the beginning of the

-125-

Thue emerged, the famous triangular route of Boston to West
Indies, West Indies to England, England to Boston.
It is
129
the pattern seen in the dealings of John Hull,
and it is
the one with which the reader of Sewall becomes familiar.
Indeed, everything about Sewall*s trading activities is a
copy of those of the older man— routes, commodities,
and agents.

ships,

He simply took over at the point where his prede

cessor had left off.

In small square-rigged ketches such as

the Seaflower. Hopewell, Pink Pomgranet. and Fidelity his
cargoes of New England staples

"for the proper account and

risaue of Mr. Samuel S e w a l l * went to Port Royal, Jamaica,
St. Christopher, Barbados, and Antigua in the West Indies,
and occasionally to Bilbao, Spain.

The most Important com­

modity was, of course, fish— barrels, hogsheads, and
tals" of

"quin­

"good sound Mackarell, " "good merchantable codfish,"

"dry Bass, " "pickled Bass, " "Alewifes, " a nd

"scale fish. "

For West Indian rum and sugar there were staves (white oak
130
for rum casks, red oak for sugar)
to be fashioned into
barrels and hogsheads by a ship*s cooper on the outward voy­
age.1 *5^ There were barrels of pork and beef, hogsheads of
century was importing 215,000 pounds to her 187,000.
Virginia's Imports in this same fifteen year period declined
by ten thousand pounds. (See Curtis H. Nettels, "The Menace
of Colonial Manufacturing, " New England Quarterly. IV CApril,
1931J, 231.)
129See Morison, Builders of the Bay, pp. 173-175.
The
famous rum trade and the resulting triangle of New England,
West Indies, and the African Gold Coast had scarcely begun.
130
William B. Wee den, "The Early African Slave Trade in
New England," Am. Ant. Soc., P roo. . new series, V (October,
1887), 116.
131

The importance of the item is shown in the fact that 1

"bread and pease, " "firkins "of butter,
and apples*
132
and tar*

"sidar, " "unyons, "

Occasionally there were candles,

"train oyll, "

Proceeds from the sale of these products were

the Colonial L a w s , ed* William H. Whitmore (Boston, 1897),
p. 12?, there is -orovision for a public official who took
a solemn oath under the title of "Viewer of Pipe staves* "
■^^The best single record of Sewall*s ventures in the ship­
ping trade is his Bill of Lading Book*
The entries in this
book during three of his more active years are as follows:
November 16, 16Q5, to Port Royal: 25 bbls* mackerel,
25 bbls* pork, 10 bbls* tar, 6 boxes candles, 16 hhds*
codfish, 6,000 staves, 5 bbls. "sidar," 3 bbls* "unyons,"
1 bbl. apples*
December 7, 1685, to London* 435# ozs. of plate "in
one entire piece in a Bagg* "
July 15, 1686, to London: 25 bbls* of 'teyle, " 39#
ozs* of silver, 1 "box of beaver,"
August 24, 1686, to Jamaica-: 46 bbls* Hackarell, "
12 hhds* codfish*
April 18, 1687, to Jamaica: 40 bbls* mackerell,
6 hhds* cod fish, 48 bbls* tar*
October 12, 1687, to Jamaica: 8 hhds* **Bass fish* "
November 10, 1687, to Bilbao: 267# quintalls "good
merchantable codfish* "
November 11, 1687, to St* Christopher: 6 bbls. pickled
bass, 2bbls* mackerel, 4 hhds* "bread and pease*"
November 28, 1687, to Barbados: 10 bbls. pickled
bass, 6 hhds* "Dry Br s s , " 2 hhds. codfish*
December 6, 1687, to Antigua: 8 bbls. mackerel, 5 hhds
bass, 1 hhd. codfish*
April 3, 1688, to Port Royal: 40 "small bbls* " bass,
32 bbls* mackerel, 3 hhds. codfish, 3 firkins butter*
April 6, 1688, to London: 60 ozs* in money, pieces of
eight "in a leather b a g . "
May 20, 1688, to St. Christopher^ 8 bbls* •teackrill, "
1 hhd* bass*
June 9, 1688, to Barbados: 12 bbls* alewlves*
June 50, 1688, to Jamaica: 7 bbls* mackerel*
July 10, 1688, to London: 10 ozs* in pieces of eight
and
skillet* "
October 9, 1688, to London: 2 bbls* of "train oyll. "
November 8, 1688, to London: 675 ozs. of "fine sil­
ver in three pieces, " 125 ozs. of *ltngli8h coin, " 7ozs. of
"Dust gold. "
This brings the record down to the time of his departure
for England in November of 1688, the 807 ozs. of gold and sil­
ver being sent to finance this expedition.
During his absent*

mand uoonthegood J 7 i//o called the
£ £ **- fr » 'a J /fc p
whercolis N hjtcr under God for this prefent Vdyagc y Z L tfs *
'
r
Q r c iK jii* - and now riding at anchor A
u s f O fc3< f/r< m
and by God* gracebound for
o
f
lay

&'2AJf

S . S .

dQ&srftXf

cfcduk*sire,CCL-9

being marked and numbred as in the M argin, and are to be delivered ill the like
good O rder and well conditioned at die atordaid Port o f
(the
dangers ofthe Seas only exceptedj unto J o J jL S V 'aJ& xst+ eC G fe c n or to
/C r S — Affigns, he orthcy paying freight for die faid Good*

with Prim age and average accuftomed. In witnefs whereof the M atter or Puffer
ofthe f a id ^ /p
hath affirmed to three Bills o f Lading* all o fthis tenour and
date, the one o f which three Bills being accomplilhed^the ocher two to ftand voB.
And fo God fend the good f f iip - to ncr defixed Port in fafoty* A men.
D*ttdU$ f y f f r y u
- 'ly t* * '

— -n

rt, ~

*

A

/navP of

( K r *
-

lA^rV

!
J

A Page from tlie Bill of Lading Book

-127-

sometimes converted to goods for return to Boston,

133

but

more often either money or bills of exchange were forward­
ed to his agents in London, most Important of which was
his

t.oving Cousin, " Edward Hull

in Algate*
land*
beaver,

*fet the Hat in Hand with­

The problem was to maintain credit in Eng­

To do this some goods were sent,
"Cramberries, " molasses,

but more often the cargo was

such as

sugar, and

’’oyle, "

"logwood,"

"fine silver, " pieces of eight,

"dust gold, " *taoney of England, w "Spanish pis tolls, " "Arabi­
an Gold, " and llexico pieces melted down.

Income from

from Boston in 1688-89 Eliakim Mather acted for him, send­
ing off several cargoes for his account.
After his return
from England there is a falling off in the amount shipped,
and between 1691 and 1695 there are no bills of lading at
all, though at least two shipments during these years are
noted in the Letter-Book (Vol. I, 133-134, letter to Wil­
liam Adams dated December 23, 1692; ibid., 141-142, letter
to Edward Hull dated Kay 3, 1694).
Between 1695 and 1698
the only shipments are of bullion to England, except for a
single cargo of ^ tons of “logwood" in 1696. After 1698
the record ceases, and the book was turned over to Ellakim
Mather, who used the remainder of its pages*
After Hull1s death, in short, Sewall* s career as an
exporter lasted but about a decade, and about half of this
time his activities were inconsiderable.
This conclusion
is largely supported by what evidence the Letter-Book orovides (see Vol. I, 2-4, 84, 89, 90, 112, lTl, '133, 141-142) *
The diary is almost silent on the subject#
133
See, for example, Letter-Book. I, 64, letter to John
Richardson dated November 10, 1687.
134
See, for example, ibid., p. 114, letter of December 10,
1690, to Samuel Veazle; ibid. . p. 133, letter of December 23,
1692, to William Adams*
135
Much of this is in the Bill of Lading Book.
In the
Letter-Book, see, for example, Vol. I, 85, letter to Edward
Hull dated July 10, 1688; ibid., p. 92, letter to Edward
Hull dated November 21, 1688.

-128-

the property in England was remitted to his London agents
136
fcr this same purpose.
Prom England,

in return, came

"hard mettald" sithes,

"rub stones, " "good strong serviceable knives, " "worsted
Damask stuffs, several colors, " "Castors, " "Good black
Broad-Cloth, " casks of the
various kinds of

"best sweet-Meate, " '*Nailes, "

"sive Bottoms, " "cod hooks, " "blew duffals, "

"mlxt sad coloured searg, " "coloured calllco, " "Wickar Fans
to fan Corn with"--everything,

in short, which the mother
137
country could supply and New England lacked.
Some of
this came for use in the Sewall household, some as consignments
138
to be resold on a commission basis,
some because he was
"importuned to send" by Boston citizens in need of particuI3g
lar products.
In addition to his activites as merchant and property
owner, Sewall acted at various times, though never in a large
136

See, for example, Letter-Book. I, 64, letter to John
Richardson dated November 10, 1687.
137The possible citations here are Innumerable, and the
source is simply Letter-Book. I, passim.
Pages for the spe­
cific items noted are 33, 34, 44, 46, 67, 75, 96, 116, 118,
134, and 169.
1 3 % e e , for example, Letter-Book. I, 33, letter to Daniel
Allen dated July 16, 1666, and ibid.. p. 154, letter to
Thomas Burbank dated July 22, 1695.
1 3 9 See, for example, Le;tter-Book. I, 96, letter dated
February 4, 1689/90.

-129-

way, the part of banker, money-lender, and, somewhat sur­
prisingly, pawnbroker.

One page of his accounts, for ex­

ample, carries the note that

"a.t the latter end of the

Summer [of 1679J Mary Howen pawned a Warming Pan for ten
shillings of Mother Hull, " Apparently needing the pan dur­
ing the following winter, she brought
two Platters."

Later she brought

Min the room of it . . .

"two small Platters for

Six Shillings," "a whole Apron laced at the gathers, and
an old Scarf" for four shillings, and
platters" for five shillings.

"three small Pewter

In 1630 tine scarf and apron

were redeemed for four shillings, and ten years later

"the

Seven Platter 3 " were redeemed for one pound, Sewall apparent­
ly standing a money loss on the transaction of one shillingl^4^
In accordance with the : rliciple that nothing should be taken
from the poor that is necessary for l i v e l i h o o d ^ ^ h e pawn was
generally some object of silver.

Widow Bridgham, for example*

received twenty-five pounds and four pence for "one Silver
Salt Maker , • • one Silver plate , • , one Silver Cup • • •
three Porrengers, one Dram Cup,
all of which were kept

[andj « • • a Duz* gold Rinr-s, "

"in a Llnnen Bagg in the closet*

Seth Perry received two pounds two shillings for

Silver

Goblet," Mr, Bethia Collucott fifteen pounds nine shillings
for "a Silver Bowl and small scollopt cup, " and Abigail John140 wpi^ry and Commonplace Book, 1675— , “ fol* 26*
1 4 l Bebb,

p, 106.

142
Account Book, entry for April 7, 1690.

-130-

son five pounds for

%ta. wrought Sliver Serving Plate.

Persons wanting a place of safekeeping for large sums
of money found it In Sewall's

"Iron chest, " the same chest,

supposedly, which John Hull had once filled with fresh
pine-tree shillings,
ny's treasury . 1-4 4

silver bullion, and funds of the colo­

Out of it, also, were taken shillings and

oounds for those who came wanting loans.1-4 ®
Much controversy has centered around the thesis advanced
by Max Weber, a German economist of the last century,

that, to

Ibid., entries for January 12, 1690/1, October 23, 1691,
and November 30, 1691.
He weighed Seth Perry's goblet the
day after he received It ( "7 days Liberty to redeem . . .
else it is m i n e ") and, finding it heavier than Perry had said,
notes that he taust have credit for four ounces and three
quarters." Abigail Johnson dealt with the mother-in-law:
•Mother Hull let the money, and tne Pawn belongs to her* "
Since the items in the account book run only from 1688
to 1692, thes<* examples are from that limited period.
In the
records for the later years I find only one reference to his
playing the part of pawnbroker; it Is In the Diary, III, 281,
entry for February 22, 1720/1.
i44Account Book, entries for April 26, 1692 ( "Capt John
higginson leaves . . . two hundred pcs of Eight in a Canvas
Bag. . . .
I give him a check"), and June 30, 1691 ("John
H a t h o m e of Salem Puts into my hand to keep for him a bagg
of Money. • • •
145
According to the account book, he made at least twentysix such loans in the four years of 1688-92.
They ranged all
the way from one shilling to Atherton Haugh (entry for May 19,
1691) to twenty pounds to Nathaniel Henchman "very good money"
(entry for January 7, 1690/1).
When repayment was made in
country produce, as it frequently was, the high real value of
money is again demonstrated.
Between 1694 and 1696, for ex­
ample, Joshua Kible borrowed fourteen pounds four shillings.
In 1713 he was still paying off his debt with pumpkins, eggs,
pork, veal, quarters of mutton, pigeons, cheeses, butter,
bushels of wheat meal, etc.; and he still owed five pounds
(Ledger, fol. 47).

-151-

use Professor Morlson* s apt paraphrase,

"Calvinism released

the business man from the clutches of the priest • • .,
sprinkled holy water on economic success, " ^ ^ a n d provided
j_47
him with a "Justification for u s u r y . T h e purpose here is
not to speculate in general terms about the applicability
of this thesis to the Puritan business man.

It would seem
148
to need, at the very least, careful qualification.
Certainly it does If applied to Samuel Sewall.

The

marked effect of economic influences on his life has already
1'^ B u i l d e r s of the B a y , p. 150.
147
Puritan P ronaos. p. 8 . A valuable critical summary by
Kemper Fullerton of Weber's controversial Die Protestantlsche
St hi c und der Q-elst des Baoltallsmus appears in the Harvard
Theological Review. XXI (July, 1928), 163-195.
148
Llorlson, Builders of the Bay, p. 160, and P u r itan Pro­
naos, p. 8 , repudiates the theory in its application to early
New England.
E. A. J. Johnson, American Economic Thought in
the Seventeenth Century, p. 92, concludes that "there is little
significant evidence to support this thesis in the writings
of the American Puritans.
To be sure one fjnds the familiar
doctrine of stewardship . . . but this is not peculiar to
Calvinism.
There is no more idealization of wealth accumu­
lation than there is in the Catholic economic literature. "
PerryMlller, The New England M i n d , p. 43, recognizes that the
doctrine of the "weaned affections " was a considerable psy­
chological stimulus to the new capitalism, but he does not
accept the idea that Puritan piety may be explained simply
as "a rationalization of economic change. " Economic change
came as a result of what the Puritan believed about the place
and role of man in the universe, not the other way around.
Knappen, Tudor Puritanism, p. 353, points out that the middle
class became the proponents of the Puritan doctrine partly
because "it was too cold and Intellectually complicated for
the lower classes, and a creed which might set a lord on the
penitent stool before an entire congregation was no religion
for a gentleman." The Puritan Intelligentsia needed allies
for their program, and they found them in the rising middle
class.

-132-

been noted.

He came to terms with the world, abandoned the

ministry for a life

"among the merchants, "

married great

wealth, and loaned money at interest without spiritual qualms 149
His course of action at the time of the loss of the Colony
Charter was determined more by a concern for the preservation
of property than of political principle.
Sun dial

His"Lines for a

.

Keep in G o d ’s

way; keep pace with evry hour

Hurt none; doall the Good that's

In your Power.

Hours can't look back at all; they'll stay for none
150
Tread sure, keep up with them, and All's your own.
— are an early voice
that he

of Franklin's Poor Richard*

His prayer

'taight have

an Interest in God, Signed, Sealed, and
151
Delivered" is a nice expression of the merchant mind. All
these things are true, but they do not present the complete

picture.

Just as true and Just as important is the fact

that the sanction given to the business life by Puritan doc­
trine did not, in Sewall's case, even with all the prelimi­
nary advantages of the Hull inheritance and business connec­
tions, result in a life of eager and successful devotion to
economic gain.

Within a decade after the death of John Hull

14.9

Though he made many loans, the times that interest is
mentioned are few.
Two instances are: Letter-Book. I, 132,
memorandum oaf letter to Edward Hull dated October 4, 1692;
ibid., p. 133, memorandum of letter to Cousin Storke dated
October 19, 1692.
150
Printed, Am. Ant. Soc., P roc. . ser. 2, LII, 311.
Diary. I, 312, entry for March 21, 1689/90.

-133-

his mercantile career had faltered and come almost to a
standstillf” ®^possible reasons being a growing preoccu­
pation with public affairs (e.g., in 1692 he began his
long career on the Judicial circuit,

the duties of which

frequently took him away from Boston for weeks at a time),
Increased risks of ocean commerce as a result of renewed
153
war with the French,
and simple lack of business ability.
152

The record of his participation in the export trade
has already been discussed.
The record of imports for re­
sale is roughly the same. One need but glance through the
pages of the letter-book, the best source of Information on
this point, to realize that his work as an importer came to
a virtual end around 1690.
Professor Parrlngton, The Coloni­
al M i n d , pp. 88-97, is apparently uncognizant of this fact,
with the result that much of his essay on Sewall derives
from the assumption that he was
Puritan embodiment of
Defoe's merchant ideal" (p. 91).
Considerably more knowledge
of the facts is shown in G-eorge P. Wlnship'e "Samuel Sewall
and the New England Company, " in which he states (p. 65) that
Hafter Hannah Hull selected him for a husband, her father
introduced him to the life of the merchants, at which he did
well enough under a father-in-law's guidance.
When this prop
was removed, his mercantile correspondence declined . . .
drifting into futile efforts to arouse neglectful creditors
to a realization of their obligations. "
•*-a p i a r y . I, 184-185, entry for August 1 and 2, 1687:
"Brother [StephenJ comes to Town and brings word that two
Salem Catches are. taken by the French. . . . "
Letter- Doo k .
I, 8 6 , letter to Nathaniel Dummer dated July 10, 1688: "Fear
Nathrniel Man is lost and then I have lost 2 or 3 0 0 & " Ibid.,
P. 159 , letter to Edward Hull dated December 24, 1695: he
has a "piece of Plate " to send to balance accounts but "our
ships are so generally taken, that I am afraid to send it
yet. " In 1691 Sewall bought a one quarter interest in a cargo
of "the Pink Pomegranate " at a cost of more than 270 pounds
and entered the fact in his ledger (fol. 23).
The opposite
page, where returns should appear, is blank, a fact which
may very possibly have resulted from seizure of the ship by
the French.
Carrying on in the face of such discouragements
and uncertainties would, to use one of Sewall*s favorite
words, be very "heterogeneous" to a man of his cautious tem­
per.

-134—

There is considerable evidence that his managerial abilities
were of a rather low order.

In 1704, for example, he noted

in his diary that he had turned over most of his cash to his
wife, telling her that henceforth she should
He adds:

"keep the Cash. "

w. . . if I want I will borrow of her.

better faculty than I at managing

Affairs:

She has a

I will assist

her; and will endeavour to live upon my Salary: will see
what it will doe.

The Lord give hie B l e s s i n g . T h e r e

is

also sufficient evidence that he never became at home with
the every day routines associated with the commercial life.
When, for example, he became treasurer of the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel, a Job requiring careful an­
nual accounting to the society* s London commissioners of
the funds made available to the organisation by English con155
tributors,
he experienced all the difficulties of the am­
ateur accountant.

A n d this despite the fact that at thie

time (1700 and after)

he had

his own business affairs for
154

been keeping the accounts of
many years.

On January 14, 1703/4,

D l a r v . II, 95, entry for January 24, 1703/4.
The arrange­
ment was apparently not a new one. A n entry In the account
book for February 11, 1689/90, reads: ^Received cash . . .
for ooeket-Expence— JEL-O-C. "
155
The holdings of the society were surprisingly large.
Winship, "Samuel So^lLI and the New England Company, " p. 56, states
that "in five years the London Corporation, to which the control
of the money collected had been entrusted by the 1 6 4 9 charter,
was in possession of city lots and country estates with a n in­
come nearing a thousand pounds a y e a r . " The sum was considerab­
ly less when Sewall became treasurer around 1700, but from such
causes as the Plague and the Great Fire rather than negligent
administration.

-155'

he got the New England overseers for the society together to
pass on his accounts, but they

"could not get through with

It; met with so[me3 gross mistakes or such as fear'd were so;
and had not time.
done,

Col. Foster offers me to carry all I have

Into Leger parcells.

was still lending a hand.

Four years later Col. Foster

157

How much the limitations of his business abilities af­
fected the management of his property it is Impossible exact­
ly to say.

Yvin ship expresses the belief that he

good manager of his w i f e ^ property, ^ ^ & n d
a? e v i d e n c e

to suggest that this is true.

"was not a

certainly there
There Is no evi

dor.ce, on the other hand, to suggest the steady accumulation
159
of wealth ascribed to him by Parrington.
The estate left
by him at his death as seen in the record of its division
among his heirs contains little (two or three items are
vap;ue; e.g.,

piece of land near the New South Meeting

156

D i a r y . II, 92.
On January 29, 1704/5, he bought "two
Folios of Mr. Flaveil* s works . . . and gave them to Mr.
Foster for his helping me in m y Account last winter. • •
( ibid. . p. 1 2 2 ).
1 5 7 Ibid.. pp. 216-219, entry for March 6 , 1707/8.
Having
his account written out, he went to Foster "to pray him to
be present to examin it. . . . "
He "got well through it, "
he says, "by the Kindness of God. "
The nature of Sewall1s bookkeeping is suggested by the
fact that in the ledger he kept as treasurer for the society
he entered such Items as the amount in fines paid him as a
Justice of the peace (entry for April 3, 1718) and money
paid out for "fitting u p " his tomb in the "new burying p l a c e "
(entry for November 20, 1718).
158
"Samuel Sewall and the New England Company, " p. 65.

1 5Q

The Colonial M i n d , p. 90.

house") which he had not either inherited (from his father
or from John Hull)
of

or bought with Hull capital.**'®®

Instead

%.c cumulating steadily" as Parrington says, he found it

continually necessary to sell parts of his holdings to keep
himself in funds.

In a letter of December 10, 1706, to Cot­

ton Mather he wrote as follows:
land,

"When I returnd from Eng­

I had some thought of carrying out the Wharf,

to fit it for a Building yard; that fell through.

so as
• • • about

the year 1701, I found myself under a necessity to sell it
for the payment of my debts; and to that purpose a Note was
publickly affixed; yet no Chapman appeared, which put me
upon selling other Lands to my great Loss.

In this year

he sold three hundred acres of his farm at Woburn (sometimes
162
referred to as "the Land of Nod")
and probably the Piscata—
After Hull*s death the executors of his estate (i.e.,
Sewall and the Hull women) paid out 695 pounds to clear the
titles to several pieces of Boston property (Suffolk Deeds.
XIII [Boston, 1 9 0 3 J • 61-62, 79, 133, 92).
The designations
are interesting but v a g u e : "All that their Tenement . . .
neuer unto the third meeting house, " a dwelling house "by
the Great D o c k , " etc.
In 1687 (four years after Hull*s
death and before he could possibly have accumulated such a
sum on his own) he bought Thomas Savage*s share of H o g Island
for two thousand pounds (Suffolk Deeds,XV, 181).
This pur­
chase left him "straitned for mony* (Letter-Book. I, 82,
letter to Mr. Pynciion dated May 30, 1688) and was the last
sizeable addition to his property holdings.
The "Division
and Settlement" agreed on by Sewall*s heirs is a manuscript
document of twenty, large folio pages [Suffolk Deeds, XLV,
unpublished volume)•
1^ L e t t e r - B o o k . I, 341.
Three years before he had sold
six hundred acres of his Naragansett holdings (Diary. I, 475,
entry for April 7, 1698)•
1 6 2 Ledger,

fol. 99.

The sale brought him one hundred pounds

-137

qua lands In Maine*

163

In 1702 he wrote complaining that he

ivas "now, not only out of Cash, but in Debt*
later he

Four years

"importunes" his agent at Rurasey to send

is due to me " to his agent in London because

'till that

"next Sumner

we must make some new Cloaths • • • and this little Spring
[i.e*,

the Runsey Income} is our Supply, w1®® jn

^719

^

sold

"the Malt-house and land" for three hundred pounds, and forty
acrea at Newbury went for one hundred raore.^®® In 1727 he dis­
posed of what remained of his holdings in

"the Land of Nod"

to Samuel Dummer for a little over two hundred pounds*
The point of this rather extended recital of facts is
that it would appear to invalidate the thesis of the most
significant critical evaluation of Sewall which has appeared
in this century,
al Mind*

that by Professor Parrlngton in his Coloni­

In this essay Sewall appears as a man who plied

"the gospel of thrift with notable success, " one who was a
"worthy representative " of the
and

"rising world of mercantilism"

'taade full use of his opportunities to worship God, to

thrive and rise, " who reveals

"the newer practice of incipi-

163

Letter-Book* I, 251-252, letter to William Partridge
dated March 1, 1700/1*
Pointing out that the property had
"stood QHull and him} in above Two Thousand P o u n d s " a n d that
it had recently suffered "Desolation by the Indians, " he is
now ready to sell at "such Low Terms" as can be "discoursed of,*
164
Ibid*, p* 274, letter to Francis Collins dated September 3*
16*5

166
167

Ibid.. p. 332, letter dated October 12, 1706.

Ledger, foil* 159, 160*

Ibid* * fol* 133* A n entry for which I do not have the date
concerns the sale of "the New Warehouse" for 230 pounds (fol*31)»

ent c a p i tal i s m " as John Wlnthrop had revealed

"the older Ideal

of theocratic stewar-dshlp, " who spent his years
new acres to his holdings, " who

"busily adding

"with excellent thrift . • .

fixed his young affections upon the only child of a wealthy
merchant " and

"proved himself a shrewd husbandman, "

ble executive and administrator, "
Defoe1s merchant I d e a l , "

'te. capa­

'fei Puritan embodiment of

"progenitor of a practical race that

was to spread the gospel of economic Individualism across the
continent.

Such conclusions,

It must be said, reflect

either a prejudiced point of view or an unawareness of the
facts.

Probably both.

When they are not wholly wrong,

they

stand In need of such extensive qualification as to be vir­
tually meaningless.
One of Parrington's Judgments that deserves added com­
ment is that which declares Sewall to be representative of
the

"newer practice of.

ideal of
throp.'*’®9

• • c a p i t a l i s m " as against the older

"theocratic stewardship 11 represented by John WinNed Ward, writing In 1682, declared that It was

a proverb among

"those that know them" that

lieves a New-England Saint,

"whosoever be­

shall be sure to be cheated:

A nd he that knows how to deal with their Traders, may deal
with the Devil and fear no Craft.

if, as seems reasonable

*^®Pages 89-97, -passim.
169Page 83.
170A Trip to New England (London, 1699), p. 45.

to think,

this Is the kind of

rington had In mind,

171

"newer practice " which Par-

the reader of Sewall will be hard

put to find convincing illustration of it In his pages*
When he auotes the hard dealing old Thomas Dudley (father
of Governor Joseph Dudley),

saying,

"A bar g a i n ’s a Bargain

and must be made good, " ^ ^ i t is not to one of his delinquent
creditors but to George Lason, mariner, who had left his
wife and

'lay w i t h another woman, "

The hardest bargains

Sewall ever drove were the oft-citea marriage settlements
of his last years,

the niggling character of which scarce­

ly warrants the name of

"capitalism. "

They were simply

petty, and perhaps slightly senile, examples in the Euro­
pean tradition of mercenary marriage*

If he let out money

at interest or for pawns the amount was never such as to
suggest the true-born money-lender, and it was far exceeded
by the amount which he put under the headings of either
"forgiven" or
171

"gratuities*"

The number of the latter, par-

He says of Sewall (p. 96) that those who committed
certaln prank • • • m a y have had him in mind, " citing
the lines which, according to Sewall (D i a r y . Ill, 116-117,
entry for August 3, 1717), were "starch'd on the Three Doors
of the Meeting House
Good people, within this House, this very day,
A Canting Crew will meet to fast, and pray*
Just as a miser fasts w ith greedy mind to spare;
So the glutton fasts, to eat a greater share*
But the sower-headed Presbyterians fast to seem more holy
A n d their Canting Ministers to punish sinfull foley*
172
Diary. II, 125-126, entry for M a rch 3, 1704/5.
Governor
Belchar used the saying in his epitaph:
Here lies Thomas Dudley, that trusty old stud,
A bargain's a bargain, a n d must be made good*
(See John Winthrop, History of New England, ed. James Savasra
CBoston, 1853], II, 6l7J

-140-

ticularly,

is, In fact,

so large as to make it seem only-

fair to ascribe to him a fairly real sense of that

"steward­

ship " of earthly goods which Parrington would deny him, even
if his freauently careful noting of shillings and pence sug­
gest that he was at the same time, as they say in New England,
Ha little near. "

His largest benefactions were from his Nar-

ragansett lands: five hundred acres, as we have earlier noted,
to Harvard for youths

"whose parents may not be of sufficient

ability to maintain them there,

especially such as shall be
T_73
sent from Pettaquamscufct • • • English or Indians",
five
174
hundred more "towards the Support of a School there

one acre for
of God

"a meeting house in Kings Town" where the word
175
% a y be Received Offered and kept pure and Entire. "

^L>etter-Book, I, 26, editors note.
See also! ibid. . II,
33, letter to Jeremiah Dumraer dated August 17, 1714; Harvard
Records. I, 272; Caroline Hazard, Judge Sewall1s Gifts In the
Narragansett Country (Providence, 1936), p. 14* According to
Miss Hazard the principal in 1935 from the sale of these lands
was #16,455.77, providing an annual scholarship of five hundred
dollars.
*1

rjA

Letter-Book. II, 33, letter to Jeremiah Dummer dated A u ­
gust 17, 1714.
The land was given "for and towards the En­
couragement of Literature and good Education, and the Main­
tenance of a learned, sober, and orthodox School-master. • •
(Hazard, pp. 12-13, citing North Kingstown Records. II, 167).
The tract was sold in the 1820* s and a fund set up which in
1935 was #11, 765, with an income of over five hundred dollars
a year.
1 715

Hazard, p. 17, citing South Kingstown Rec o r d s . II, 153.
"The deed of this land, " says Miss Hazard,
Z
may well
be considered the charter of the church in the Narragansett
Country." For other evidence of his desire to support schools
and the ministry in the Narragansett country see Letter-Book.
I, 25, memorandum of letter to Joalah Arnold dated March 13,
1685/6; ibid., p. 105, letter to Major Walley dated February
21, 1689/90; ibid.. p. 124, memorandum of letter to Major W«1
ley dated November 24, 1691.

-141-

Eleven of hie acres at Sherborne went for the maintenance of
*1
a minister at that place.
A part of his "Elm P a sture" he
deeded to the town of Boston for an annuity during his life
"for the Use of the School at the South End.

Five pounds

went toward a meeting house at Shrewsbury and a pound ten
shillings for its minister.

In 1692 and 1693 he sent at

various times more than one hundred pounds to Nicholas Morey
of Taunton

"for his encouragement.

Meetinghouse 11 he gave eight pounds,

For help toward

**Rumney

six shillings, a n d six

181
toward a new meetinghouse in Cambridge seven pounds;
132
for the inside finishing of one at Sandwich two pounds m o r e ,
■I Q

Q

pence;

etc.

G-rindal Rawson got seven pounds

Education.

"toward his Academical

Seth Shove, son of George Shove of Taunton,

was taken into the Sewall hoxisehold, educated at Harvard with
S e w a l l ^ help, and finally established as a minister of the
Diary. II, 76, editors1 note.
1 7 ? ! ^ annuity, made in 1721 in memory of "the Wife of his
youth, " was to be five pounds, four shillings (Letter-Book.
II, 154— 135, a copy of the deed; and see the ledger, fol. 170).
178Ledger,

fol. 167, entries made in 1721 and 1724.

1 7 9 Ibid., fol. 36.
1 80Ibid. . fol. 135, entry made in 1710.
181

Diary. II, 165, entry for August 19, 1706.

1S ^Letter-Book, I, 113, memorandum of letter to Edward Milton
dated December T5, 1690.
^*8*5Ledger,

fol. 174, entries for 1725-28.

-142-

church at Danbury.

T Q4-

It would be possible to go on almost

indefinitely with a listln~ of Sewall*s cautious efforts to
do good.

Though the amounts are generally small,

ber Is large.
1Q4

On a single page of the ledger,

their num­

for example,

The story of Seth Shove runs through the entire five
volumes of Sewall*s diary and letters.
The first entry con­
cerning him deserves quoting at length*
Dec* 14, 1676, Seth Shove was brought to our House to
dwell. • • • In the evening, seeing a shagged dogg in
the Kitchln, I spake to J o h n Alcock, _I am afraid we shall
be troubled with the ugly dogg. whereupon John asked which
way he went.
T ~said out at the Street door.
He presently
went that way, and meeting Seth (who went out a little be­
fore) took him for the dogg, and smote him so hard upon the
bare head w i t h a pipe staff, or something like it, that it
grieved me that he had strook the dogg so hard.
There arose
a considerable wheal in the child head, but it seems the
weapon smote him plain, for the Rising was almost from the
forehead to the Crown, grew well quickly, wearing a Cap
that night.
*Twas God*s mercy the stick and manner of the
blow was not such as to have spilled his Brains on the
Ground.
The Devil, (I think) seemed to be angry at the
chllds coming to dwell here. (D i a r y . I, 30.)
In the next year he began to Hgoe to School to Mr. Smith"
(Diary. I, 41, entry for April 9, 1677).
Ten years later hie
father died at Taunton and Sewall lent him a horse to go to
the funeral (ibid. . p. 173, entry for April 22, 1687).
Hearing
that his home town of Newbury was without a schoolmaster, Sew*all recommended Shove, "who proceeded Bachelour the last Com­
mencement. . . .
He has liv*d
in our house sundry years and
have found him a person of sobriety and Commendable behavior.
. . . "(Letter-Book. I, 49, letter to John Richardson dated
July 14~ 1687)•
Shove got the Job and later became a minister,
settling down in Danbury.
Sewall kept in touch with him through
letters, sending him at various times 'ta. packet, " "a chest of
Books, " and books in
little Linen Bag. " (L e t t e r-Book. I, 76,
letter dated January 13, 1687/8; ibid. . p. 88, letter dated
September 6, 1688; ibid. , p. 113, letter dated November 13,
1690; ibid. . p. 127, letter dated January 9, 1691/2; ibid.,
p. 398, letter memorandum dated July 7, 1710; ibid., II, 175,
memorandums for letters of September 16 and 18, 1724; ibid.,
p. 208, letter dated July 12, 1726.)
On November 7, 1692, Sewall entered in his ledger (fol. 27):
"By Profit and Loss, freely given," "Cloaths, Books, Cash" for
Seth Shove worth eleven pounds eighteen shillings.

-143—

there are approximately sixty separate
which has here been mentioned*1® 5
is impossible to say.

"gratuities, 11 none of

What his motives were it

It is certainly unlikely that whatever

sense of concern he had for the right use of his possessions
was entirely free from the prudential thought that in that
right use lay the possibility of divine reward.
time,

At the same

it is quite clear that he was a kindly affectioned man,

of a nature sufficiently guileless to wish to do good for the
simple reason that he believed God wished it.
The aspect of Sewall*£ career as a business man and
property owner in which he found the most satisfaction was
that which allowed him to play the part of countryman and
farmer.

He loved to plant and graft and prune.

"Grafted

the Button-pear tree stock, which dies at the lower end of
the Garden, and several Apple Trees.

•‘Friday April 3rd,

Mr. Joseph Eliot and I graft some Walnut Trees.

", • •

set sweet-briar seeds at the Pasture by Mr. Saunderson* s.
. . .

M. . . plant Six Chestnut trees at Hog Island.

"April 13, 1688.

Grafted a Stock next John Wait'&, pretty

1® 5Fol. 171.
The amounts are mostly from one to three
pounds, "for a Bell at Providence, " "to the Charity S c h o o l , "
"For Mr. Secomb*s education with Mr. Wigglesworth," eto.
"I Q C

Diary. I, 173,

entry for April 15, 1687.

Ibid. . p. 69, entry for April 3, 1685.
188
189

Ibid. . p. 155, entry for October 26, 1686.

Ibid., p. 208, entry for M a rch 31, 1688.
entry for May 2s "Water the Chesnut Trees. "

Ibid., p. 212,

-144-

high out of the Cows reach, with cions from Mr. Moodey* s
Orange Pear, a n d grafted Two Appletree Stocks with Mr.
Gardener*s Russetings. • • . *L90 Such entries appear through183.
out the diary.
The feeling he had for his fledgling stocks
is suggested by his remark at a time when freezing rain ruined
many of the town* e trees:
mortified.
son, Sam, to

"• • • m y little Cedar almost quite

At the age of sixty-seven he helped his farmer
"cut his Stalks'* and gather in apples, ^ ^ a n d at

sixty-eight he

"Cock'd Hay at Saunderson* a pasture* "

On

a page of accounts that he kept during the years of his Hull
apprenticeship (1676-83), after entries having to do w ith
such things as a n

"interest in the John & An, ** another in

"the Pink Hopenwell [ s i c ] , " "Cash Reed, " etc., there is one
190

Ibid., p. 210.

^•9^"See, for example: ibid. , p. 367, entry for October 11, 1692
ibid. . p. 376, entry for liarch 23, 1693; ibid. . p. 369, entry
for April 2, 1694; .ibid., p. 401, entry for April 3, 1695; ibid..
p. 478, entry for April 15, 1698; ibid., II, 343, entry for
April 10, 1712; ibid.. Ill, 217, entry for April 4, 1719.
•*~9^Ibld. , I, 506, entry for November 30, 1699.
He was ap­
parently”a self-appointed planter of trees for the community
at large. A n entry in the town records for M a rch 25, 1695,
reads: "Whereas C&pt. Samuel Sewall hath been at Charge in
severall essays to plant trees at the south end of the $own,
for the shading of Wheeler's Pond, therefore it is ordered
that the said Sewall and his Heires and none else shall have
liberty from time to time to lop the trees so planted, and to
out them down a n d Dispose of them, he or they planting others
and causing them to grow in stead of those cut" d o w n " (Diary.
I, 401, editors' note).
193Ibid., III, 225, entry for September 1, 1719.
19^ T b i d . , p. 258, entry for June 14, 1720*

-145-

which reads,

"Gather the Pears#

added a note concerning
cost

On another page he has

"Cherry the red c o w - c a l f " and the

"to ty her Legs, & carry . . .

concerns five cherry trees
roots) •

to Bralntrey. "

Another

"well wrapt up In wet straw (the

H a d he felt the Interest In trade that he did

In gathering pears and planting cherry trees he might have
become what Parrlngton terms him,
of the

%

worthy representative "

"rising world of mercantilism."^97 But he didn't;

and the figure which he presents as he rides off to Water­
town, In his calash or on his "Sorrel Horse, ^ 9 3 to see
1 QQ
about some hay,
or to his lands at Newbury to view "the
sheep shearing, "^00embodies the conventional country squire
more than it does

"Defoe* s merchant ideal,

^9 ® "Diary and Commonplace Book, 1675— , " fol. 1.
^ ^ I b l d . , fol. 6.
On May 3, 1685, Sewall wrote in his
diary: *£hls day our old Red Cow [Cherry?] is kill'd, and
we have a new black one. . . .
Had served this family
above Ten years, above Nine slnc9 my dwelling In it. "
Pour days later he wearied himself "walking from one end
of the town t'other to seek our lost Cow. " (Vol. I, 75, 76.)
197
Colonial M i n d , p. 88.
198
Ledger, fol* 35. He also laid out money for ti Hogge3kin Saddle, " "Swivel Stirps, " and a "saddle c l o t h . "
199
Diary. I, 67, entry for Ma r c h 14, 1684/5.
200I b id.. II, 16, entry for M ay 26, 1706.
201
4
Parrlngton, p. 91.

Chapter Four
SERVANT OF COLONY A ND PROVINCE
At the base of any society are some few authoritative
Ideas which, according to the degree that they enjoy un­
critical acceptance,

give shape to Its institutions.

In

Puritan Massachusetts such an ultimate principle was the
authority of the Bible*

Only in the light of this fact

can we understand the public career of such a man as Samu­
el Sewall.
The radical theocratic ideal was expressed by John
Eliot in his Christla,n Commonwealth (London, 1660), wherein
he declared it to be

wthe Commandment of the Lord, that a

people should enter into a Covenant with the Lord to be­
come his people . . .

s u b m i t t i n g } themselves to be ruled

by the Lor d in all things, receiving from him, both the
platform of their Government, a n d all their Laws.
The latter they will

"fetch out of the W ord of God, making

that their only Magna Charta.
thus

• • •*

John Cotton had already

"fetched out of the Word" in a work entitled laoses

his Judicials" (1636), the declared aim of which was

"to

show the complete sufficiency of the word of God alone to
O
direct his people in Judgment of all causes. "
This body
^Mass. Hist. Soc., Coll. IX, 143.
^Page 29.
This work was published in 1641 in L ondon under
the inappropriate title of A n Abstract of the Lawes of New Eng­
l a n d ; inappropriate because, though submitted to the govern-

-147-

of laws, drawn up by Cotton at a time when the freemen of the
colony were demanding a codification as a protection against
3
the exercise of unlimited authority by the magistrates,
rep­
resented a theoretical extreme which the General Court was
unwilling to accept, moved as it was by a consideration of
the charter provision against passage of laws

"repugnant

to the laws of England" and the practical desire to sup­
plement the word of God with what John V/inthrop termed their
own

"right r e a s o n . T h a t

it did, however, reflect in a

general way the m i n d of the colony is shown by the fact that
in the same year (1636)

the Court passed a resolution favoj>-

ment for consideration, the code was never adopted.
Richard
B. Morris, Studies in the Hlstor.v of American L a w (New York,
1930), p. 28, characterizes it as a ^rearrangement and al­
most a complete copy of Pentateuchal enactments. "
2
Hi s t o r y . I, 388:
"The people had long desired a body
of laws, and thought their condition very unsafe, while so
muc h power rested in the discretion of magistrates. " Winthrop goes on to give two reasons why •taost of the magis­
trates and some of the elders [werej not . . . very forward
in this m a t t e r . " One was "want of sufficient experience of
the nature a n d disposition of the people, considered with
the condition of the c o u n t r y . " In other words, new con­
ditions, new laws; but Just what these new laws should be,
it was difficult to say.
Ideally, they "should arise pro
re nata . . •[;} so the laws of England a n d other states
g r e w . " The secpnd reason was the charter specification that
no laws should be made "repugnant to the laws of England. "
If they put into a code the laws which they wanted (e.g.,
one against marriages being solemnized by ministers), some
of them would violate the charter.
If, on the other hand,
instead of codifying their laws, they allowed them to become
established m e r e l y as "customs, " they could enforce the de­
sired practices without offending the home government.
What Winthrop manages to leave unsaid is th»\t in such
a procedure the people would not get the protection they de­
sired against the exercise of unlimited power by the magis­
trates.
A

Ibid. . II, 352.

They were not willing to be bound by

-148-

in ^ a draft of laws

'^agreeable to the v/ord of G o d ” a n d stipu­

lating that until such a draft could be agree .1 upon the magis­
trates should go by lav/s already passed or, where any might be
lacking,

"then as near the law of God as they can* "®

Though

the codification finally adopted (the Rev. Nathaniel V/ard* s
famous Body of Liberties, which was requested by the General
Court In 1641,

circulated among the towns, and adopted in
g

164Q) departed from the letter of Mosaic law,

It departed

*7

even more from the common law of England#

The precedents

0

it cites are Biblical precedents,

token of a habit of the

Scripture to the extent which, for example, the Brovmists
were, for whom it represented an all-sufficient legislative
enactment.
Hutchinson, His t o r y . I, 435, says of the Bay
Puritans that "in punishing offenses they professed to be
governed by the Judicial law of Moses, but no farther than
those laws were of a moral nature. "
When they prescribed
death, for example, they did so with Mosaic precedent; but
they did not prescribe death for all O l d Testament causes
(see T. C. Gray, "Remarks on Early Laws of Massachusetts
Bay . . .," Mass. Hist. S oc., Coll., ser. 3, VIII TBoston,
13433, 139).
5

Mass. R e c o r d s . I, 174.
6Gray, loc. clt.
n

Shortly before its adoption Robert Child in his ‘R e mon­
strance " of 1646 had objected to departures from English law
in the colony.
The "Declaration" which was drawn up in answer
sets forth parallels between the Massachusetts and English sys­
tems.
Richard B. Morris, M a s s a c h u s e t t s a n d the Common Law:
the Declaration of 1646. " Am. Hist. R e v . . XXXI (April, 1926),
452, terms it "disingenuous, " pointing out that the departure
from English law was m u c h greater than the "Declaration would
admit.
It is worth noting that, in some respects at least, the
departures from English law were in the direction of greater
liberality.
The Body of Liberties contains, for example, but
twelve offenses for which the punishment is death as against
one hundred fifty in the laws of England in the same period.
(See John S. Barry, History of Massachusetts rBoston. 1 8 5 6 - 5 7 ^
I, 276-278.)
M
®See the section on capital crimes in Colonial L a w s , p.

Puritan legrl nilnd which caused Thomas Lechford, an English
lawyer visitin'; the colony,

to remark angrily on the

"slight-

fine of] all former lawes of the Church or State, cases of
experience and precedents,

to go hammer out new • • • upon
Q
pretence that the Word of God is sufficient* • • • "
This reliance on Biblical authority had several Interest
ing and important results in the Puritan community.

It ele­

vated the clergy to a position of such power that in the ear­
ly years of the colony

"the preachers made * * . all the mag­

istrates, " as Winthrop remarked, % n d kept them so entirely
under obedience that they durst not act without them*
The magistrate,

too, was of awful stature,

for in a theo­

cratic society the civil power that he represented was lit­
erally the embodiment of God's will on earth*
Calvlnistlc precept,

God's

"vice regent*

He was, by

The Boston Synod

9Plalne Dealing, or Newes from New England (London, 1642),
in Mass.Hist. Soc., Colla.. ser. 3, III (Cambridge, Mass.,
1832), 86.
"^Morris, Studies, p. 26.
■^See the discussions in Morris, p. 35, and George Ellis,
The Puritan Age and Rule in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay
(Boston, 1888), p. 188*
The last chapter in John Calvin* s
Institutes of tine Christian Religion, trans. John Allen (Phila­
delphia, n.d*), entitled *Oxi Civil Government" is a primer of
Puritan political theory.
" . . . magistracy, " he says (p. 775)
is a calling not only holy and legitimate, but far the most
sacred and honourable in human l i f e * " Again (p. 797) : " . . .
it is impossible to resist the magistrate without, at the same
time, resisting God himself. . . . "
The laws of the colony declared that anyone who should
"willingly defame" a magistrate for "Sentences and Proceedings"
in the line of his duty, should be punished by whi >uing, fine*
imprisonment, disfranchisement, or banishment, as the quality

-150-

of 1680 decLared that those who resist magistrates
the ordinance of* God, w
for them,

"resist

It Instructed the people to pray

"honour their persons

• • • pay them tribute • • .

obey their lawful commands, and . . .
aut'uorlty for conscience sake.

be subjects to their

On January 2, 1717/18,

speaking on the occasion of the death of Chief Justice Waltstill Wlnthrop (grandson of the governor), Sewall reminded
his audience that

"Councillors and Judges Ca **eJ . . .

by the

Suprean Authority called g o d s " and that when the court Judges
"the Judgment is the LORD* s.
Another result of the acceptance of the Bible as the
primary authority in the management of civil affairs was the
derogation of the legal mind in favor of the ecclesiastical.
The Nev/ England Puritan felt it more Important that a Judge
be Instructed in the word of God than that he be skilled in
the common law of England.

The feeling toward practicing

lawyers went beyond indifference to active opposition.

Of

the two earliest lawyers in the colony, Thomas Lechford and
Thomas Morton, one returned to England by his own will, and
the other was expelled by the colony.

Item twenty-six of

or measure of the offense shall deserve.
l gM a g n a l l a . II, 201-S02.
ter-Dook. II, 86-87.
Sewall spoke as "the last of the
Council left Standing in the Charter . " The address was deliv­
ered preliminary to his charge to the grand Jury, at Charles­
town, Sewall "Turning toward the Chief Justices Empty Seat. "

-151-

the Body of Liberties gives the defendant the right to em­
ploy an advocate, but only without fee, a fact which makes
It understandable thr.t those who appeared in the role of
14
attorneys were of every profession but tnat of tne law*
The General Court was,
to reallzd the need for

it Is true, English-minded enough
•'better light for making and pro­

ceeding about laws “ a n d sent to England for legal texts
vf'rlch would provide

leaders,

such light;^®and several of the early

such as the Winthrops (father and son), Belling­

ham, Bradstreet, Nathaniel Ward, and Samuel Symonds, were
16
men of some legal training.
It was not until 1712, however,
that the first really trained lawyer sat on the Massa—
17
chusetts bench in the person of B enjamin Lynde,
a n d almost
^ C . J. Hilkey, Legal Development in Colonial Massa­
chusetts, 1630-1736, Col. Univ. Stud, in Hist., Ec., a n d
Public Law, XXXVII, No. 2(New York, 1910) , 62-63, gives
examples*
15
Mass. R e c o r d s . II, 212.
On November 11, 1647, the
General Court ordered "procured for the use of the Court
. • •5 Two of Sir Edward Cooke upon Littleton; two of the
Book of Entries; tv/o of Sir Edward Cooke upon Magna Charta;
t?;o of the N e w Terms of the Law; two of Dalton* s Justice
of the Peace; Two of Sir Edward Cook* s Reports* **
1 fi

Nathan Mathews, "The Results of the Prejudice Against
Lawyers in Massachusetts in the Seventeenth Century. " Mass*
Law Quarterly. X III (May, 1928), 77.
17
P. W. Grlnnell, "The Ben c h a n d Bar in Colony and Province,"
in Commonwealth History of M a s s a c h u s e t t s . ed. A. B. Hart
(Boston, 1927), II, 171. Lynde was trained at the Inns of
Court In London.
The next trained lawyer to be appointed was
Paul Dudley, son of Governor Joseph Dudley, in 1718.
On July 29, 1712, the day of Lynde* s installation at a
sitting of the court in Charlestown, Sewall wrote in his diary*
"Before Mr. Lynde*s Commission was read I said, Although the

-152-

a century later (1810) Jefferson wrote c o n c e r n ! ^ the possible
appointment of a Massachusetts

Judge as Chief Justice of the

Supreme Court of the United States*
an able common lawyer,

"He Is not thought to be

but there is not and never was an able

one In the New England States.

Their system Is sul generis

In which the Common law Is little attended to.**^®
The scarcity of trained legal talent resulted in, among
other things, a n informality and simplicity of courtroom prac­
tice which is characteristic of frontier soc .eties and reflects
the layman* s impatience with the elaborateness of traditional
19
procedures.
The following picture of Informal, lay Justice
Court be not so full as we could have desired, yet through the
good providence of GOD there is a Court, a Court consisting
entirely of such as have been brought up in the Society hap­
pily founded in this pla oe by our Ancestors. . . .
In the
Gentleman present I hope we shall have an Instance of the A d ­
vantage of an Inns of Court education superadded to that of
Harvard College.
1?P. 3. Relnsch, "English Common L a w in the Early American
Colonies, " in Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History
(Boston, 1907), I, 385, cited.
Relnsch also notes that in
1774 John Adams, writing as N o v a n g l u s . declared: "How then
do we N ew Englanders derive our laws.
I say not from Parlia­
ment, not from the common law, but from the law of nature
[an old phrase in New England but with changing connotations;
to the Puritan it meant roughly the word of God as interp­
reted and supplemented by •right reason* J and the compact
made with the king in our charter. **
^ H u t c h i n s o n , H i s t o r y . I, 452, s a y s : "Their Judicial pro­
ceedings were in as summary a way, as could well consist
with the preserva-tion of any tolerable degree of met h o d or
order. " Theodore P. Plunkett, in a review of the Records of
Suffolk County C o u r t : 1671-1680 (Col. Soc. of Mass., P u b s . .
XXIX, XXX ri933l) . N e w England Quarterly, VII (September, 1934),
586— 587, remarks that rfthey suggest the ingenuity of the ama­
teur rather than the science of the professional man of law. "

-153-

in the New England of Sev/all*s day was set down by Sarah.
Kemble Knight while travelling in Connecticut in 1704:
A negro Slave belonging to a m a n in the Town, stole
a hogs head from his master, and gave or sold it to
an Indian, native of the place.

The Indian sold it

in the neighbourhood, and so the theft was found out.
Thereupon the Heathen was Seised, and carried to the
Justices House to be Examined.

But his worship (it

seems) was gone into the felld, with a Brother in of­
fice,

to gather in his Pompions.

Whether the malefac­

tor is hurried, and c nplaint made, and satisfaction
in the name of Justice demanded.

Their Worships cann* t

proceed in form without a Bench:

whereupon they order

one to be Immediately erected, which,
materials,

for want of fitter

they made with pompions— which being finished

down setts their Worships . . .

and the inquiry proceeds,

There was little attempt at the traditional elaborateness of
statement.
Legal proceedings were, for the New Englander,
"Just like other business affairs,where a clear expression
of the meaning was s u f f i c i e n t . “ Morris, Studies, pp. 46-47,
quotes a N ew England Judge of a later day as saying: "We re­
gard the ignorance of the first colonists of the technicali­
ties of the Common L a w as one of the most fortunate things
in the history of the law, since . . . we happily lost a
great mass of antiquated and useless rubbish, and gained in
its stead a course of practice of admirable si m p l i c i t y .w
There is a good discussion of the matter by Emory Washburn,
Sketches of the Judicial History of Massachusetts from 1630
to the Revolution in 1775 T b q ston. 1840), chap. 3.
20
The Private Journal of a Journey from Boston to N e w York
in the Year 1704 (Albany, 1865), p. 51. A similarly lively
and satirical picture of court procedure in Maryland at this

The intent in presenting this anecdote Is not, let it be said,
to show early New England Justice in caricature.
courts at least, as will later be shorn,

frequently proceeded

with a considerable show of dignity a n d pomp.
mains, however,

The higher

The fact re­

that the student of Sewall, upon encountering

Miss Knight*s story, may recall Sewall*s complaint that in
his role as a

"tryer of Small Causes" (not to be confused with

his more august duties as a memb e r of the Court of Assistants
and later, under the Province government,
Court)

of the Superior

he complained that "persons often come upon me una­

w a r e s * ; ^ which could very well mean that they found h i m out
cultivating his b ean rows or inspecting his
favorite occupations.

"pippins, " both

He m a y be reminded, also, of various

period is given by Ebenezer Cook in his poem The Sot W e e d Fac­
tor (London, 1709;, ed. B. C. Steiner (Baltimore, 1&65), p.
15. He writes of the "planting Rabble " sitting around "Ca­
rousing Punch in open A i r , " or "Their drunken Worships " the
Judges, and of the lawyers "Wrangling for Plantiff and De­
fendant. " In one of his notes he declares that "in the
County-Court of Mary-Land, very fev; of the Justices . . .
can write or read* " The differences between this a n d a New
England court are Interesting, as is the similarity of the
social climate of the frontier.
^ ~Dlary, I, 314, copy of a letter to Jose p h Webb, "Clark
of the Wrltts, " dated M a r c h 1, 1689/90.
He asks Webb "to
grant no Attachment for the Trial of any cause before me ex­
cept on the first Monday of the Moneth. " He asks, also,
that Webb not send him any "whoes Book-Debts are old enough
to be senior Sophisters, being of more than three years stand­
ing. "
It is amusing to note with what solemnity Washburn, best
known of the writers on Massachusetts* Judicial history, treats
of these rather slight requests by Sewall.
He takes them to
indicate *%i natural taste for legal science. . . .
He saw
how chaotic was the system of legal practice at the bar, and
endeavored to introduce a corrective.
. . . it shows a dis­
position on the part of Mr. Sewall to Introduce something like
order into the practice of the l aw" (Sk e t c h e s . pp. 259-260).
Perhaps he is right, but the evidence is certainly not very
impressive.

-155—

occasions demanding Impromptu judicial action,

such as that

on which Mrs, Oblnson presented herself at Sewall's door
"cornplainCingj of her Husband* s ill usage of her; kick'd her
out of bed last night.

• •

22

or the time when he fined

"Widow Gutteridge' s Negro N e d " five shillings for
of

the

Sabbath

yesterday

,rbreach

Robbing my Orchard"; or that on

which he fined James Barry a similar amount

"for his mis­

demeanour in Sounding and Halooing several times, at twenty
minutes past six a clock—— to m y great disturbance as I was
0*7

reading in my family the Lord's Day-Eve•"
The power of thus fining a man for

"Halooing" at twenty

minutes after six on a Saturday evening grew out of an action
by the General Court in the year (1684)
took his place among the magistrates.
case of misdemeanor,

in which Sewall first
It reads:

"• • • in

or vehement suspitlon thereof, where no

Court is at hand, any magistrate . • . being present . • .
may impov/er any person to make search and apprehend a n y dis­
orderly person, whereby their misdemeanors may be brought
24
forth & punished. . . . "
Magistrates, in short, were to
act as a kind of moral Gestapo of the kind for which the
town of Boston still enjoys an unpleasant notoriety.
they lacked in legal qualifications,

'What

either in Impromptu

proceedings or in th.: courtroom, would be made up for by that
"natural sense " of right and wrong which m a n has always thought
g^Dlrry, I, 410, entry for August 6, 1695.
23Ledger, fol. 113,
ber 16, 1710.

entries for August 21, 1721, and Octo­

24IIass. Records, V, 455, action of October 15, 1684.

-156-

of

himself as possessln

magistrate

and which In the case of the Puritan

was buttressed by the added sense of being privy
05

to

eternal truth as revealed In God's
This proceeding by rule of moral

own sacred word*
thumb,

so to speak,

encouraged some surprising corruptions of traditional legal
practice,

such as the hearing of causes and giving of pri­

vate advice by magistrates before a case came Into court,
making Juries the Judge of both lav/ and fact, and the finding
of guilt on the basis of

"strong suspicion."

Despite such

practices, however, a rude kind of Justice seems to have been
generally obtained, and the simplicity of form and m a n ner that
25

Hutchinson, H i s t o r y . X, 435, says 5
"In civil actions,
equity, according to the circumstances of the case, seems to
have been their rule of determining.
The Judges had recourse
to no other authorities, than the reason and understanding
which God had given them.
In punishing offenses, they pro­
fessed to be governed by the Judicial lav; of Moses, but no
farther than those laws were of a moral nature. " No farther,
that is, than they conformed to their private viev/s of right
and wrong.
On M a y 27, 1685, the General Court, "for releife
against the rigour of the common law, " ordered that magistrates
acting In the county courts should •make their decree a n d de­
termination according to the rule of a e auity" (Mass. R e c o r d s .
V, 477-478).
Proceeding without the support of lav/ could be embarassln©
however, as Sewall found on February 16, 1685/6, when he wrote:
"Great disorder in the Town by Cock-skaillng:
I grant 2 warrants.
. . . but for want of a L a w and Agreement shall find
much ado to supress It" (D i ary. I, 122).
2®0n June 2, 1641, Nathaniel Ward held against the practice
in an election sermon.
A proposal of reform was turned down,
however, because It would have meant the hiring of attorneys.
See Hllkey, Legal Development, p. 61, a n d Morris, Stu d i es, p. 42.
27Dow, Every Day L i f e , p. 201.

-15?-

tended to accompany the proceedings Is a thing we are Inclined
to admire, living as we do under a frontier tradition which
places high value on the rough-and-ready approach as well as
on certain varieties of ignorance*
But the assumption that Justice would be served as well
by righteousness as by legal learning was one that had In It
dangers for the magistrates as well as for the James Barrys
and Negro Neds of the colony*

"• • • take heeae m y breth­

ren, " wrote Thomas Lechford after his departure from the colo­
ny,

"despise not learning, nor the worthy Lawyers of either
go

gown, lest you repent too late* "

The warning went unheeded,

and It was not until after the struggle over the charter and
the threat to l a n d titles during the administration of Andros
that the meaning of a n untrained Bench and B a r became pain­
fully apparent*

It is less humorous than pathetic that, at

the last meeting of the magistrates a n d deputies under the
old government, a m a n of B e w a i l 1s position in the colony and
consequent responsibilities to it should have been unaware of
the possibility of challenging, on the grounds of illegality,
the measures taken by the English government, and was able,
consequently,

to think of nothing better to do than sing "the
29
17. and IS. verses of Habbakuk. "
V/hen, under Andros, the
OQ

Plalne Dealing, p. 86.

The book was published in 1642*

Diary, I, 140, entry for M a y 21, 1686.
Nathan Mathews,
"The Results of the Prejudice against Lawyers • • ., " p. 31,
gives convincing demonstration of the idea that "the charter
was allowed to go by default, " their being no one in the colo­
ny with sufficient knowledge of the law to challenge, as migh

-158-

colonists found the titles to their lands challenged by Writs
of Intrusion,
their case.
rights

they got a minister, John Hlgginson,

to state

The best he could do was argue a derivation of

"from the grand charter from Genesis where God gave

the earth to the sons of A dam a n d Jonah, "

an argument which,

though doubtless of some remote theoretical validity, was
scarcely as effective as the citing of recent and pertinent
acts by the Crown and Privy Council might have been.3^

But

of this Important possibility the Puritan leaders were ap ­
parently unaware.

Sewall shared in the general helplessness

of ignorance a n d made unhappy submission, as we have alreadyseen,

to Andros*

demands*
II

Such,

in its more significant aspects,

is the background

against which the greater part of Sewall*s career as a public
servant must be viewed*

He took his place among the magis­

trates as one trained for the ministry.
ciety such training,

obviously,

In a theocratic so­

far from unfitting him for

the exercise of civil power, was most appropriate a n d deslr*able.

"The Employment of the Magistrat a n d Minister, " being,
,31
as he said, "so m u c h akin, " his qualifications for avoiding

have been done, the legality of certain steps taken by the
Crown.
See similarly, Grlnnell, "Bench and B a r , " Comm. H i s t . .
II, 162.
*^Ma thews, "The Results of the Prejudice against L a w y e r s , "
pp. 84-85.
Every claim against land titles, says Mathews,
"could have been met by citing acts of the Privy Council or
the Crown . . . between 1660 and 1680."
31
Letter-Book, I, 357, letter to Gurdon Saltonstall, Gove
nor o f Connecticut, dated February 9, 1707/8.

-159-

whnt he termed, "the disagreement of Moses and Aaron" were
^O
excellent,’’
Succession to the estate of John Hull gave
assurance, furthermore,

that his concern would be with the

affairs of New England as well as with the approaches to
heaven.
The known facts concerning Sewall*s public life during
the ten last years of the Charter Government,

except for those

having to do w ith Its downfall, a subject which has already
been dealt with at some length., are neither very numerous
(the lost volume of the alary being for tne years 1677-85)
nor of great slgnlficance.
the Third or South Church,

On M a r c h 30, 1676/7, he Joined
tanking a Solemn covenant to take

the L, Jehovah" for his God, and to

"walk in Brotherly Love

and watchfulness to Edification,

He m s

considerably

"tormented" In his m i n d as to his possible want of grace,
nor was he sure that the South Church had been

"In God* s

way in breaking off from the o l d 1,34 (on the issue of the
half-way covenant, which the n e w church espoused),

But

his wife would soon b ear him a child v/nlch he wanted to see
baptized, and, a fact he does not mention,
was a qualification of the franchise,

church membership

A year later (May, 1678),

^ L e t t e r - B o o k , II, 173, letter of September 5, 1724, written
to his associates on the bench when he was sick and unable
to travel the circuits,
5g P l ary. I, 39,
54 I b l d .. p, 46, entry m arked simply

H a r c h 1678/9."

having proved himself industrious ana la;v abiding,and possess­
ing the necessary two hundred pounds (or income equal to that
c
from such an amount)
he was made a freeman (one of an approx­
imate one thousand in a colony with a population about twenty36
five times that number),'
swearing "by the G-reat and Dreadfull Name of the Ever-Living &od" to bear faith and true al­
legiance, plot no evil against the state

“but . • . discover

and reveal the same to Lav/full Authority," a n d use his vote as
he should in his

"own Conscience Judge best to Conduce a n d tend

to the Publick Weale.
The oath thus taken was no light affair,

for it meant

ac­

tive partnership in the high enterprise of establishing a n d
guarding the Puritan state.
the obligation to serve.

More than a privilege,

Office was given more often than

it was sought, and the man who did not perform
service as [he mightJ . . .

"such public

be chosen to by the freemen of

the severall townes, as cunstables,

Jurers,

surveyors of h i g h w a y e s " was fined for

selectmen, and

"every such refusall

• • • not exceeding twenty s h i l l i n g s . S e w a l l * s
E. Woodward,
1944), p. 24.

it meant

"first

The Way Our People Lived (New York,

3®Ibid.
Woodward gives the figure of eleven hundred.
Adams, Provincial Society, p. 21, notes that in 1703, under
the somewhat more liberal provisions of the provincial char­
ter, only two hundred and six votes were cast for representa­
tives from Boston, out of a population of around seven thou­
sand.
5^ Col. L a w s . pp. 163-164.
^Ilass. Records, II, 208.
point.

V/eeden, I, 78, discusses the

-161-

publick Entrance into the Civil 3rder," as he wrote long
39
after,
was in his first year as a freeman.
The office
was that of constable, an unpopular post which frequently
drew the prescribed fine from men appointed to it but un—
40
willing to serve.
The conscientious Sewall was willing,
however, and he took the oath from Governor Leverett*

The

principal duty of the office was direction of Boston*a
night watch, to see to it that the

"Watch men • • * duely

examine all Night walkers aft e r ten of the clock at night
(unless they be known peacable Inhabitants)

to inquire whethr-

er they are going, a n d what their business is • • • to see
all noises in the streets stilled, and lights put out*
Anyone giving an unsatisfactory answer was to be kept until
morning and then taken to the nearest magistrate*

Sewall

ap 2^arently found tiie duties of watch keeping congenial,

for

in one capacity or another-— "perambulator of bounds for
39

Le t t e r- B o o k , II, 223*
The statement is in the form of
a diary entry for M a r c h 13, 1726/7*
He is reminiscing after
attending a 'Boston anniversary Town-Meeting* "
40 At the first town meeting Sewall attended in Boston he
heard several m e n fined for unwillingness to serve as con­
stables (Diary, I, 37, entry for March 12. 1676. See similarly,
ibid., p , 125, entry for March 7, 1685/6.)*
41
Col. L a w s , p. 154*
The watch was patterned after that
of London,
In the next century there were five wards, with
a watch house in each*
Sumner duty was from ten at night to
daylight.
Winter hours were from nine at night to eight in
the morning. (See Sherwin L* Cook, •Boston: the Eighteenth
Century Town."Comm* H i s t * , II, 245,)
Palfrey, III, 55, would
seem to be mistaken in saying the watch was kept only from the
beginning of M a y till the end of September, for 3ewall frequent
1y went the rounds during the winter months.

-162-

Muddy River" (i.e., Brookline; he was appointed to this of42
flee In March, 1679),
officer of the South Company (one of
the Boston train bands),

'Overseer of the P o o r ” (a town of­

fice which he held for several years), or simply as a consci^ 43
entious magistrate— he made tours of inspection around, the
town for at least thirty years.

a

A

His satisfactiDn in this

work resulted in some of his pleasantest alary entries.
March 12, 1684/5;

"Watched with Isaac Goose and Sam. Clark,

had a pleasant Night.

Gave each Watch 12 d^ to drink.

4 .2

D i a r y . I, 56, editors* note.
The source is not given,
I have not come across it. Nor can I say exactly what
the office means.
The time is during the 1677-85 gap in the
diary, but in a n interleaved almanac for 1679 there is the
entry: "April 15, 3[l.e., the third day of the week]. Perambu­
lation. "
In an interleaved almanac for 1678 there, is the
entry: "Aug. 23, 6. Watch begins to be warned out of m y pre­
cincts, " an apparent reference to the constabulary watch.
and

45P l a r y . II, 267 5
W o v e m b e r 5. [1709] I walk»d at night
with Col. Townsend, Mr. Bromfield, Constable Williams, and a
Man or two.
Town quiet and in good order.
Were
Jealous the 5^“ November [Guy Fawkes Day] might have occasioned
di sturban c e • "
^ T h e last entry I have noted is for August 13, 17161
"Goe through the Town to Suppress Disorders, with Col. Town­
send, Mr. Marlon, Capt. Clar, Constable Shaller:
Wallle and
I were on Horse-back; set out at 11. at night, return’d at
hour past one.
Found the Watch and Town generally in good
order."(Diary . Ill, 98.)
4 ^Piary, I, 67. He is acting at this time in his capacity
as an officer of the South Company. At the end of the first
manuscript volume of his diary he has copied an order desig­
nating officers who "shall each in their respective turn . . .
take unto them one or two more that live in the Precincts of
their own Company [and walk] . . . throughout the Town . . .
and . . . take Inspection of the several Guards and Watches.
• • •"
The head of the inspecting party was to *taarch with
a Half
Pike with a fair head, by
wnich he may be
known to the
Commander of the Watch, and in the next morning leave the same
with him whoes Turn is next, which shall be accounted a suf­
ficient Warning. . . . " (Diary, I, 54.)

-163-

No vember 23, 1685 5

"I go the Rounds with Cous.

Quinsey and

Isaac Goose, a very severe nl-jht for Cold, yet 'twas fair
and comfortable 5

came home at 5. m a n e «

It might be

Ma

very pleasant Moonshlny night, “^ o r It might be one on which
48
the snow was "extream d e e p ”;
in either case he would have
himself

%• very comfortable night. *

On at least one occa­

sion he tells of making the rounds as an Overseer of the
Poor.

February 9, 1707/8:

fMr. D. Oliver,

Capt. Keeling,

Constable Loring and myself walk*d In the 7***1 Company to in­
spect Disorders [poverty and
regarded as synonymous}*

"disorders" apparently being

Found this to our Comfort,

that

the widow Ha i m a n 1 s daughter A mes Is gon to her Husband at
Marshfield, which was a gravamen [i.e., a charge on the town}
for many years.

. . .

I carried ■£■ Duz. Catechises in m y

Pocket, and gave them to such as could read, Orphans several
of them. . . .

H a d a very comfortable day overhead.

46Ibld.. p. 107.
4 7 I b id.. p. 131, entry for M a r c h 31, 1686.
/Q
Ibid., p. 119, entry for January 26, 1685/6.
O t her notations of watch keeping as a part of his military duties are.
Ibid., p. 96, entry for September 20, 1685; Ibid.. p. 145,
entry for July 29, 1686; ibid.. p. 340, entry for January 11,
1690/1 (skipping the period, that is, from the time when Joseph
Dudley took over the reins of the government after the loss
of the charter to the time when, after the overthrow of Andros,
a provisional government was set up under Bradstreet); Ibid..
p. 341, entry for February 12, 1690/1; ibid. . p. 342, entry for
March 16, 1690/1; Ibid. . p. 346, entry for June 22, 1691. Ap ­
parently the arrangement ended with the advent of the Provin­
cial government.
49

D i a r y . II, 216, entry for February 9, 1707/8.
Robert F.
SeyboTt, The Town Officials of Colonial B o s t o n : 1634-1775

-164-

In 1686 Sewall served the tov/n of Boston as an assessor
(one of seven) a n d as a member of the committee to drav; up
(Cambridge, 1939), first notes Sewall as an Overseer of the
Poor In the records of a tov/n meeting held March 10, 1700/1
(p. ICO, citing Boston R e c o r d s , VII, 243-244)*
He gives two
other references^ one for" M a rch 9, 1701/2 (p. 102, citing
ibid.. VIII, 22-24) and one for February 16, 1702/3 (p. 105,
citing Ibid., VIII, 26). He has not noted a meeting of the
"Justices, Select men & Overseers of the P o or" held on January
27, 1706/7, which Sewall attended as one of the overseers for
the seventh word.
It was here agreed that the overseers would
"Visslt the Famllyes of this Town on Wednesday the fifth of
February next. A n d that like Vissits be made once in every
quarter of the year ensuelng, in Order to prevent & redress
disorders. " (Boston R e c o r d s . XI, 55-56.)
On January 51, X723, the duties of the overseers were
more specifically defined as being "to Inspect Disorderly
Persons
new Comers, the Circomstances of the Poor and
Education of their Children. . . “(ibid. . XIII, 122).
Nathaniel
B. Shurtleff, A Topographical Description of Boston (Boston,
1890), p. 128, cites an act of November 26, 1692, which de­
clared that overseers must be 'te.ble and discreet, of good
Conversation.rt
By it they were "lmpowered and ordered to
take effectual Care that all Children, Youth, and other per­
sons of able Body . . . do not live idly, or misspend their
time in loitering; but that they be brought up or employed in
some honest Calling, which may be profitable to themselves,
and the P u b l l c k . n If no other solution offered, the children
of the poo r might be bound out as apprentices.
The subject of colonial p o o r relief is an Interesting one.
The laws of the colony provided that any tov/n resident of three
months, the tov/n not notifying him it was unwilling he should
remain, should "in case of necessity" be "provided for . . .
at a T o w n -c h a r g e " (Col. L a w s , p. 123).
In 1679 the Boston Town
Meeting declared that "the Towne is fild with poore idle and
profane persons " because of "the resort of all sorts of persons
from all" parts, b o t h by sea and land, more than any other towne
in the Collony " (Boston R e c o r d s . VII, 315).
The policy followed
by the colony was that set down under Elizabethan poor lav/,
deriving from ancient Teutonic custom whereby a person who re­
mained unchallenged in a community for twelve months gained the
freedom of the place, and the community became in various ways
responsible for him.
The result was a n intense suspicion of
strangers and the growth of the custom called "warning o u t . "
(See J. H. Eenton, Warning Out in New England rBoston, 1911J,
p. 5; Albert Deutsch^ ^The Sick Poor in Colonial T i m e s , " Am.
Hist. Rev. XLVI (April, 1941), 560-561; Marcus W. Jernegan,
Laboring and Dependant Classes in Colonial A m e r i c a . 1607-1783

-165-

instructlons for its deputies to the General Court.5®

In the

sane year he appears in the colony records as a deputy from
Westfield (residence requirements not being put into effect
until ten years later),

51

and on May 7, 1684, he was chosen

to the Court of Assistants,

the oligarchic group of eighteen

eg

which was supreme court,

executive council, and upper legis53
latlve house all rolled into one*
Exactly what brought the
[Chicago, 1931] , chap. 13, p a s s i m .)
The movement toward the
establishment .of private phllanthroplcal organizations came
toward the end of the provincial period.
5®Diary, I, 57, editors* note.
The source, apparently
town records, is not given and I have not come across it.
*51

Ibid., p. 386, entry for November 28, 1693.
Sewall voted
in favor of the bill, which carried, limiting representation
from towns to ’’freeholders and residents with such towns. ** For
Sewall* s appearance as deputy from Westfield, see Mass. R e c ords,
V, 421.
CO

The number of assistants had varied from fourteen to twen­
ty, but in 1680 it was put at eighteen and remained that for
the rest of the colonial period (Mass. R e c o r d s . V, 437; Hllkey,
Legal Development. p. 44).
For his election, see Mass. R e c ords.
V, 437.
53
It has not seemed necessary to describe in detail the leg­
islative and Judicial organization in the colony.
The charter
statement was fairly simple a n d explicit:
. . . Governor, Deputie Governor, and Assistants . . .
shall . . . once every moneth, or oftener at their pleasures
. . . [meetJ for the better ordering and directing of their
affaires.
. . . any seaven or more . . . of the Assistant^
togither w ith the Governor or Deputie Governor . . . shalbe
• • • a . • • sufficient Gourte . . . for . . . all busi­
nesses, and . . . there shall or male be held [on specified
Wednesdays in each quarterj . . . one great . . . Gonerail
Court . . . w h ich shall have full power . . . to choose
such . . . others as they shall think fit • . • to be free
of the said Company . . . and to elect . . . such officers
as they shall thlnke fitt . . . and to make lawes and ordi­
nances for the good • • • of the
. . . Company . . . and
the people inhabiting the same. . . .
So • • . such
lawes . . . be not contrarie or repugnant to the lawes and
Statutes of . . . England. [L a s s . R e o o r d a , I, 1 1 - 1 2 .J

-166—

thirty-two year old Sewall to this, next to th/'t of the Gover­
nor, the highest office

in the Puritan state,

One must admit as probable,

however,

is not plain.

that it v;as less his

record of performance in such probationary assignments as
Boston constable, Peramb u l a t o r of Bounds for Muddy River, and
deputy for Westfield,
Hull" s heir*

than it was the fact that he was J o h n

If the total record of his life be taken as a

basis for Judgment, he had not so m u c h prov e d his worthiness
as he had shown himself to be, as cautious phrasing has it,
The key body was not the General Court, despite its being des­
ignated "the chief Civil P o w e r of this Commonwealth" (Col.
Laws, p. 34), but the Court of Assistants*
General Courts,
wTtH the exception of the p r e s c r i b e d annual meeting, were
held only "when the importancy of the business doth require
it." At" all other times business was to be O r d e r e d arid dis­
patched bv the M a j o r part of the Council" (i b i d . , p. 333); i.e.,
the so-called Council of Magistrates, the records of w h i c h have
been lost (see Ellen E. Brennan, "The Massachusetts Council of
the Magistrates, " N e w E ngland Quarte:-ly, IV (January, 1931),
73, 33.
John Dickinson, rfThe Massachusetts Charter and the
Bay Colony, " Comm. H i s t . , I, 115-116, says of this group:
It is hnrdly~too m u c h to say that the entire administrative
as well as the Judicial machinery of the colony was gath­
ered by the Assistants into their own hands.
In a Judicial
capacity, they sat as Judges in every one of the courts of
the colony.
Sitting as a body w ith the Governor and depu­
ties they constituted the General Court.
Sitting in a
body they constituted the Quarter Courts.
Sitting in small
groups, or individually in company w i t h commissioners, they
constituted the county courts.
Individually they had Juris­
diction over small causes*
In an administrative capacity, they fixed some taxes, determined
who should be a d mitted freemen, a n d appointed petty officials.
The best description of the colonial court set up is in
Washburn, S k e t c h e s , chap. 2.
Palfrey, Vol. II, chap. 2, has a
useful summary, as does Hutchinson, H i s t o r y . Vol. I, chap. 5.
See also:
Jos e p h Willard, A n Address to the Members of the Bar
of Worcester County, Mass. Tbancaster, 1830); William T. Davis,
Bench a nd Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Boston,
1895) , I, 43, 64-65, and the same a u t h o r 1s History of the Judi­
ciary of Massachusetts (Boston, 1900), p. 28; Dow, Evory Day
U i ^ e . pp . '200-20i.

-167

"not unworthy. "
heaven,

John Hull had quit New England* s to sail for

to use his eleglst*s figure, on August 14, 1683.

Be­

fore another year was out the son-in-law was settled In the
vacated magisterial seat.
The Charter government had not long to live.

The day that

Sewall was chosen deputy for V/estfield (November 7, 1683)

was

the day on which Edward Randolph, hated agent for the Crown*
arrived with the quo warranto charging the colony w i t h abuse
of its corporate franchise.54
hoivever, until

The charter was not vacated,

the following year (October 23, 1684), and

yet another year passed before the G-eneral Court made its
last adjournment, orders having arrived (May 20, 1686)

for

Joseph Dudley to head a provisional government pending the
55
arrival of a Royal Governor.
In the meantime the old govern­
ment, with ancient Simon Bradstreet at its head, continued to
function, drawing up a
King,

"Humble petition & a d d r e s s e " to the

in which they declared themselves to be

"prostrate" at

his

M a j e s t i e s royal feete";
framing instructions for the
57
colony*s agent in England;
and seeing to such every day
matters as licensing public houses

"for . . .

entertelnement*

and retayling wine & licquors, 1,58 regulating the size of
54Mass. R e c o r d s . V, 421.
55I b ld.. p. 516.
5d
Ibid., pp. 439-441.
This was the same session in which
Sewall was first chosen Assistant.
57I b i d . . p. 421.
58 I b l d . . p. 450.

-168—

bricks,

gg

and ordering a day of fasting and humiliation

because of the spread of smallpox.®®
During these years

(1684-86) Sewall had been twice

re-elected magistrate and was in faithful attendance at the
meetings of b oth the General Court and the Court of Assist—
61
ants.
Since tile latter body, in addition to its appellate
function,®^ had original Jurisdiction in
Criminal Causes,

'fell Capital and

extending to Life, Member or Banishment*

the records of its actions show life in the Puritan communi­
ty in its most violent aspects.
ing, manslaughter,

Rape, murder, piracy,

steal­

infanticide—— all are here in amounts which

must have moved the youthful magistrate to a consideration of
the awful power of the devil among God*s people,
;^an, for example,

James Mor-

”not having the feare of God before his

eyes being Instigated by the divill • • • on the tenth day
of december £1634J , , , in the house of constants Worcester
I b id,. pp, 450-451,
60 I b id., p. 510.
01
For his election, see D i a r y . I, 77, entry for M a y 27,
1685; ibid., "Q, 132, entry for April 13, 1686; Mass, R e c ords,

V, 4757 313.

For his presence at meetings of the General Court, see
M a 33. Records, V, 449 (September 10, 1634), 465 (January 28,
1685), 472 (May 6, 1685), 494 (July 21, 1685), 500 (Septem­
ber 16, 1635), 506 (November 17, 1685), 506 (February 16,
1686) .
62The Records of the Court of As s i s t a n t s , ed. John Noble
(Boston, 1901) consist mostly of unrevealing verbal machinery
for recording appeals from the lower courts.
In such cases,
not even the nature of the case is given, only the names of tl»
parties and the court*s findings,
33
Col, L a w s , p, 36,

-169-

widdow In Boston did about ten of the cloche that night • • •
wound kill & murder Joseph Johnson Butcher . . .

by running

a spitt into his belly a little above the navell.

• . ."

Ke was found guilty and Bradstreet pronounced the words,
". • • you James morgan for the murther you have committed
are to Goe hence to the place whence you Came & from thence
to the Gallowes & there be hanged by the neck till you be
dead & the L o r d have mercy on your soule. "

John Balston,

'•upon the nineteenth day of July [16353 . . .

being the Lords

day Commit[ted3 a Burglary on the dwelling house of Sarah
Noyse widow in Boston.

• . •"

For this he was

"to be branded

with the letter B on the forehead and have his Right ©are Cutt
of[f3, " pay the costs of the trial, and

*feake treble Resti­

tution to the party Injuried & in defect thereof . . . be
65
sold to any of the English p l a n t a t i o n s . "
Joseph Indian,
"on the 12***1 or 1 3 ^
der his squaw . . .

of February [16853 • • • did . . .
and

to the lime house . . .

. . .

drew her . . .

mur­

on the ground

and left her there with severall

mortall wounds on her head.

. . . "

He was found guilty of

cruelty and sentenced to be

"severely whipped with thirty

stripes" and to pay the costs of the trial or be sold out of
the country.66 So the parade o f " d i v i l l i s h " acts continues.67
64

Records of the
March 4, 1685.
See
14, 1685.

Court of A s s i s t a n t s . I, 294, entry for
the D i ary. I. Ill, entry for December

6 ^Records of the Court of A s s i s t a n t s . I, 283-204,
for September 18, 1685.
6^Ibld., p. 295,
®^For other such

entry

entry for March 4, 1685.
items in the pre-Provinclal years see

t

-170

If the pious Sewall,
court,

In his place among the Judges of the

was ever distressed by the proceedings,

It was for

the evidence they gave of the unregenerate state of natural
m e n rather than for the severity of lounlshments suffered*
After the execution of James Morgan,
killed Joseph Butcher

for example, he who

"by running a spitt into his belly, "

Sewall wrote In his diary:

"Thorsday, M a r c h 11 £1685/63.

Persons crowd m u c h Into the Old Meeting-House by reason of
James Morgan [who would be on exhibit and provide the sub­
ject for the afternoon * & discourse}.
Text was from Num. 35. 16.
Instrument of Iron & c.
Court;

. . .

Mr. M a t h e r ’s

A n d if he smite him with an

Saw not Mr. Dudley at Meeting, nor

suppose he might not be in Tov/n.

Mr. Stoughton

D i a r y , I, 88* entry for July 19, 1685 (housebreaking); Ibid..
p. 103, entry for November 9, 1685 (abandoning of an Infant);
Ibid., p. 123, entry for February 28, 1665/6 (infanticide);
lbla.. p. 172, entry for April 9, 1687 (trepanning); I b i d . .
p. 183, entry for July 16, 1667 (drunken ravine in the streets
at night); ibid.. p. 194, entry for November 3, 1687 (infanti­
cide) ; Ibid.. p. 216, entry for June 9, 1688 (robbery and as­
sault) ; Ibid.. p. 349, entry for September 25, 1691 (Infanti­
cide) •
always throughout his life, he was In faithful attend­
ance at his Judicial post.
For his presence In court, see
Records of the Court of A s s i s t a n t s . I, 254, entry for Septem­
ber 2, 1654; 266, entry for iiarch 3, 1684; 273, entry for
September 1, 1685; 287, entry for M a rch 2, 1685; 296, entry
for March 26, 1686; 297, entry for April 1, 1686; 298, entry
for April 15, 1686; 300, entry for April 22, 1686. A f t e r this
the record breaks off (Dudley’s provisional government begin­
ning In May), and when it begins* again Andros has b e e n ove 3>thrown and the year is 1689.
For a discussion of punishments In the period, see John
Noble, ’Notes on the Trial and Punishment of Crimes, " Col. Soc.
of Mass., P u b s . . Ill (February, 1895), 51-56, where is pre­
sented a ratner harrowing collection of cases Involving brand­
ing, mutilation, whipping, and death by hanging.
For entries

-171

here*

Morgan was turn'd off about
an hour oast five*
69
day very comfortable. • • • "
G-entle hearted as he was,

The

there was in him no trace of that sentimentality In the mat­
ter of punishment which has become common in more recent
times.

The philosophy was eye for eye, tooth for tooth,

and stripes well laid on in the name of the Lord*

When, as

the story goes, a m a n at the whipping post prayed that the
"scourglneer" might remember the Scriptural saying,
is the Merciful M a n , "

"31essed

he was told of that other Scriptural

saying which declares,

"Cursed is he that doeth the work of
70
the Lord n e g l i g e n t l y . "
When, under Dudley's provisional government,

Sewall,

who had been passed over in the new Council a p p o i n t m e n t s , ^
was asked to continue as a Justice of the Peace,

he re­

plied mildly that he would feel obliged if the matter were
to

"rest in a Nomination."

he wrote:

Explaining his stand to Dudley,

"What station I formerly had in the Government

in the diary relating to such matters, see Vol. I, 86, 88,
308, entries for July 6 and 10, 1685 (whipping and branding),
and for January 9, 1689 (the hanging of a pirate; it had been
expected that several would be "turn'd offt" a n d the fact that
there was only one "gave much disgust to tne people ■) •
6 9 D i a r y . I, 125-126.
7®Ned Ward, A Trio to New E n g l a n d , p. 11.
7^I n the Council Records (at the Boston Statehouse, Archives
Division), Vol. II, which covers the years of the Dudley and
Andros regimes, Sewall*s name does not appear.
Dudley's desig­
nation was President.
Deputy President was Stoughton. See
Washburn, Sketches, pp. 94^-98, 126, for structure a n d person­
nel of the Andros government.

-172-

of this pla.ce it hath pleased God to cast me out of.
There were, lie said, plenty of good men, and

• • •”

"besides, my

Mother £l.e., his mother-in-lav/J and wife are incessantly
importunat vrith me to accept at least a part of that Retire­
ment which God hath dismissed me t o . " ^

When,

in the fall

of 1688, he decided to Journey to England and aid Increase
Mather,

if possible,

in obtaining restoration of Charter

rights, he went as one without official ties of any kind.
In the? year of his absence, however,

the Andros regime was

overthrown in imitation of the revolution in England, and
the Charter government re-established.

His return to New

England, therefore, was a triumphant return to office as
73
well, and when the Court of Assistants reconvened in Decem­
ber, 1689, he was once more in his familiar p l a c e . ^
7P

The

D i a r y . II, 9*-10*, letter of June 2, 1686.

73

On his return home he landed to the north of Boston
and came down through Ipswich and Newbury.
The journey
assumed the nature almost of a triumphal progress.
See the
Dlar.v. I, 308, entries for November 30 through December 5,
1689.
74R a cords of the Court of Assistants. I, 302, entry for
De cember 24, 1639.
The record of his attendance between
this time a n d the arrival of Phlps and establishment of
the new, Provincial government, is as follows: Vol. I,
305, entry for January 7, 1689/90; 321, entry for January
20, 1689/90; 322, entry for January 23, 1689/90; 327,
entry for September 2, 1690; 336, entry for M a r c h 3, 1690/1;
345, entry for September 1, 1691; 359, entry for October
16, 1691, 361, entry for M&rchCn.d.J, 1691/2, last session
of the court.
See also General Court Records (Boston Statehouse, Archives Division), VI, 97, meeting of December 4,
1689, through XII, 339, meeting of May 26, 1692.

-173-

government thus re-established was as feeble, however, e.s
the eighty-seven year old Bradstreet at Its head.

Like him,

It was waiting to die; for the Charter struggle had been
abandoned by the colony's agents in England In favor of an
attempt to get such provision of rights as they could In
its status as a royal province.
Ill
T/hen, on M a y 14, 1692, Governor Phips arrived to estab­
lish the new government,

he found the province, as he said,

’taiserably harassed with a most Horrible witchcraft or
Possession of Devills which had broke in upon severall Townes,
some scores of poor people were taken with preternaturall
torments

some scalded with brimstone

stuck in their flesh
water

some had pins

others hurried into the fire and

and some dragged out of their houses and carried

over the tops of trees and hills for many Miles together*
OK
• . ."
There had been Instances of supposed witchcraft
76
in the colony before,
and a n occasional unfortunate had
75

^Letters of Governor Phips, " in Narratives of the
Witchcraft Cases, ed. George L. Burr (New York, 1 9 1 4 ) , p. 196*
The letter is dated October 12, 1692, and is addressed to In­
crease Mather (?) in England*
*^See Hutchinson, His to r y . I, 150-151, 187-188, and II,
12-15*
The first instance was in 1648, when Margaret Jones
of Charlestown was charged with having, as Hutchinson says,
"such a malignant touch, that if she laid her hands upon man,
woman or child in anger, they were seized presently with deaf­
ness, vomiting, or other sickness* • • •" A f t e r h er execu­
tion, her husband was seized on board a ship which was "ob­
served to rowl on a sudden as if she would o v e r s e t . " After
he was committed to prison the ship "ceased her rowling. "

-174-

been brought to the gallows for what Cotton Mather described as
"entring hellish Contracts with Infernal S p i r i t s . B u t
whereas previously those experiencing

"preternaturall tor­

ments " had been content with the vilification of an old wo­
man whose appearance and manner might suggest truth in their
charges,

the sufferers at Salem (principally eight,
73
over-wrought, teen-age girls)
were making accusations by
the score.

Hearings and examinations had begun at the end

of February under Magistrates Corwin and Hathorne of Salem
with occasional assistance from a visiting colleague (Sewall,
for example, had come to Salem on April 11 during the pro­
ceedings against Elizabeth Proctor and found It ’feiwfull to
79
seo how the afflicted persons were agitated"),
and by the
time Phips arrived three months later he found the Jails
"thronging" with the accused, many of them having

"lyen long

On January 20, 1635/6, Sewall learned of "a mala at Wo­
burn who 1tls feared is Possessed by an evil spirit" (Diary,
I, 118).
^^Memorable Providences, Relating to V/ltchcraft and P os­
sess Ion3 (Bos t o n , 1697), In Narratives of the Witchcraft
Cases, p. 96.
7®See Samuel G. Drake, Annals of Witchcraft (Boston, 1869),
p. 187 ff.
Only two of them could either read or write.
79P l a r y , I, 358.
His first entry relative to the Salem
affair, It reads as follows:
"Went to Salem where, In the
Meeting-house, the persons accused of Witchcraft were examined;
was a very great Assembly; 1twas awfull to see how the afflic­
ted persons were agitated.
Mr. Noyes pray*d at the beginning
and Mr. HIgglnson concluded. " In the margin are the words,
apparently written after he came to realize the horrow of
wh^t had taken place, 'Vae, V a e , Vue, W i t c h c r a f t " (alas! alas!
alas!).
See William Woodward1s Records of Salem Witchcraft
(Roxbury, Mass., 1864), p. 101, where Sewall*s name appears
among the examiners for this day.

-175-

30
. . • at this hot season of the year, "
Obviously something
had to be done, and,

"there being no Judlcatores • • • yet

established, "31Phlps determined on the emergency device,
customary In England, of a Court of Oyer and Terminer (i.e.,
32
a court to hear and decide),
named nine Judges to sit on
it (one of them being his recently api^olnted "Trusty and
83
Welbeloved" Councillor, Samuel Sewall),
and departed on an
expedition against the Indians In Maine.
The work of this
84
court In Its five months of existence
was summarized by
Robert Calef, a merchant of Boston and Its angriest contem­
porary critic,

In these words:

A n d now Nineteen persons having been hang*d, and some
prest to death, and Eight more condemned,

In all Twenty

and Eight, of which a third part were Members of some
of the Churches in N. England, and more than half of
them of a good Conversation In general, and not one
clear1d; About Fifty having confessed themselves to be
Witches [it being the only means of their escaping the
gallowsj, of which not one Executed; above an Hundred
80

Council Records,

II, 176,

entry for M a y 27, 1692.

8 1 Ibid.
oo
See Winfield S. Nevlns, Witchcraft In Salem Village
Village (Salem, 1916), p. 71.
83
Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts 3ay
(Boston, 1869-1922), I, 10.
84
Diary, I, 367:
•Oct. 26, 1692. A Bill is sent in about
calling a Fast, and Convocation of Ministers, that m a y be led
In the right way as to the Witchcrafts.
The season and manner
of doing it, is such, that the Court of Oyer and Terminer co

-176-

and Fifty In Prison [all later set freej,

85

and above

Two Hundred more accused [most of them later declared
guiltless by the courts, the few Judged guilty being
86
pardoned by PhipsJ,
the Special Commission of Oyer and
Terminer comes to a period*
themselves thereby dismissed.
Bill.w

• •
29 Nos* and 35 yeas to the

®®Robert Calef, More Wonders o f the Invisible v/orid (London,
1700), in Narratives of the Witchcraft C a s e s , p* 384:
"The
c o n c l u s i o n of' the w hoTe in the M a s s a c h u s e tts " was, Sir Will lain
Phips, G-overnour being called home [to England; he left Novem­
ber 17, 1694, a c c o r d i n g to Sewall* s D i a r y , I, 393J, before he
went h e pardoned s u c h a s had been condemned. . . . "
86
At the first meeting of the regularly constituted Supe­
rior Court, convened at Salem on January 3, 1692/3 (see Su­
perior Court Records [at the Suffolk County Courthouse, Bos­
ton], Vol. I. opening pages), the parade of the accused be­
gan.
It continued at Charlestown, where the court met on
January 31 (ibid. , pp. 31-35): at Boston, where the court met
on April 25 (i b i d , , pp. 36-52);
and at Ipswich, where the
court met In M a y (I b i d . , pp. 53-63). At the Boston meeting,
John Alden, a friend o'f Sewall’s charged with witchcraft
(Sev/all attended a fast held on his account while A l d en was
in Boston Jail fDiary, I, 361, entry for July 20, 1692J) was
“discharged by proclamation. M A l den had the courage to de­
scribe the Salem witnesses as "wenches, playing their Juggling
t r i c k s . " At this same meeting, the Judges, wiser by now in
the ways of the delusion, threatened Mary Watkins with punish­
ment for false reports against “Dame Swift. "
According to
Calef, pp. 383-384, this caused her quickly to change her mind.
Something of the delusion apparently remained when the court
first met, however, for then three women were Judged guilty
and turned over to the "keeper of the gaole. " When nev/s of
their reprieve reached the court during its meeting at Charles­
town, Chief Justice Stoughton, one of the die-hards in the delu­
sion, who never admitted his error in it, declared in a rage:
"We were in a v/ay to have cleared the land. . . “(Calef, p. 382).
A f t e r this, however, there were no more convictions.
87
More Won d e r s . p. 373.
To Cotton Mat h e r this book by Calef
was something written by 'ta. sort of S a d d u c e e . " It was a “vile
Volume, " an ’^abominable Bundle of Lies " written "with a Quill
under a special Energy a nd Management of Satan, to damnify my
precious Opportunities of Glorifying m y L o r d Jesus C h r i s t . "
(See B u r r ’s introduction to Calef in his Narr. of the Witchcraft Cases, pp. 293-294.)
Increase Mather ordered the book j f l

-177-

Many of the details of this summer of the Salem delu­
sion,

though frequently grisly a n d almost always fantastic,

are as charged with drama a n d human Interest as anything In
our early history.

Witness,

for example,

this exchange be­

tween the questioning Judges a n d Susanne Martin, a woman
whose wit and independence of spirit had long brought her
under the Imputation of witchcraft and were shortly now to
cost her her life:
Magistrate.

tPray what alls these people? " (i.e.,

the

afflicted)•
Martin.

"I don't know. "

Magistrate.
Martin.

"I do not desire to spend my Judgment upon it. "

Magistrate.
Martin.

"Don't you think they are bewitched?"

"IJo.

Magistrate.
Martin.

"But what do you think ails them? "

I do not think they are. "
"Tell us your thoughts about them,

then."

"No, my thou ;hts are my own when they are in,

but when they are out tiiey are another's.
Magistrate.

"Their master!

The k

mast er—

"

Who do you think is their

master? "
Martin.

"If they be dealing in the black art, you may

know as well as I . "
Magistrate.
Martin.

"'.Yell, what have you done toward this? "

"Nothing at all. "

burned in Harvard Yard.
C a l e f s statement is in general agreement with that of
the modern authority on the subject, C. W. Upham.
Sea his
Lectures on Witchcraft (Boston, 1832), p. 35.

-178-

Magistrate*

"Why,

* tls you or your appearance. "

(The

fatal spectral evidence, against which the defendant was ob­
viously powerless*)
Martin.

MI c a n 1t help it. M

Magistrate*

"Is it not your master?

How comes your

appearance to hurt these? **
Martin*

"How do I know?

He that appeared in the shape

of Samuel, a glorified saint, may appear in any one*s shape*
Susanna M a r t i n was one of five led to Gallows Hill on the
nineteenth of July*
tells his story:
Salem,

Even more obstinate was Giles Cory.

*$£onday,

Sept* 19, 1692*

Sewall

About noon, at

Giles Corey was press*a to death for standing Mute £the

"peine forte et d u re" for one who refused to be triedj; much
pains was used with him two days, one a f ter another * * * but
all in vain. "

Next day Sewall learned the wonderfully sig­

nificant fact that

"about 18 years agoe,

he was suspected to

have stampd and press*d a m a n to death, but was cleared*

Twas

not remembred till Anne Putnam was told of it by said Corey*s
Spectre the Sabbath-day night before the E x e c u t i o n . T h e
fate of the m a n Inspired a popular ballad of the time which
ran:
Giles Corry was a Wizzard strong,
A stubborn Wretch was he,
A n d fitt was he to hang on high
83

Upham, L e c t u r e s * pp. 82-33,

cited*

D i a r y , I, 364, entry for September 19, 1692. Calef, p*
367, s a y s : "• • • his Tongue being prest out of his Mouth,
the Sheriff with his Cane forced it in again, when he was
dying. **

-179-

Upon the Locust Tree.

•'Giles Corey, •' said the Magistrate,
"What hast thou heare to pleade
To these that now accuse thy Soule
Of Crimes and horrid D e e d ? "
Giles Corey— he said not a worde,
Ho single Y/orde spoke he;
"Giles Corey, " Sayth the Magistrate,
"We'll press it out of thee."
They got them then a heavy Beam,
They laid it on his Breast.
They lorded it with heavle Stone3,
A n d hard upon him prest.
'More V/eight, " now said this wretched Man,
^.lore Weight, " again he cryed,
A n d he did no Confession make,
But wickedly he dyed.®®
He was hung on the sixteenth of September, a n d six days
later his wife, a woman whose very blamelessness of life
caused her to be

"cried out upon, " suffered the same end:

Dame Corey lived but six Dayes more,
But six Dayes more lived she,
^Ogalem Papers (at the Essex County Courthouse, Salem,
Mass.), I, n.p. Also In Drake's summary account of the
victims in his A n n a l s , pp. 167-208.

-180-

For she wrs hanged at Gallows Hill
Upon the Locust Tree.®-*So the parade of victims continues, w ith a variety of
dete.il that is continually fascinating*

Sarah G-ood being

told at the place of execution by Nicholas Noyes (Sewall's
good friend,

companion in his prophetical

"bickerings, " and

sharer of his views on the evil of wigs)

that she was a witch

and knew it, replying,

I am no more a Witch

"You are a Liar.

than you are a Vvlzzrd, and if you take away my Life, God
will give you Elood to drink ";®^thls same Nicholas Noyes
piously declaring after the executions on the twenty-second
of September,

"What a sad thing it is to see Eight F ire­

brands of Hell hanging t h e r e ® ^ M a r y
eight

Easty, one of the

"Firebrands, " a m ild and m eek woman, mother of seven

children, petitioning the court, not for herself,"for I know
I must die • • • but if it be possible,

that no more inno­

cent blood be shed, w h ich cannot be avoided in the way . . .
c4
you go in";*" George Jacobs b e ing testified against by his
®^Drake, loc. clt.
During her trial the performing wit­
nesses professed to feel themselves pin c h e d when her hands
were not held, a n d "when said Martha bit her lip severall
of thorn were b i t t e n ” (Woodward, R e c o r d s . I, 55-59).
92
Drake, loc. cit. A t her trial her husband said that
she "either was a witch or would be one very quickly. " His
reason for this statement was "her bad carriage to him. "
Witnesses declared that they had seen her with "a thing all
over hairy, " "riding abroad, " "signing the book, " etc. (Wood­
ward, R e c o r d s . I, I V - 24.)
She was hanged on the nineteenth
of July.
®*^Drake, loc* clt.
Q4D r ake, loc. clt.

Calef, Mo re W o n d e r s . p. 369.

-181-

granda.ughter, who too late acknowledged herself a liar;

95

Rebeccah Nurse being found Innocent by the Jury (after a
conference of ministers, made uneasy by the use of spectral
evidence,

recommended

"exquisite caution" In the proceedings),

the court refusing the verdict, and the Jury finally bringing
In the desired Judgment of g u i l t y ;s®Bridget Bishop dying pro97
testing her Innocence (as they all did)
and her accuser con98
fesslng his falsehood on his deathbed years later;
John Wil—

rbid^ The conference (held on June 15) concluded that
the devil may 'feasume the shape of an Innocent. " It also
decided that "touching" (of the sufferers by the accused, a
procedure that Invariably produced fresh paroxysms) was no
infallible evidence.
Its stand was equivocal, however,
praising the efforts of the court and recommending speedy and
vigorous prosecution.
V/hen the court convened again on June
28 there was no ouestion, particularly In the mind of Chief
Justice Stoughton, of hov: the court should proceed, and its
proceedings were the old story.
The recommendation of "ex­
quisite caution" was meaningless when, as Cotton M ather had
said and as all right thinking persons knew, "there was lit­
tle occasion to prove the witchcraft, this being evident and
notorious to all believers. " (See Marlon L. Starkey, The
Devil In MassachusettsTNew York, 1949J, pp. 154-155.)
97
The alternatives were confession or death.
"Sept. 21
C1692J. A petition is sent to Town In behalf of Dorcas Hoar,
who now confesses: accordingly an order is sent to the Sheriff
to forbear her Execution, notwithstanding her being in the
Warrant to die to morrow.
This is the first condemned per­
son who has confess* d." (Diary. I, 162.) The eight hanged
on September 22 were the last.
98
Drake, loc. clt.
John Louder, with whom she had "had
differences for some yeares " claimed that he "saw a black
thing . . . like a Munkey only the feete were like a Cock* s
feete. " It Jumped out of the window, and when he looked out,
there, sure enough, was Bridget Bishop in the orchard.
Wil­
liam Stacey testified thrt he passed her on the road and that
afterwards "the cart fell downs. " Besides this, he said, he
had met with "severall other of her Pranks. " (Woodward, Re­
c ords. I, 161.)

-182-

lard, a deputy of the court In making arrests, becoming
convinced of the Innocence of the accused and bein':, there­
fore,

immediately

“cried out upon" himself, arrested,
99
condemned, and hanged*
Enough has been said to show,

tried,

if th^t be necessary,

the story of the Salem witchcraft is a compelling one.

that
It

has often been told and cannot be entered upon again in any
large way here.

Surprisingly enough,

it is impossible to

establish S e w a l l *s connection with the affair in any great
detail.

The diary provides no

“secret history* “

It is al­

most as if its author were bemused by what was going on.
When he does write of it, he does so with the dryness and
impersonality of one whose emotional faculties have gone
numb,

or of one who does not allow himself to see and feel.

On the twentieth of July, for example, the day after five
witches had been hanged,

in a letter to Edward Hull,

London agent, he wrote:

“Wells [Maine} beat off the Enemy

[French and Indians}•

His Excellency [Phips} is going in

person to bea.t up their Quarters.
crafts;

his

Are perplexed by witch­

six persons have already been condemned and executed

at Salem.

Tis a very dry time. "100 On August 4 he notes be­

ing at Salem but says nothing of the fact that his friend and
Harvard schoolfellow,

the Reverend George Burroughs, was to

go on trial next day under charge of
Drake,

loc. clt.

lOOLetter-Book.

I, 32.

%. confederacy with the

-133-

devll.

What he writes about

Instead is "news of the deso­

lation at Jama.ica " caused by an earthquake
Because the case of this George Burroughs is one with
which Sewall had some rather* close associations,
our particular attention.

it merits

As already stated, the two men

were friends and schoolfellows.
the Harvard c-ass of 1670,

Burroughs had graduated with
1C3
one year before Sewall.
In 1680

he accepted a call to the church at Salem but left two years
later because of cuarrellng and division in the parish, an
inheritance fron the minister who had preceded h i m . ^ ^ From
Salem he went to Casco (Portland), Maine, and from there to
105
'7ells.
It was thus, presumably, as a respected visiting
clergyman that he stopped for dinner with the Sewalls on No—
vember 18, 1685,

and thrt, again, five years later, he was

invited to address the Wednesday night meeting of the South
Church Society, where Sewall heard him speak on the Beati­
tude s .

On M a r c h 14, 1692, Sewa.ll performed a b a n k e r ’s

Salem Papers, I, n.p., entry for April 30, 1692.
in Nevins, Witchcraft in Sal em V ill a g e . p. 137.

Also

I 02jpj. r y , I, 362.
Nor does he emerge in any definite way
from the general body of the witchcraft records. All that we
can learn from them is that, his name being occasionally given
as among the members of the court, he was present during some
of the proceedings.
Drake’s comprehensive Annals, for example,
contains not a single mention of Sewall*s name.
1Q5M a g n a l l a . II, 31.
•**°^Nevins, Witchcraft in Salem Village. pp. 131-154.
1 Q 5 Ibld.
1 0 6Dlary, I, 106.
1 0 7 Ibid., p. 340, entry for January 21, 1690/1.

function for him,

giving him twenty-six pounds in exchange
■1n o
for a note on his brother, V/illlam Burrou hs, in London*
Little more than a m o n t h later,
against him was made by

on April 30,

complaint

“Captain Jonathan 'Valcot and Ser­

geant Thomas Putnam of Salem Vlllabe * . . for themselves,
and also for eeverail of their Neighbours*
ately John Partridge,
prehend him a n d

“field Marshal, “

• • •”

Immedi­

was ordered to ap­

“convey him with all speed to Salem before

the Magestrates there,

to be Examened,

a Confederacy v:lth the devil*

• • •”

he being suspected for
Partridge

"delivered

him to the A u t h o r i t y " at srlem four days later, and on M ay
9 he was was examined by a panel of four Judges:
Stoughton,

Chief Justice a n d one of Grod1s angrier men at the

trials; John Hathorne a n d Jonathan Corwin,
active

V/illlam

Salem magistrates

in all the preliminary exam in?' tions; and Samuel Sa-vall*^'

In Sewall* s diary 'Chere is silence*
The details of Burrough*s examination provide a n amazing
illustration of the character of v;iiat was taking place at Sa­
lem.

A m o n g other things, he found it necessary to deny

his house • • • was h a u n t e d * “
hand that

He had to admit,

“there were toads. “110e denied

“that

on the other

“that he made his wife

swear, “ but admitted that none of his children,

save the eldest,

insAccount Book, entry for this date.
•**0®Salem Papers, I, n . p . , entries for dates named*
Woodward, R e c o r d s , II, 109*

Also in

ll^TLese and the details of the examination which follow are
all taken from the first volume of Salem Papers, under entry
of M a y 9, 1592.
Also in Woodward, R e c o r d s , II, 109-125.

-185-

tos

baptised, and that though he was

"In full comunlon at

R o x V ury" he h a d n ’t partaken of the Lord's Supper since he
could remenbsr,^^^ At one point his body was ordered examined
for the tell-tale

"teats" (v/hereat Satan's imps raiaht feed),
112
"nothing • • • but what is natural. "

but the examiners found

Thus far the examination had been in private,
Bewitched bein': present. "
v/here they were,

"none of the

T/hen he vrn s brought into the room

Iraniedia.tely "many (if not all thw Bewitched)

were previously tortured, " some of them to the point where,
at last,

"Authority ordered them to be taken away. "

When,

at one point, he turned to look aroun-.-., the mn.levolent power
of his gaze

"knockt down all (or most),

stood behind him. "

of the afflicted which

When some of the female sufferers were

called upon to testify

"they all fell into fits. " A s ked what

he thought of all this, he replied that
and humbling Providence,

"it was an amazing

but he understood nothing of i t . "

The testimony presented was in fitting correspondence to
the antics of the afflicted.
died, Susan Sheldon,

Two of B u r roughs’ wives having

one of those who

fied that they had appeared to her
and said that man killed them. "

"fell into fits, " testi­

"in their winding sheets,

Susan Sheldon and Ann Putnam

111A curious point for one in the ministry and one which I
am unable to explain.
Cotton Mather proclaimed at Burroughs’
execution that he was "no ordained Minister" (Calef, p. 361),
which doubtless suggests the answer; but since, so far as I
am aware, the Puritans did not permit unordained ministers
in their pulpits, Just what that answer Is I do not know.
H S ^ h e procedure was standard.
Massachusetts, pp. 37-33.

See Starkey,

The Devil In

said that he

1 1g
"brought the Book and would have them write. "

Sarah Bibber testified thrt he had

"hurt her, tho she had

not seen him personally before as she k n e w . H
declared that she

Ann Putnam

"saw the Apperishtion of a minister • • •

end then presently he tould me that his name was Georse
Burroughs, M

that he had

several children, and
he was

"bewitched two wives to death, "

"a grate many souldlers, M and that

%'oove a witch he was a conjurer. M

the two wives, looking
Lev:is testified:

She also saw

"as pall as a white w a l l . “

Mercy

"[He] . . • carried me to an exceeding

high mountain and shewed me all the Kingdoms of the earth
and tould me that he would give them all to me if I would
7/rlt in his book, and if I would not he would thro me down
and brake my n e c k . "
A pearticular feature of the testimony In the case con­
cerned Burroughs*
pointed out, the

feats of strength, which, as Cotton Mather
"learned divine, " John Saule (Select Cases

of Cons d e n c e Touching Witches and Witchcrafts ^London, 1646J)
had designated as one of the
ish confederacy,
Feats.Samuel
roughs

%ore

in the category of

certain signs" of devil­
,*Prodigious Pranks or

Y/ebber said he had been present when Bur­

"put his fingers into the Bun of a Barrell of Molases

and lifted it up, and Carryed it Round. "
113

Simon Vlllard tes—

Referring, of course, to the Devil’s Book.
Sir Robert
Fllmer, a noted lawyer of the day, held the opinion that
"the Devil could not be lawfully summoned" to bring in his
Book (Drake, pp. 207— 208, cited).
^%onders,

p. 219.

-187-

tlfled that he had seen him

"hold out [a] . . . gun v:lth

one hand" which he, Simon Willard, couldn* t sight with two,
John Brown
ers

"testifyed about a bbl Cyder, " and several oth­

% b o u t his great Strength and the G-un. "
A final example of the kind of evidence given In the

her rings is the deposition of Benjamin Hutchinson.

Because

of what it so clearly and sadly suggests about the kind of
world in which Sewall lived, it deserves quoting at length.
"Eenjimin hushension, " it reads,
said that one [i.e., "on"] the 21st aprell 92. abegeral
wllua.ms said that there was a let tell black menester
that Lived at Casko bay he told me so and said that he
had klld 3 wlfes two for himself and one for mister
Losen and that he had made nine Weches in this place
and said that he could hold out the hevest gun that is
in Casko bay with one hand which no man can .[?J. hold
out with both hands that this is about a 11 a clock an
I ask her where about this lettel man stood said she
Just where the Cart wheell went along I had a 3 graned
irne fork in my hand and I thru it where she said he
stud and she presently fell in a letel feet [ "fit"] and
when it was over Said 3he you have toren his coot for I
herd it tare wher abouts said I one [ "on "J won side said
she, then we come into the house,

r?
i
s 4

•

Ingersall and

I went into the great roome and ablgle come in and said
ther he stands I said wher wher a nd presently draed m y
rapyer but he emmedetly was gon as she said then said sh*

-188-

ther is a gray catz then I said v;her abouts dot:, she
stand ther said she thar then I struch with ray rr-.oyer than
she fell in a fltt and when it was over she said you klld
hur and imraedatly Sary good com and carried hur away,
t: is was about 12 a clock.

The sane day after lecttor

[ "lecture"] in the said Ingersalls chamber rbi : ill
williams mary walcat said that goody hobs of topsell
bitt mary walcot by the foot then both falling into a
fit as soone as it was over the said william hobs and
his wife goe both of them a lonne the table the said
hucheson tooke his rapier stabed gooddy hobs one the
side as abigaill williams and mary walcot said the said
abigaill and mar[y]
the said hucheson

&

said the roome was full of them then
Ely putnam stabed wltii their raperres

at a ventor [ "venture"] then said mary and ablgell you
have killed a greet black woman of Stonintown and an
Indian that come with her for the flore is all covered with
blood then the said mary and abigaill looked out of dor 2:1
and said the[yj saw a greet company of them one a hill &
there was three of them lay dead the black woman and the
Indian and one more that the[yj knew not*

Tills being

about. 4. a clock in the afternoon.
It was on the basis of such evidence that Cotton Mather,
symbol of clerical Interest and authority at the trials, was
moved to express the wish that he

"had never known the name

of this man. "115 Convinced that Burroughs
^ ^/onders, p. 215. Mather terms him
of their Hellish Randezvouzes. "

"had the promise of

"Head Actor at some

-189-

bein : a Kin;; In Satans Kingdom,

now going to be Erected,

the testimony of a man like Benjamin Hutchinson was as a
gun in his hands.
power of recoil,

But it was a gun with an unexpected
for when, as soon happened,

it became

apparent that falsehood and delusion rather than toads and
little black men were the active agents in trie affair, and
that the only real sufferers had been tire presumed

"witches,"

both clerical authority and the invisible world for which it
stood were thrown in doubt.

The ignorance and credulity of

Salem were, by their very excess, an encouragement to the
more rational spirit of the next century. 117
Burroughs with five others came up for formal trial on
the fifth of August, but as in the earlier trials, the guilt
of the parties was assumed to have been established by what
had been shown in the preliminary examinations.

A revlev; of

the evidence, with the addition of anything new that might
have turned up since the earlier hearing, and deliberation
by the Jury were formalities quickly gotten through.
of the six were condemned,

Five

Elizabeth Proctor, wife of John

Proctor, one of the five, being let off on a plea of preg11Q
nancy.
Sewall, who was on the bench, wrote in his diary
entry for the day, as we have already noted, about the destruc"V16

I b i d . , Burr*s note, citing a letter written by Mather on
the day of Burroughs' trial.
117
See the comment in Wertenbaker, Puritan Oligarchy, pp. 289,
291.
■^•^Calef, More Wonders, p. 360.

-190-

tion caused by an earthauake at Jamaica; not a word of the
men he had known so long, now about to hang.
Calef1 s description of Burroughs*

execution reads as

follows:
Mr, Burroughs was carried in a Cart with the others,
through the streets of Salem to Execution; when he was
upon the Ladder,

he made a Speech for the clearin'1- of his

Innocency, with such Solemn and Serious Expressions, as
were to the Admiration of all present; his Prayer (which
he concluded by repeatin ; the Lord* s Prayer £a supposedly
difficult thing for a witch to doj) was so well worded,
and uttered with such composedness, and such (at, least
seeming)

fervency of Spirit as was very affecting, and

drew Tears from many (so that it seemed to some, that
the Spectators would hinder the Execution)•

The accus­

ers said the black Man stood and dictated to him; as
soon as he was turned off, Mr, Cotton Mather, being
mounted upon a Horse, addressed himself to the People,
partly to possess the People of his guilt; saying that
the Devil has often been transformed into an Angel of
Light; and this did somewhat appease the People, and the
Execution went on; when he was cut down, he was dragged
by the Halter to a Hole,

or brave,

between the Rocks,

about two foot deep, his Shirt and Breeches being pulled
off, and an old pair of Trousers of One Executed put on
his lower parts, he was so put in, together with Willard

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-191-

rnd Carryer,

one of his Hands and ills Chin, and r Foot
119
of one [of] them bein',■ left uncovered.

Sewall, probably because he did not feel Calef's Indigna­
tion,

reports the event less vividly:

"Tills day G-eorge Bur-

rough, John Willard, John Procter, Martha Carrier and G-eorge
Jacobs were executed at Salem, a very great number of Spec­
tators being present.
Hale, Noyes,
cent,

Mr. Cotton Mather was there, Mr. Sims,

Chlever, &c.

Carrier and all.

Righteous Sentence.

All of them said they were Inno­

Mr. Mather says they all died by a

Mr. Burrough by his Speech, Prayer, pro­

testation of his Innocence, did much move unthinking oersons,
which occasions their speaking hardly concerning his being
executed.

in the margin of this alary entry are the words

"Dolefull V/ltchcraft, " entered at a tine when Sewall he a be­
come sadly aware ti.at "unthinking" was a term less appropri­
ate for those who had been moved by Burroughs* protestations
than it was for such as Cotton Mather and himself.
That the deatns of Burroughs and his fellow victims had
indeed been a doleful thing was a conclusion that all but
the most obdurate soon felt obliged to accept.

As the num­

ber of accusations grew to include more and more persons of
of good reputation and upright life, even to the wife of the
governor himself, it became apparent even to Cotton Mather
that

*taany unsearchable cheats were Interwoven into the • • •

^•^ I b l d . . pp. 360-361.
lg° Dlary. I, 363, entry for August 19, 1692.

business " and that, while there were undoubtedl" '"itchas,
Ha

nane, obtained by a pood life,

by neer spectral accusations.

sho Id net be lost

The Special Court of Oyer

;-r.h T e m i r e r vr.s disbanded in O c t o b e r , v ; h e n

the net,

regularly constituted Superior Court net at Salem on Janu­
a ry

Zt

"they cleared the accused as fast as they tried

them" as Cotton llather remarked,
• • and the land had
n 22
reaee restored unto it.
When some of the Jury ashed
whnt account should be taken of syectr-l evidence,
srer they received from the court was,

the an—

"As much as Chips in

‘Tort, " or of less than no worth,-1-24
Hut peace to the land was not peace to the minds of all
its people;

for innocent men had hanged, and even after the

message of years a conscientious Judge like Sewall would find
himself, as Whittier said, remember3no
‘iVhen he sat on the bench of the v/ltchcraft courts,
Y/ith the laws of Hoses and Hale's Reports,
And spake,

in the name of both,

the word

That save the witch*s neck to the cord. . . ,
121Hs£nalia, I, 21?.
122 Diary. I, 367„ entry for October 26, 1692,
123Uagnalla. loc. clt.
1 P4.
Calef, More 'wonders, p. 532.
^■^"The Prophecy of Samuel Sewall, " Works, I, 210-211.
Sewall*s annual fast, of which Whittier writes in this poem,
and which Parrlngton, p, 96, records as fact, is a myth. He
kept numerous fasts, in some of which the witchcraft undoubted:
ly figured, but there was no annual day.
Duff, pp. 27, 29-30
not only accepts this particular myth, he embellishes it wit

-193-

One may Imagine the good m a n 1s unhaoplness and. discomfort
when, on August 12, 1696, Ur. Melyen,
sion, " as Sewall says,
Salem V/ltchcraft:

“upon a slight occa­

“spoke to me very smartly about the

in discourse he said,

take Beacon hill on's back,

If a man should

carry it away; and then bring

it and set it In its place again, he should not make any
tiling of that, " ^ 6 referring, of course,
in the trial of G-eorge Burroughs.

to evidence used

A month later, at a

"day

of prayer in the East end of the Town-House, " the Governor,
his Council, and members of the Assembly attending, Ur. Mor­
ton preached and

"Spake smartly a.t last about the Salem

V/itchcrafts, and that no order had been suffer'd to come
forth by Autho' ity to ask Gods pardon.
had slept before,
it awake,

If his conscience

the words of Mr. Morton evidently brought

for when,

shortly after, he had his son Sam re­

cite for him some verses from the twelfth chapter of Matthew,
the seventh verse ( “If ye had known what this me&neth,

I

will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have con­
demned the guiltless “) "did awfully bring to mind the Salem
Tragedie.

And when the government, in response, no doubt,

his own astonishing fabrications*
He pictures Sewall as
driven by his conscience "into the seclusion of an anchori te ,"
choosing "to sacrifice everything . . . and withdraw in peni­
tence from the society of his fellows." He doesn't know how
long this period of seclusion lasted, but "we are told, " he
says, that "when he emerged •. . h i s countenance • • •had so
changed that his best friends could hardly recognise h i m . "
126pja r y ,

4 3 1

^ entry for

d . . p* 433,
1 PA

entry for

August 12, 1696.
September 16, 1696.

Ibid., entry for December 24, 1696.

-194-

to pro da Inn s such ns that of Mr* Morton, proclaimed January
14,

1696/7, as a day of solemn fastin': and prayer for what

might have been done

amiss

"in the late tragedy,

amonfc us by Satan and his instruments,
judgment of God, "

ra-ised

through th~ awful

Sewall. determined to or lap before the

afternoon congregation at the South Church a statement con­
fessing Ills guilt and asking their prayers.

As Mr. V/lllard,

the pastor, passed by where he was sitting,

Sewall handed the

note to him,

"standing up at the read in:: of it, an.i bowing

when finished."

The statement read a.s follows:

Samuel Sewall,

sensible of tie reiterated strobes of God

upon himself and family; and being sensible,

that as to

the Guilt contracted upon the opening: of the la-te Commis­
sion of Oyer and Terminer at Salem (to wrich the order for
this Day relates) ho it, upon many accounts, more concerned
than any that he

knows of, Desires to take the Blame and

shame of it, Asking pardon of men, A n d especially desiring
prayers that God, who has an Unlimited Authority, would
pardon that sin and all other his sins; personal and Rela­
tive!

A nd according to his Infinite Benignity,

and Sov­

ereignty, Not Visit the sin of him, or of any other, upon
himself or any of his, nor upon the Land:

But that He

would powerfully defend him against all Temptations to
Sin, for the future; ana vouchsafe him the efficacious,
saving Conduct of his Word and Spirit*
12^Diary. I. 445*
The statement appears with the entry for
January 15.
See also the accompanying editors1 note.
Duff,

-195-

Much has been made of this act of Sewall* s.
for example, arhs:

G-. E. Ellis,

"Did ever a Judge In Christendom,

even the
-1 3 Q
’.vises- and best of them, ever do that, before or since?
and Professor Kit treble finds

'*no action llhefit] . . . in

the v.-itch records of the v/orid. 1,131 It should be remembered,
however, that though Sewall was alone amons the Judges in
what he did, the Salem Jurors ashed public forgiveness in
the srme year,

saying they feared they had been

"sadly deluded

and nistaken " j ^ ^ a n d several of the ministers involved, in­
cluding the notorious Ur. Paris of Salem, also publicly recanted.Furthermore,

the practice of

"putting up a bill"

p. 31, provides, as usual, an imaginative variation of the
episode', sayingJ ". . . he had writteii and brought with him
p formal confession and prayer which he attempted several
tirn^s to recite aloud in the face of the assembled congre­
gation but, 1-is emotion overmastering him a S we are told,
he was obliged to hand the paper up to the presiding cler­
gyman who thereupon read it from the pulpit. " He then adds
the statement, completely without foundation of fact, that
Sewall Intended at' this time "to resign his Judicial office,
of which, in conseouence of what had happened, he now felt
himself to be unworthy, and though in the end he was induced
to forego thot decision he never apj^eared in public again
save in so far as his duties reouired, "
130A n Address on the Life and Character of Chlef-Justlce
SamueX"sewall ("Bo'ston, 18ao) , p . l 2.
15ly;11chcraft in Old and New England (Cambridge, Mass.,
1929)"^ pp. 365— 566.
13^Qai ef # More Worfers. pp. 337-388.
^•^Cllfford K. Shipton, "The New England Clergy of the Gla­
cial Age," Col. Soc. of Mass., P u b s. . XXXII (December, 1933),
p. 45.
It may be noted that the individual recantations were
ultimately followed (on October 11, 1711) by a public *<act to
reverse the attainders of Oeorge Burroughs and others for
Y/itchcraft, " and some measure of financial restitution to the
families of the victims.
The amount voted was 578 pounds and
12 shillings, the survivors of Burroughs being allowed fifty

196-

vas v e r y common*

Sewall nac. done It dozens of times on occa-

slc:/; of particular joy or sorrow,
for the witchcraft, moreover,

V,rhen he put up his bill

it was on a day which, by public

nreclamation, was one of humiliation for the entire colony.
This is not to say t:v t what he did was Insignifleant.

If

it was not the unique and noble thing it has generally been
made out to be, it was still an act deserving honor and re­
spect; for it was done in honesty ana simplicity of spirit,
without either false humility or morbid self-abasement.

If

his original acquiescence In the events at Salem speaks poor­
ly of the Intellectual character of the man,
Just as surely speaks well of the moral.

t..is later act

In the supersti­

tious credulity of Salem he was of his age;

in the South Church

confession of guilt he was himself, and the merit of it is his
own.
If history shows anything,

it is thot men act under force

of events and within the limits of what they lrnov;.

The Puritan

"knew" that the Bible was a literal, word for word, revela­
tion of divine truth and, therefore, a sufficient lamp for
men's feet.

The Bible said,

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch

to live, *^-34 True, it didn't say exactly what a witch was,
but God's desire for their elimination was very plain, and
everybody

"knew" they were somewhere around in busy pursuit

pounds, (Salem Papers, III, n.p.. entry for October 11, 1711;
Woodward, Records. II, 216, 221.)
This was the amount asked
for in a letter addressed to the General Court by Burroughs'
children, in which they declared:
", . . we were left a parcell of small Children of us helpless & a mother in law with
one Small Child of her owne. • • ,
Our fathers small Estate
was most of it lost and Expended and we Spattered. . . . "
(Salem Papers, III, n.p., n.d.)
ls4Exodus, 22: 18.

197-

of the devil* s business.
as Cotton Mather said,

Those who didn't

"know11 this were,

"sensual Sadducees " willing "to credit

nothing but what th^y see and feel, " a mental habit which,
as he ouite rightly observed,
ism.

"does much to settle men In

What wag a man like Sewall to do?

To no man was the

"froward spirit of S a d d u cl sm " more repellent or strange.
with the stories of demon possession which,
Mather once more,

Athe­

Faced

to quote his friend

"hundreds of the most sober people in [thej

M e m o r a b l e Provid en ce s, p. 95* John Wesley made the same
observation, and Blachstone, writ inn three quarters of a century after Salem, said: "To deny the possibility— nay, the
actual existence— of witchcraft and sorcery is at once flatly
to contradict the revealed Word of God in various p£ ssages in
both the Old and N e w Testaments" (Ellis, Puritan A g e . p. 32,
cited).
Belief In witchcraft Is, of course, by no means dead.
IJor is such belief to be casually equated with illiteracy and
ignorance.
In an astonishin. book by Montagu Summers, for
example, called The Geography of ‘Witchcraft (New York, 1927),
a study which, is ouite as elaborate in its learning and schol­
arly apparatus as that of Professor Kittredge, we read of the
Salem affair as follows: "There can be no doubt that at Salem
the traditional rites of the hideous black worship we re pre­
cisely observed, allowing, of course, that it was a Protestant
communion and not Holy Mass which was the model of their hel­
lish liturgy.
These practices must have been carefully handed
down and taught to the New England representatives of the
witch society." Mr. Summers feels that the various witnesses
could not possibly iiave invented with such exactness "the de­
tails of these old occult ceremonies and the ancient cryptic
rites from their ov/n imaginations*
They had obviously been
present more than once at the witch sacrament, and assisted
at the Sabbat orgy.
That a coven of witches did exist in
Salem is proved beyond all question, and it is, I think, eually certain that George Burroughs was the grand-master. . . . "
(Page 343.)
He believes that it is eaually olaln, however,
onat the majority of those executed were innocent.
I n the
introduction to his work he anticipates a nd destroys all
rebuttal by remarking that his attitude is "doubtless open
to criticism, as indeed are all points of view. "

-1981 *70

country • • • knov.’ • • * to be true, •'

ills course of action

was fixed before he ever entered the Salem court.
One thln{^ he never did do,
abandon belief in witches.

It suovld be noted, was to

What troubled him most, with the

rest of the court a n ^ the colony generally, was the i^roblera
of spotting them.

The Bible didn't say how to do it, and the

guidance of tne best authorities,
Joseph Glanville,

such as Sir Thomas Ihle,
137
and Michael Dalton,
had delivered Justice,

as was all too painfully clear,
able cheats. " ^ ® T h e

the han..s of

situation was a baffling one,

as the fast day order said,
ments,

into

"roised, "

". • • by Satan and his instru­

through the awful Judgment of God. "

pursuit of a righteous end,

"unsearch­

The attempted

in other words, had been used

by God to give victory to the devil.
The feeling called
159
forth has been described as tragic,
but in a strict sense
1C>6M a g n a l i a , I, .907.
^■^Particularly the last.
His Oountry J u s t i c e , says Nevins,
Witchcraft, xvlii, note, "gave the method of procedure in de­
tail, and with clearness, and it had the approval of C.11 the
great legal minds of England. " A t Salem, he says, "the in­
structions were followed with scrupulous exactness. " (See
also, Kittredge, p. 564, and Starkey, p. 57.)
The same out­
rages in court procedure that astonish us at Salem are to be
seen in the report of trials in 1665 before the noted Justice
Hale in EnglancL (see Nevins, apiDendix D ) . Glanville, in his
Considerations About V/ltchcraft ( 1631), invited the most ex­
treme credulity by stating that "the more absurd and unaccount­
able the actions seem, the greater confirmation are they"
(Nevins, xx-xxi, cited).
■)

• v .a

I.Iagna1 l a , I, 912.
William E. Rowley, '•The Puritan's Tragic Vision. " New
England Quarterly, XVII (September, 1944), 415, remarks: "Their
error, conceived conscientiously, and now ironically shown,
by God, to be fanatical, confused them in its subtlety, so that
at once they thought of it as a tragedy and bore it as a cross,

-199-

the '-ore does not apply.

For the Puritan knev; that all things

v:ere In the hands of God a nd that somehow,

however inscrutab­

ly, they were being shaped to his glorious e n d s * ^ ^ The feel­
ing was less one of tragedy than of confusion and dismay: con­
fusion because they found themselves obviously betrayed in
vrhe.t they had supposea was a righteous cause, and dismay that
God should have

chosen to express his displeasure by this

ful Judgment. "

Because their belief both in G o d 1s providence

and Satan* s invisible world remained unshaken,

"aw­

the most sig­

nificant immediate result of Salem was a practical one.

It

had provided a rude but effective lesson in the uses of evi­
dence.

The error it seemed to point to was,

procedural rather than basic.
examinations for

so to speak,

A f t e r it there were no more

"Devil's marks, " no more

"touch tests"

or

"soectre evidence "; though the invisible world remained intact,
the attempt to give demonstration of it in court wo uld not
again be attempted in Massachusetts.
and were able to gal/, from the experience both the dignity and
wisdom which purgation produces and the strength which Chris­
tian discipline creates through humiliation. "
1/3-0
See Miller, N e w England Mind, pp. 38-42, for his discus­
sion of the Puritan's "cosmic optimism. " In a passage peculiar­
ly appropriate to the Salem ordeal, he says:
The "indestructible optimism contained within the grim
Puritan creed is apparent in the theoretical explana­
tion of affliction.
Seeming contradictions between the
creator's goodness and the creation's visible evils neces­
sitated no denial of either; they merely reinforced the
distinction between God's revealed a nd secret wills.
Providence was the expression of His inner determination,
and though the lesson of some "divine providences" could
be read with ease, the teachlrg of others remained obscure.
God frequently causes things to fall out contrary to what*
seems to us fitting and proper, contrary even to His own
uttered word.

-200'

It Is temp tin.-; an 6. easy to sit in Judgment on the mistakes
of history, holding ip those who made then to the damaging
li :ht of knov;ledge they did not possess*

The Puritans, of

course, are a most attractive target for our wisdom and abuse,
and especially those who played leading parts in the witch­
craft delusion.

James Savage,

say in'; that the Judges
Devil,

for example, may be right in

"served,

if they did not worship the

and took him to be their God, whether they signed his

Book or not, M and that had his Book been brought into court,
the names of more than one of them

"would have flared in the

sapphire blaze. "l^l But aside from whatever relief or satis­
faction one derives from voicing Judgments of this kind,
would scarcely seem to be a rewarding exercise.

it

More poten­

tially profitable is the realization that every generation
has its Salems, every generation its search for Twitches,
whether of the theological or political variety— our own
with the rest.

The fact that Sewall and his colleagues pro­

ceeded wrongly and that innocent men died therefor Is a fact
of no particular significance

by Itself.

What is worth not­

ing is that the motivations and procedures of Salem (with, of
course,

certain technical variations) are quite as alive and

destructive today as they were in the summer of 1692.
Sewall1s attitude concerning the abortive expedition against
the French at Port Royal In May, 1707, is illustrative.
“Twas, M he said, Ha burden Ck>d in his providence had laid
on us. • • . H (D i a r y . II, 205, entry for December 6, 1707.)
ldlorake, A n n a l s , pp. 207— 203,

cited.

-201-

IV
The colony was not
es of the Sclera affair,

inclined to reprobate individual

Judg­

considering rather t'.ot they had but

shreo

in the general delusion.

The chief Justice,

for ex­

ample,

intransigent William Stou liton, retailed his post in

the newly constituted Superior Court of the province and was
l h e r Lieutenant 'Governor for many years,
he was for considerable periods
of the government.

in which capacity

(1694-97, 1701-2) acting head

Sev;ail himself, one of the twenty-eight

original councillors named in the Province Charter,

T 4.0

was

re-elected with unb ro k en regularity over a period of thirtythree years,

declining at last to serve after his re-election

in 1725.^4 ^ One of the five original

Justices of the Superior

1 4 0

Acts and R e s o l v e s , I, 10-12, where the charter is given.
Though the number of councillors was thus ouite large, seven
with"the Governor constituted a quorum, and the Council Rec­
ords, II-VIII (1692-1727), show about half the full number
generally in attendance at meetings.
The original council
was named in the charter, but re-election of old members and
election of new ones lay with the General Court, which was
made up of the Governor, Council, and Deputies.
^4^Dlri,y , III, 357, entry for M ay 27, 1725.
Council Rec­
ords, VIII, show M a y 15, 1725, as the last meeting he attended.
The Journals of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts
(Boston, I3T9"=‘5 0 } show his annual election from 1715 (the year
in which this record was begun) to the time of his retirement
ten years later: I, 78, entry for M a y 30, 1716; I, 179, entry
for M a y 29, 1717; II, 2-3, entry for M a y 23, 1718; II, 111-112,
entry for M a y 27, 1719; II, 229-230, entry for May 25, 1720;
III, 5, entry for M a y 31, 1721; IV, 2, entry for M a y 30, 1722;
V, 5, entry for M a y 29, 1723; VI, 5, entry for May 27, 1724;
VI, 217, entry for M a y 26, 1725, when he was re-elected and
declined to serve.
The alary has frequent references to the results of these
elections: e.g., Vol. I, 427, entry for M a y 27, 1696 (he is
well toward the top of the balloting but is concerned that h*
has "fallen 7 since last year"); II, 256, entry for May 25,

-202-

Court of the Province appointed and approved on December

7,

1692 (the Court of Gyer and Terminer havin : been dissolved
\ 144
not ouite two months oefore),
his comnlsslon to act in this
office was renewed by a succession of five different royal
governors over a peri o d of thirty-six years, at the end of
va.ich time

(172.3) he was granted

D i s m i s s i o n M from his

Judicial duties so that he might, as he says,
the entertainments of another v/orld.

145

"prepare for

During the last

1709 (he receives the most votes) ; II, 312, entry for H a y
30, 1711 ( "Election as last year, save that Col. Noyes is
put in the room of Col. Foster, deceased. " The tradition
of continuity in office was strong from the first days of
the colony.
As 7,'ashbum, S k e t c h e s , p. 16, says: "The last
incumbent . . . was always tl.e first to be nominated, and
the elections consequently, generally, resulted in con­
tinuing the former offices from year to year. ");
II, 335,
entry for M a y 27, 1713 (one of the more attractive entries
of t.:is kind, it reads: "102 Voters at first: Mr. Addington
had all but his own, 101.
Col. Hutchinson and I had 97.
each.
But tls to be lamented that Major General Winthrop
had but 46. and was left out. . . .
Thus Mr. b'lnthrop is
sent into Shade and Retirem*t while I am left in the W h i rl ­
ing Dust, and Scorching Sun.
So Falls that stately Cedar*, whilest it stood
It was the truest Glory of the Wood. **
Sewall*s epitaph was premature, for as the D i a r y . II, 392,
shows, cn August 6 Winthrop was returned to the council
after t._e death of Col. Hunt.)
l44 P l a r y , I, 370-371, entry for December 6, 1692.
Coun­
cil Records, II, 206, entry for December 7, 1692.
For the
first time the executive and Judicial branches of the govern­
ment were separated; but only in theory, for members of the
council frequently served as Judges also.
31nce the new
charter provided that Judges sho ..Id be appointed by the Gover­
nor with the advice and consent of the Council, Sewall, as
the record shows, was present at the m e et in g of the Council
which approved his nomination as Judge.
He received his for­
mal commission on December 22 (Council Records, II, 212).
145
L e t t e r - B o o k , II, 247, letter to Governor Burnet dated
July 29, 1728.
He had attempted to resign two years before,
but the then acting Governor V/ill lam Mimmer desired he "wou-

-205-

ten years of this tine he served n s Chief Justice,
having annointed hir.i with these

the Lore!

"fresh oyls 11 on ^pril J

1718.146 For thirteen years (1715-28), also, he served as
Judge of Probate for Suffolk County (Boston ant vicinity}.^47
It is impossible to form as complete a. Jud^pnent as one
night 113-10 of Sewa ll 1s character as a Judge during these
yaurs because the court records for the Province, like those
for the Colony,

give only verdicts, nothin." of opinions or
of the kind of reasonin': employed. ■*'-3 The recorded hearings
of the witchcraft court are a. notable exception*

V»hnt Sew­

all1 s qualifications were for the role of Judge v:e already
have some idea.

How much he Improved those qualifications

hold" until wsrd of a new governor came from England.
The tradition of continuity in office which applied to
the office of Councillor applied even more definitely to
thr t of Judge.
Y/ashburn, p. 138, says I "The tenure of the
office of Judge was not fixed by the charter, but it prac­
tically became durante bene placlto. * . . "
^•^ D l a r y , III» 183, entry for April 25, 1718.
He took
his s'vth on this day, but the appointment had been made by
•Cover.aor Shute nine days before (Council Records, V, 551,
entry for April 16, 1718; Diary. Ill, 181, same date).
^ 4^For his appointment on December 9, 1715, see Council
Records, V, 596.
148
See Benjamin F. Wright, American Interpretations of
Natural Law (Cambridge, Mass."] 1951), p. 124.
No regular
series of Judi clal opinions appeared, according to Mr.
Wright, until 1789.
He relates this absence of established
opinion to reliance by the Judges "upon their interpretation
of the law of nature, or, as it was more often called in Eng­
land, the law of reason, " which must of necessity have fol­
lowed.
Mathews, "The Results of the Prejudice against Law­
yers, " p. 76, dealing with the same point, remarks that be­
cause of the absence of recorded opinion 'too law was created
• • • down to the time of the American Revolution. " Lechford, Plalne Deallng, p. 85, made the early comment? "Seldo
is there any matter of record, Saving the verdict. . . . "

- 204—

through legal study is a question.
that he had followed
what

Y/ashburn states confidently

"a very respectable course of study" and

"so far as we may judge from the few records that are

left . . .

was alto -ether better read in the principles of

the common law tnnn any other Judge upon the bench. «I49
^
The trouble with this statement is that the evidence is hard­
ly such as to warrant its being either so favorable or so def­
inite.

It is true that on several occasions (the writer has
1 PiO
noted three)
he mentions having ordered or received vari­
ous legal works,

sufficient in number to warrant his being

credited with an attempt to build up a law library.
extent, however,

to which he became master as well as posses­

sor of these materials is a more dubious question.
indeed

The

If he had

"followed a respectable course of study, " it is re­

markable that in the extensive records he kept during the
more than forty years that he sat in the highest courts of
both Colony and Province he sho ild have made as few references
Sketches, p. 60.
During his visit to England he bought "Shephard's Abridg­
ment of the L a w s " (D i a r y . I, £85, entry for July 26, 1689) ;
ana on September 29, 1716, he received "the Statutes at large
in Eight Volumes" (D i a r y . Ill, 105).
More impressive is the
order he placed with Thomas Newton, bound for London in 1705
(Letter-Book, I, 310, letter dated March 10, 1704/5).
It reads
as follows!
"When you come there, Buy for me all the statutes
at large made since Mr. Keeble's Edition [Keble*s Statutes}
1684 . . . the Register [Registrum de Cancellarla}, Crompton
[Jurisdiction of divers Courts}, Bracton, Britton, Fleta,
Mirror [Horn's mirolr des Justices}; as many of them as you
can get in Latin or English; Heath's Pleadings, Sir Edward
Coke's Reports. " (Material in brackets is the editors'•)
151
Wright, Literary Culture, p. 174.
Wright's conclusio
Is accepted by Morris, Studies, p. 174.

-205-

as he did which would indicate a knov.’led'~e of legal ituthori—
ules.^^^ It is probably not without significance thpt when
he went to visit his Judicial colleague, Mr. Danforth, at
his hone in Cambridge,

Danforth bade him look on top of the

cupboard and tell what he saw.

"I told him, " says Sewall,

"I saw there a Law-book, b'ingate on the Common Law.
he would lend it me. . . .

He said

Again when took leave after prayer,

He said he lent me that Book not to wrap up but to read.
...

Perh'ps it is unfair to infer from this that his

reputation as a legal student was a trifle shaky.

The in­

cident is not alone, however,

in sup ;esting that he remained

of the old Charter mentality,

content for the most part with

the belief that the Holy Scriptures supplemented by his own
"right reason" provided a sufficient guide for the determi­
nation of right
To say this is not so much to belittle Sewall the Judge
as it is to characterize him.

It is true that the consequen-

I have noted only two.
Once he cites Dalton on the ques­
tion of "when an officer might break open a House " (Diary. II,
125, entry for March 3, 1704/5); another time, when carters
Thomas Trowbridge and John .Winchester gave offence to Governor
Dudley by their refusal to get off the road and let his chari­
ot pass, Sewall plead their case and cited "Coke’s pleas of
the Crown" (Ibid.. p. 149, entry for December 14, 1705).
l53Plary. I, 419, entry for January 15, 1695/6.
154
This is the conclusion of Ellis, An Address, p. 17, who
says, after duly noting his importing of law books:
"It may
be said of him that, ’simple truth was his utmost skill.1
He had an awful sense of the supreme law of rlp;hteousness,
as set forth in the two great commandments.
The Scriptures
furnished a sufficient code to one whose heart was pure and
whose eye was single. He followed the methods of natural

-206-

ces o f a n approach, to lav; b a s e d p r i m a r i l y
c at ed r e s p e c t
a n d that

f o r the w o r d o f G o d w e r e

Sewall*s

already been

career demonstrated

shown.

ture w h i c h we a r e
whole,

able

an attractive

b e n c h he
whose

It

Is a l s o
to

form

one.

sake

I was named)

taken?— a n d that P a r t i a l i t y
my

t

C ha rge,

had given

55

he was

simple

after
%s

I may

expressing

and admirable

a n d e v en ,

fare

few are
of

the

Judicial positions
revealing.

Indian and

to his

fellow

to the

t r i a l of S a m u e l

gro:

"The p o o r e s t

writes,

His

or Indians,

she N e g r o

T hose w h o w o u l d d e p r i v e

qualities

taken by

I

career

Combined with
of k i n d l i n e s s
of l i b e r a l i t y .

him are

expressed

few,

itself

but

the w e l ­

in a n o t e

wh o w a s o n h i s w a y

S a n d w i c h for k i l l i n g his N e ­
t h i s P r o v i n c e , " he

condition;

or E t h i o p i a n s ,

them of

(for

Cx h a v e

occasionally,

the l o w e s t

that

the

c a n n o t be l a i d to

Davenport,

S m i t h of

to R e l i g i o n a n d L i f e ,

Whose

on the
on

l i f e - l o n g concern for

Addington

of

Is,

great Judge

say,

B o y s a n d G-lrls w i t h i n

"such a s a r e

be E n g l i s h ,
Right

Judge,

the

illustration.

("the W o r d " p e r m i t t i n g )

those

J u dg e

t h a t f o r w h i c h his

intent were

to

t h r t the p i c ­

thirty years

or Bribery,

u n o u e s t i o n e d h o n e s t y of

References

however,

of h i m a s a

that

said,

sometimes unfortunate,
such consequences has

true,

./hen,

e x p r e s s e d tl.e h o p e

on an unsophisti­

w he t h e r they

They have

the

same

th e R i c h e s t H e i r s h a v e . "
this

right

%ttempt

the bom—

e qu ity, t r y i n g to b r i n g s i m p l e c o m m o n s e n s e to bear. . . .
He se ems to h a v e a c t e d on the c o n v i c t i o n t h a t it is n ot f o r
men . . .
1 to m a k e , 1 but to d i s c o v e r w h a t a r e the l a w s a l r e a d y
p u t in f o r c e b y the D i v i n e L e g i s l a t o r , a n d to give t h e m r e c o g ­
nition. "
^^Letter-Book,
9 0 , l e t t e r to G o v e r n o r S h u t e d a t e d F e b
ary 1 1 , 1717/13.

-207-

bardlng of HEAVEN; a n d the Shells they throw, will fall dov;n
156
upon their own heads. ,r^
O n a n o t he r occasion he expressed his
•

*

opposition to the law of primogeniture as
the L a w of Nature a n a the L a w of God.

"contrary to • • •
when Governor Dudley

found his passage a l o n g Boston n eck blocked by the carts cf
Thomas Trowbridge a n d J ohn Winchester,
"I an as pood flesh a n d blood as you;

the latte r tellin.p him
I will not give way;

you may goe out of the way, " a n d set upon them wi t h his
sword call in ^ them
th0 carters,

"divells " a n d

"c.lrty dogs, " Sewall defended

pot their bail lov/ereu,

saw to their writ of

Habeas Corpus,

a n d finally sat in the sess ion of court w hich
158
set the m e n free.
Again, when Mr. Taylor, a Justice of the

Peace,

struck an off en d er w i t h ills sword and was pra is ed by

Dudley for doinr: so, Sewall a r gu ed fro . the word of God (spe­
cifically,

Titus 1:7)

fa fa.vorlte wo r d 3

that

"of all men,

twas most inconvenient
,,159
for a Justice of Peace to be a Striker.

In the sermon he p r e ac he d on the occasion of Sewall* s
death,

the R e v e r e n d Thomas Pri nc e spoke of him as

"solemn,

- ^ ^ L e t t e r - B o o k , II, 101, entry dated J uly 20, 171S.
See the
following chapter for a discussion of Sewall*s humanitarian
writings.
D i a r y . Ill, 65, entry for November 9, 1715.
Governor Saltonstall of Connecticut had sued for sole inheritance of his
father's estate.
l58Diary, II, 143— 149, entries for December 7 to 14, a n d
editors* notes.
A f t e r arranging bail sewall wrote: **I a m glad
that I have be e n instrumental to Open the P r is on to thesb two
young men, that they might repair to their wives a n d children
and Occasions. . . . "
15 9 D i a r y , II, 152,

entry for January 12, 1705/6.

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■

-208.

r. -.tiont, grave and fixed in his Attachment to the Lav/s of
J.60
y:r* a Terror to tne Children of Belial. ,r"
That he was
a

"terror” to many we ma y doubt, but as Cod's magisterial

spokesman lie may well have aroused a certain amount of awe
in

someone like Mary Okelly of Yarmouth,

indicted for adultery,
sreak about
with a grave

for example, when,

she stood before hlra and heard him

"the woman of Samaria, " ending his admonition

161

"Repent and amend"; and Esther Rogers,

judged

guilty of the murder of her two bastard children, doubtless
felt her wickedness more keenly as she heard herself,
great destroyer, " compared with Esther of old,

"a

'te. great sav­

iour. w162
It is when the Puritan Judge thus turns from the deter­
mination of right to the enforcement of righteousness that
he begins to lose whatever meg/- be attractive in his
character and becomes,

J u d l c * nl

instead,

the grim and often ridiculous
163
figure that his detractors have made so familiar,
A sinner

160A Sermon , • ,, p. 34,
^-6^*Journal of Journey to Martha's Vineyard and Circuit
Court Journal, entry for M arch 2Q, 1716,
He evidently dif­
fered with the Judgment of the court, which declared her not
guilty,
1 6 2 Plary, II, 39, entry for July 15, 1701,
The association of law with righteousness is so Inherent
a part of our Puritan heritage that it is difficult for us to
realize that the two are not synonymous.
Morris, Stud ie s, p.
37, says 5 "The acceptance of the law of God as fundamental law
is in part accountable for the identification by Calvinist
Jurists in America of law with morality, sin with crime. • • ,
The vigorous arm of the state was • . • raised to enforce the
moral dictates of the church.
In New England, because of the
close affiliation of church and court and of the homogeneous

-209-

like Esther Rogers might (as iiappenea in the case of Elizabeth
Negro, who also destroyed, her bastard child) ^ ^ b e
by Sewall

recommended

to Cotton Mather for his prayers and then brought

to the weekly lecture at South Church (as was Sarah Threeneedl®,
another murderer of her oastard c h i l d ) a
proving " that occasion,

means of

"im­

there to hear the eloquent Cotton

Mather preach in the following way:
Be astonish'd, 0 congregation of God!

Stand aston­

ished at the horrible spectacle that is now before you.
• • .

Behold a young roman, but an old sinner,

this day to die before her tine,
m.’
.ok!

going

for being wicked over-

Behold one Just nineteen years old, and yet found

ripe for the vengeance of a capital execution.

Ah,

miserable soul, with what a swift progress of sir* and
folly, hast thou made haste unto the congregation of
the dead!

Behold a. person, whose unchaste conversa­

tion appear'd by one base born child many months ago!
God then gave her a space to repent, and she repented
not;

She repeated her whoredoms, ana by an infatua­

tion from God upon her,

she so managed the matter of

character of the community, it wa*s possible to make practi­
cally every breach of tne moral code a crime punishable by
law. M
164Letter-Book. II, 3, letter to Couton Mather dated M ay
6, 1712; Dia ry , II, 340, entry for M arch 26, 1712.
Yet anoth­
er case of the murder of children by their mothers is noted
in the Diary, I, 379, entry for June 8, 1693.
1 6 5 p i a r y. I, 486, entry for November 17, 1698.
Sewall was
present and set the tune for the fifty-first psalm.

her next base born,
der*

that she Is found guilty of its mur­

Thus the God whose eyes are like a flame of fire,

is now casting her into a burning bed of tribulation*
Behold, 0 young people,

what it Is to vex the Holy

Solrit of God, by rebelling against him*
to be

"given over of God! M

hard-hearted wickedness,

• • •

This,

this 1tis

A n d yet, after all this

is it not possible for the grace

of Heaven to be triumphantly victorious in converting- and
pardoning so unparallel'd a criminal?

3e astonish'd,

miserable Sarah, and let it now break that stony heart
160
of thine to hear:
it is possible! it is possible!
There would be

'te. very vast A s s e m b l y w of those seeking edifi­

cation and the streets outside would be filled with
could not get in*

"such as

A f t e r Lecture she would be led to the

place of execution and there prayed with age.in before being
"turned off, " as the saying was,

"to general satisfaction*

A critical member of Cotton Mather's audience might have re­
called. that a few years before he had found one of his ser­
vant girls to be with child and
reserving to God, presumably,

"turn'd her out o f 's house,

the powers of forgiveness and

pardon which he so much admired.

^ 67D i a ry , loc* olt*
1 6 8See D i ary. II, 396, entry for August 26, 1713.
169 I b l d . . I, 126,

entry for M a y 11, 1686.

-211-

The war against sin in Massachusetts was a war against
the devil,

just as real as the border wars against the Indians

and considerably more discouraging.

The Indians were declin­

ing in strength, while sin and wickedness grew a-oace.
Dunton,

John

in his Letters from Nev.' England (written during his

visit in 1686, not published until the nineteenth century),
observed that though many walked

"in the steps of their pious

fathers, " others, outwardly pious, were
nnd debauched wretches in the world,

"the most profligate
By far the most ac­

tive source of trouble was what Ned Ward in his Trip to New
England (1699) described as

"the sweet sin of Procreation.

It needs only a very brief glance Into some of the lower co.irt
records for the period to realize that moral legislation did
not, as Ward observed,

result in a citizenry very different

from that to be found anywhere else.

Indeed, something like

the records of the Boston General 3essions of the Peace make
a modern tabloid seem deficient in tang and vigor. 1 *72

One

l 70Wertenbaker, Puritan Oligarchy, p. 170, cited. Profes­
sor Wertenbaker*s conclusion is that "before the first half
century had massed there was a decided weakening in the moral
standards. "
■^^"Page 3.
Edmund S. Morgan, "The Puritans and Sex, 11 New
England Quarterly. XV (Deoember, 1942), 5S5-596, says that
fornication and adultery are "by far the most numerous class
of criminal cases in the record. " The Puritans, he says,
"becejne inured to sexual offenses, because there were so
many.
The impression one gets from reading the records of
seventeenth century New England courts is that illicit sexual
intercourse was fairly common. "
For factual summaries concerning the crimes of fornica­
tion, burglary, drinking, etc., see Henry B. Parker, ‘Morals
and Law Enforcement in Colonial New England, " New England
Quarterly. V (July, 1932), 431-462.
172i sf.tc only the volume for 1702—12.
This court was the

-212-

emerges from examining them, f.s Charles Francis Adams said of
confidential intervievrs v;lth country lawyers and doctors,

"in

a more or less dishevelled condition.
As his diary frequently shows,
to sexual offenses.

~\

74

Sewall was no stranger

Dut as a judge they were for the most

Prrt outside his province*
ond occasionally adultery,

Except for cases involving murder,
they did not reach him in Superior

Court; and as a Justice of the Peace, a post which he con1 «e

tinued to hold under the Provincial Government,-

they were

so-called Quarter Sessions Court and was composed of Justi­
ces of the Peace (see Washburn, p. 151).
Though Sewall was
a Justice of the Peace ne makes no reference to sitting on
such a court, and his name does not appear among the Judges*
The kind of material found in this volume is fairly il­
lustrated by a meeting, chosen at random (p. 32), at which
six cases were up for judgment.
Three brought fines (two,
three, and four pounds) for fornication, and three brought
punishment for bastard children (ten stripes apiece— to the
mothers)•
I 07
"3one Phases of Sexual Morality and Church Discipline
in Colonial New E n g l a n d , w Mass. Hist. 3oc., Proc*, ser. 2,
VI (June, 1891), 513.
The cool honesty of this essay might
well serve as a model for writers on the subject of early
New England.
"The habits of those days were, " he says (p. 477),
"simpler than those of the present; they were also essential­
ly grosser," One minister, he says (p. 494), refused to bap­
tize children born on the Sabbath day, the idea being that
they were conceived on that day. When he had twins born to
him on the Sabbath he reversed his stand.
174E . g . , Diary. I, 78, entry for May 28, 1685 ( "bestiali­
ty"); ibid.. II, 333, entry for January 29, 1711/12 ( "for­
cible Bu r r s ry ") •
A curious Puritan custom, of which A.W. Calhoun, A So­
cial History of the American Family (Cleveland, 1917), I^- 132,
Rives several examples was the confession in meeting of pre­
marital sexual Intercourse, sometimes long after the parties
had been married.
Sewall notes hearing such a confession
when he stopped over at Rehoboth and attended the afternoon
service on September 9, 1716 (Diary. Ill, 102).
175

This was a usual thing for members of the Council, as
it had been for the members of the Court of Assistants.
Se

-213-

out side his Jurisdiction.

In this latter capacity his war

P'.-ninst wickedness was of a more prosaic kind.

'Lying, 11

"galloping in the street, " "striking, M "tr' v lliny on the
Lord's day, " "swearing more than once, " “breaking glass-windows, " "drunkenness " (both men and women),
in the night

&

"going- aisguisd

making a shout scaring folks, " "carrying [aj

box along the street" on the Sabbath— such are the offences
w' ich appear in great number in ledger entries which he made
between the years 1694 and 1727, with the amount of the fine
(generally fron five to seven shillings)
for payment to the town treasurer*

carefully noted down

1 .7 6

Some of the embarassments he suffered in the conscien­
tious performance of the duties of Justice of the Peace gave
him as much pain as they now afford amusement to the reader
of his diary.

On a Saturday evening in February, 1714, for

example (Sabbath observance having begun at sundown),

his

neighbor, a Mr. Colson, knocked at his door to tell him that
there were

"disorders" at a nearby tavern run by John Wallis,

and to ask that he accompany Constable H-vell and Mr. Brom—
field, another magistrate,

thither.

ter, a servant, with him and set out.
Found much Company.

Sewall took Aeneas Sal­
Arriving at the tavern

They refus'd to go away.

Said

were there to drink the Queen's Health, and they had many
notes, for example, that on July 25, 1699, after the arrival
of Governor Bellomont, " . . . all of the Council present were
sworn as Justices of the Peace; Only hr. Ellaklm Hutchinson
declined taking his O a t h . "
176rphere are at least ninety-five such entries, appearing
as lists on foil. 48, 86, 113, and 146.

-214'

other Healths to drink*
me,

Call'a for more Drink: drank to

I took notice of the Affront to them.

would stay upon that Solemn occasion.
drank the Queen's H e a lt h to me.
upon that he ceas'd.
front me.

Said must and

Hr. John Netmaker

I told him I drank none;

Mr. Brlnley put on his Hat to af ­

I made him take It off.

some of them to prison;

I threaten'd to send

that did not move them.

I'hey

said they could but pay their Fine, a n d doing that they
might stay.

I told them if they had not a care,

would be guilty of a Riot.

Hr. Bromfleld’ spake of raising

a number of H e n to Quell them,
to run Into Street.

they

and v;as I n some heat,

ready

But I did not like that. Not having

P en and Ink, I went to take their Names with my P e n s 11,
a n d not knowing how to Spell their Names,
of their own A c c o r d writ them.
the Province,

they themselves

Mr. Netmaker,

reproaching

said they had not made one good Lav/.

At lpst I address'd my self to Hr. Banister.

I told

him he had been longest an Inhabitant and Freeholder,

I

expected he should set a good Example In departing thence.
Upon this he Invited them to his own House, and away they
went; and v/e, afte r them, went away.

The Clock in the

room struck a pretty while before they departed.
directly home, a n d found it 25. Minutes
Night when I entred my own House.

I went

past Ten at

1*77

On the following Monday morning:
Mr. Bromfleld comes to me, and we give the Names of
the Offenders at John Wallis's Tavern last Satterday nigh.
l7 ? P l a r y , II, 419-420,

entry for February 6, 1713/14.

to Henry Howell,

Constable, with Direction to take the

Fines of as many as would pay; and warn them that refus*d
to pay,

to appear before us at 3. p.m. that day.

them pay'd.

The rest appear'd; and Andrew Simpson,

sign, Alexander Cordon,
and John Netmaker,
5s each of them,

Chlrurgeon,

Francis Brinley,

En­
Gent,

Gent., were sentenc'd to pay a Fine of

for their Breach of the Lr.w Entltuled,

A n .-vet for the better Observation,
Day.

Many of

They all Appeal'd,

and Keeping the Lord's

and Mr. Thomas Banister was bound

with each of them in a Bond of 20s upon Condition that they
should prosecute their Appeal to effect.
Capt. John 5romsal, and Mr. Thomas Clark were dis­
miss'd without being Fined.

The first was Master of a

Ship Just ready to sail, Mr.

Clark a stranger of New York,

who had carried it very civilly, Mr. Jekyl's Brother-InLaw.
John Netmaker was fin'd 5s for profane cursing;
ing to _ _ _ _ _

Colson,

say­

the Constable's Assistant, God damn

ye; because the said Colson refus'd to drink the Queen's
Health.

This he said presently.

Then Mr. Bromfleld and

I demanded of the said Netmaker to become bound in a Bond
of Twenty pounds,

with two Sureties in Ten pounds a-plece

to Answer at the next General Session of the Peace for
Suffolk,

his Contempt of Her Majesties Government of this

Province and vilifying the same at the house of John Wal­
lis, Innholder in Boston, last Satterday night.

Mr. Ban

-216-

ter declin'd being bound; and none else offer'd (To
lmbarrass the A f fa i r as I conceiv'd).
Netmaker was dismiss'd,

Upon tills Mr.

giving his Y/ord to Appear on

Tuesday, at 10. In. that he might have Time to provide
Sureties."*-7®
Next clay:
Mr. Bromfleld and I waited till past 11. and dis­
miss'd the Constables Howell and Fenno,
would come.

supposing No body

Constable met Mr. Netmaker at the doer, and

came bock again with him:

He came all alone.

Mr. 3rom-

field a nd I spent m uc h time with him to bring him to some
Acknowledgment of his Error, but all in vain.
not so much as his ov/n Bond:

Offer'd

which constrain'd us to

7/rlte a Mittimus, ana send him to Prison.

Angry words

had pass'd between him and Const. Howell;* he Threatn'd
Const. Howell what he would do to him;
for him.

or his Servants

For tills reason I dismiss'd Constable Howell;

sent for Mr. John Y/lnchcomb, and gave him the Mittimus,
out of respect to Mr. Netmaker; and he took it kindly.
This about i past 12. at Noon by my Clock.

Went Into

Town; Mr. William Pain spake v/ith me near the Townhouse;
express'd himself concern'd that Mr. Netmaker was in
prison; he would pay his Fine that he might be releas'd.
I told him there was no Fine.
178 Ibld., pp. 421-422.

-217-

After a Council nee tin : on this same day, rhen it was
nr.d Duskish" and th;- persons present were sitting

"late

"round

a little Fire, " Sewall happened to sit ne>:t to G-eneral Nich­
olson, Intel,

arrived from England.

He apply*d himself to me and Mr. Bromfleld, ask'd
whether did not know that he
Seal of England?

s here with the Broad

I answer*d, Yesi

As k'd whether did

not know that Mr. Netmaker was his Secretary?
swer'd, Tis generally so receiv'd.

I an­

Then with a Roaring

Noise the G-eneral sa.ld, I demand JUSTICE against Mr.
Sewall and Bromfleld for sending my Secretary to prison
without acoualnting me with itl

A n d hastily rose up,

and went down and walk'd the Exchange, where he was so
furiously Loud,
Council-Chamber,

that the Noise was olainly heard in the
the door being shut.

Governor Dudley urged the discharge of Netmaker and finally,
after the

'llittimus" was sent for and

"read by Candle-Light, "

accomplished it on the grounds that the order was too general
179
in its wording, the Council reluctantly votln.g its approval.
It wa.s a hard thing for a man who knew from of old what
the place of the magistrate in society was intended of God
to be, a.nd who remembered the unouestioned authority and
respect that had once accompanied him along the streets of
Boston,

to feel that now (without ever really admitting it

179 Ibld.. pp. 42£-4£4.

-218—

to himself or realizing exactly why It w a s
had occured)

th a t

the change

he was somehow b e in.; made ridiculous*

Some­

times It was a local person in whom he me o v/ith "refractory
Carriage, " ^ ^ b u t more generally it was a
Netmaker.
he

"stranger" like Mr.

Visiting- at Newbury on the Sabbath, for example,

"had an inkling thr-t two Merchants came from Ipswich, "18^

thereby violating the law against travelling on t h a t

day.

It turned out th°t the offenders were a Peter La Blond and
a Richard G-errish, which wo s embarasslng because G-errish
"had a smell of Relation.

" Moreover,

Mr. La Blond*s Mother my Neighbour,
of another Province. "

"they were young,

[andj • • • both of them

Feeling himself

"in a strait, "

he

prayed God tc direct and decided that if the two culprits
would sign a statement acknowledging their transgression and
promising; not to offend in a like manner again,
the matter drop.
Disdain. "

This offer,

however,

he would let

"they rejected with

Mr. La Blond paid tne two pounds fine, and they

went on their way.
Even more distressing was the trouble given by his own
Pastor,

Ebenezer Pemberton, when he, Sewall,

fined John

Banister and Aaron Suckey for publishing what he considered
"vlllanous Libels" against the Mathers.

Being at Sewall*s

180E . g . , Dir-ry, III, 276, entry for November 18, 1720.
Breach of the Sabbath by Thomas Wheeler, at his tre.de of
"S.rt-'.’ork Cocnerlnp;. H Ibid. , I, 498, entry for June 21, 1699:
"A Pack of Cards are found strawed over my fore-yard, wnlch
1tis supT^osed, some might throw there to mock me, in spite of
what I did at the Exchange Tavern last Satterday night. " What
he had done at the tavern he does not say.
lelDiary, III, 81-83, May 13 and 14, 1716.

-219-

for dinner, Mr. Pemberton,
with extraordinary Vehemency said,
feet)

(caperin'; with Ills

If the Mathers o r d e r 1d It, I would shoot him

thorow.

I told him he was In a nassion.

was not in a Passion.

I said,

He said he

it was so much the worse.

He said the Fire from the A l t a r was equal Impartial.
Upbraidin'-- me, very plainly, as I understood it, with
Partiality. . . .

I was surpris'd to see my self in­

sulted with such extraordinary Fierceness, by my Pastor,
Just when I had been vindicating two worthy Embassadors
of Christ (his own usual Phrase).

. . .

After dinner, walking* in company with several others to the
Council chamber, he was again upbraided by the testy pastor.
Sewall was

"griev'd11 at this, and said,

Whet in the Street!

He answer'd, No b o d y

hears.

But Mr.

Sergeant heard so much that he turn'd back to still us.
Mr. Pemberton told me that Capt. Martin . . .
him, yet I took no notice of it:
laid it before me.
it not.

had abus*d

I answer'd, you never

He said, You knew it.

I said,

I knew

(For every Rumor is not ground sufficient for a

Justice of

eace to proceed upon; and Mr. Pemberton never

spake word of it to me before).

He said Capt. Martin

call'd him Rascal in the Street.

. . .

So the painful episode continued,
plaining,

Sewall protesting and ex­

the angry minister refusing to be mollified and

coming out at last with what was apparently the root of the

-220-

matter,

that Capt. Martin had been Invited in his place to

a dinner with the Superior Court.
concludes,

"These things, "

Sewall

'taade me pray Earnestly . . . that God would

vouchsafe to be ray Shepherd, and perform for me what is men­
tion'd in the 23. Psalm,

that He would not leave me behind

in my Stragglings; but bring me safely to his Heavenly Fold*
The Reverend Mr. Pemberton was not yet done.

In the

afternoon servloe of the next Lord's day, he ashed the con­
gregation to Join in sin ing the first five verses of the
fifty-eighth psalm,
used,

which,

if Tate and Brady were the version

ran as f ollov/s :
Speak, 0 ye Judges of the Earth
if Just your Sentence be:
Or must not Innocence appeal
to Heav'n from your Decree?
Your wicked Hearts and Judgments are
alike by Malice sway'd;
Your griping Hanes, by weighty Bribes,
to Violence betrayed.
To Virtue,

strangers from the Womb

their Infant Steps went wrong:
They prattled Slander, and in Lyes
employ'd their lisping Tongue.
Diary, II, 291-293, entry for November 28, 1710.

No Serpent of Parch'd Afrlc's Breed
doth, ranker Poison bear;
The drowsy Ad der will as soon
unlock his sullen Ear,
Unmov'd by good Advice, and deaf
as Adders they remain;
From whom the skilful Charmer1s Voice
can no attention gain.
MI think, " wrote the patient Sev/all,

"if I had been in his

’l a c e and had been kindly and tenderly affectionea,
not have done it, . . .

Another Psaln: might have suited his

Subject as well as . • . this,

Tls certain, one may make

Libels of David*s Psalms; ana if a person be abused,
is no Remedy:

I should

there

I desire to leave it to God who can and will

Judge Righteously.
Despite its tribulations,

however,

Sewall loved the

Judicial role and was pleased and grateful when a new governor renewed his commission. 184 He even sought additional of­
fices,

On December 9, 1715, he became Judge of Probate for
185
Suffolk County, a comfortable and lucrative post
to which
l QS p i a r y , II, £94, entry for December 3, 1710, and editors*
note.
If the Bay Psalm 3ook was used, the sting was not quite
so sharp,
^•®4E.ar.. Letter-Book,
February 19, 1 7 W T 7 T '

II, 67, letter to Governor Shute dated

1®®Councll Records, V, 396*
In his first year in the post
he received approximately thirty pounds in fees for not many
more pieces of routine business— proving wills and granting
letters of administration (Probate Journal, entry for February
29, 1716/17),
In the last years his fees averaged around flf
teen pounds a quarter (Ledger, fol. 144),

Maffachufetts Bay in
N e w England ; ' D e c e m b e r > 12. 1715.

‘P r o v i n c e

of

the

Flq; Judge for the
Probate o f Wills, and Granting
Letters of Adminiflration, within
the County o f S u f f o l k ^ ; Purpofes,
G O D willing, to wait upon that Bufinefs, at his dwelling houte in P o j l o n ,
every Second day of tile Week, at Ten
in the Morning : Excepting the Weeks
o f the Circuit o f P l i m o u t b , K e t t e r i n g ,
I p feti c h , S pri n g f i e l d , P r i f l o l , and S a l e m .
A m m l

Sevcall

S

fofepb

M a r i o n

Regifter.

-222-

he devoted his Tuesday mornings v:hen not on the Circuit, and
one which, like the funerals he loved to attend,
reminded him of man's mortality.

repeatedly

'May I be ready to f o l l o w ! "

he would write in his probate accounts after proving a will;
"Fit me for my change!

Also,

in 1718 he wrote Governor

Shute saying that if his Excellency could find it

"convenient"

to nominate him for the roost of Chief Justice of the Superior
he would be very
own

"sensible " of his Excellency's favour ana his

"further Obligations to G-ratitude.

The Governor comT QQ
plied, and he was sworn into this office on April 25, 1718.
It is not difficult to understand why Sewall relished
the role of Superior Court Justice.

It was a worthy occupa-

^•®®See the D i a r y . Ill, 132-135, entry for June 19, 1717, in
which he tells how he waited on the new Governor, Samuel Shute,
end "pray'd his Favour as to the Judge of Probat's office. "
He obtained Shute* s promise of it and was grateful.
Several years earlier ;ie ha a been critical of Mr. Cooke's
being a Judge of Probat-1 ^ s well as a Superior Court Justice.
He thought it "inconvenient" that so m u c h authority should rest
in one man. (
.D i a r y . II, 59-40, entry for August 1, 1701.)
The diary entries concerning his probate work are sur­
prisingly few considerin'-: that it covered a period of thirteen
years, in which time he took care of about four hundred pieces
of business.
•^^L e t t e r - B o o k , II, 83-89, letter to Governor Shute dated
February li, 17X7/18.
He points out that he is "the last of
the Justices left standing in the Superiour Court . . . that
were of it from the Beginning, which was in the year 1692. "
Also, he "frequently presided" lately because of the Inability
of the former Chief Justice, Walt Wlnthrop, to ride the cir­
cuits. A n d see the D i a r y , III, 168, entry for February 11,
1717/18.
138
D i a r y . Ill, 183.
For his appointment, see Council Records,
V, 55X7 entry for April 16, 1713, and the Di ary. Ill, 181, entry
for the same date.

“ 22o~

tion,

the nearest thing in his life to a

sented status,

"calling,"

It repre

the rather meager pay (later in the century

■lovernor Hutchinson wrote that it did not pny travelling ex189
penses)
"being compensated for bv the honor and circumstance
-v bic h

attended the progress of the judges on the circuits.

"Auyt. 16. [1698;
Springfieldj
Brown.

w'inthrop,

Cooke, and Sewall on the vray to

To hu-boag with a guard of 20 M e n under Cornet

Between Worcester and Quaboag we were greatly wet

with Rain; wet to the skin, lot thither before tw&3 dark.
A guard of 20 from Springfield met us there, and saluted
n 90
us with their trumpets as we alighted. ,rt
Another time, at
Plymouth,

there was a volley by soldiers and

[thelrj entrance into T o m .

Once

021

"Huzzas, at

the v/ay from Newbury

to Portsm ou th there was

'tet Guard of Sir m en from Newbury,
t 32
[which wasj met w i t h 12 from New Hampshire. ,r_
Again, ap­
proaching Bristol they were met by the sheriff and Judges
IQS'Jashburn, p. 162, citing a letter to L o r d Hillsboro.
The pay was then 120 pounds.
During the period of Sewall* s
service it varied.
In 1692 the Chief Justice received 100
pounds a nd the associates 50 pounds (Council Records, II,
210, entry for December 16, 1692); in 1697 all five judges
received 40 pounds apiece (do id. , p. 439, entry for January
21, 1696/7); in 1712 it was 200 pounds, "to be proportA on*d
according to . . . Attendance " (P i r y , II, 351, euory for
June 14); in 1715 it wag 300 pounds, to be distributed on
the same basis (Council Records, V, 368).
For an instance
when Sewall was dissatisfied with the dlstrloution, see the
D i ary. Ill, 259, entries for July 30 and August 3, 1720.
The
treasurer, writes Sewall, "said * twas Just; I said * tv/as un­
just. . . .
He look*d upon me, and said he was sorry to see
me so raov* d, said twas a Trifle. **
The ledger (fol. 144) shows his salary from 1712 to 1726
to have been from sixty to ninety-five pounds.
1 9 0 D i a r y . I, 432-483, entry for August 15, 1698.
1 9 1 I b i d . . II, 75, entry for M a r ch 29, 1703.
1 9 2 r o l d . . I, 405, entry for M a y 15, 1695.

-224-

of the court of common pleas.

Then too,

there was m uch

agreeable dining——at the Black Horse end the Peacock on the
wnv to Bristol,

the Three Cranes in Charlestown, and the

"Blew Bell " at Salem,
winces. '^-9-

to name but a fev: of the

"baiting

It was pleasant to be the distributor of ser­

mons that you carried in your saddle baps, and to give an
]Q S
occasional penny or shilling to the child of your host,
196
to hear the "Swallows proclaim the Spring, Ir
and to engage
your fellow Judges in theological argument.
of the last,

As an example

there was the discussion one Friday evening at

Thomas's during P l ymouth court,
of the Province, Paul Dudley,

when Sewall ana the Attorney

"had Discourse about the Body. "

Mr. Dudley maintained the Belly should not be raised,
because he knew n > use of it.

I maintained the Contrary,

because Christ saw no Corruption:
formed to Him.

The

Saints shall be con­

Creator in his infinite 7/isdom will

1 9 5 I b l d . . Ill, 102, entry for September 10, 1716.
See simi­
larly, i b i d . , 264, entry for September 26, 1709, and i b id.. Ill,
56, entry for September 12, 1715.
1 9 4 I b l d . . I, 453, entry for M a y 24, 1691; ibid.. Ill, 192,
entry for September 5, 1718; i b i d . . p. 261, entry for September
17, 1720; l b i d ., p. 348, entry for January 30, 1724/5. More
often the stop-overs were at private homes or at hostels for
which he gives the owners' names.
196
E.g., D i a r y , III, 56, entry for September 12, 1715; ibid. .
p. 57, entry for September 19, 1715; i b i d p. 76, entry for
March 26, 1716.
On the last date, at Plymouth, he "Gave the
Sheriff and ills Attendants a Duz. of Dr. Incr. Mather's Ser­
mons concerning Christ the Great Saviour. "
E.g., D i a r y , III, 181, entry for April 14, 1718.
There
are dozens of such entries.
He was an early Boston bird-watc

-£25'

k n o w v’k t use

to wake

Smelling?

fTis pos si bl e

3.

01

’ them.

t use of Tasting,

the bodies

m a y have a. F r a g r a n e y f-'ttendie-: them.

of hue Saints
D. Voice

rious.

3. A s m u c h L a b o u r as you oleace,

better,

so it be without Toll,

I dare not po rt w i t h my Belly.
a n d there
me,

as

is l a b o ­

the m ore the

in H e av en it will be.

Christ has re< e jmd it,

is d a n g e r of y o u r b r e a k i n g in f u r t he r upon

a n d c u t ti ng off my H a n d or foot.

this A c t i o n to the next term.

Y/ee'l continue

This m o r n i n g it comes

to

m y m i n d I cant believe
Saviour,

the b l e s s e d Y/omb w h i c h bore our
197
will al wa y s be burled.

B a c k in court

the next M o n d a y there were

the u s ua l cases,

i nv olving on this o c c as io n d e f a u l t e d o a y m en t for
of Uackarell, " a debt f o r
Hedge,

"50. Barrels

"Shoos, " charges agai ns t Samuel

an E a s t ha m innholder,

for

"thrust[ingj Am o s Sim ps o n

b a c k w a r d o ve r a T h r e s h o l d u p o n r ough Stones all his L e n g t h
w h e r e b y his Skull was broken, " several cases of
a n d e j e c t m e n t " (i.e.,

"trespass

dlsr>utes o v e r l a n d boundaries,

which

a p p e a r in the records b y the hundreds), a n d one a g a i n s t
Jos hu a H a n d i n g

"for I n c r e a s i n g a n d A l t e r i n g P rovince Bills*

1 Q7

This mate r ia l is f r o m one of the small circuit Journals
w h i c h Sewall car ri e d w i t h him a n d w h i c h b ears on its cover
the wo rds ^IACrUNKAQUOCr. O c t o b e r 11, 1715. " It is in part
r ep rinted in the D i a r y . II, 425— 440.
The entry here cited
is f o r A p ri l 2, 1714*
-*-9Q rbi d . . foil. 12-19, m a t e r i a l not r e p r i nt ed by the editors
of the diary.
The reas on for the triviality of m a n y of the
cases was that app ea l was very freely used.
The n u m b e r of
cases h e a rd was enormous.
B e t w e e n A p r i l 1724 a n d F e b r u a r y
1725, for example, the court was in session a r o u n d fo rty df

-226-

Exaraining volume after stout volume of the records of
the Superior Coiirt for the period in which Sewall was a member,
one is finally amazed at the sheer •■•hysical stamina of a man
and tried over three hundred c^ses (Superior Court Records,
V, 170-252). As Mathews, "The Results of the Prejudice aga.in.it
Lawyers, " p . 7o, remarks, "• • . it is not too much to say
that in thd seventeenth century [and the same may be said of
the eighteenth}, in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, sooner
or later every Inhabitant of every town was brought into court,
either as plaintiff, vltness or defendant.
Our ancestors were
a litigious people."
The laws and penalties in the early years of the Province
remained about the same s.s they hau been in the Colony (see Noble,
"botes on the Trial and Punishment of Crimes, " p. 35). As re­
marked earlier, the court records ordinarily give only the charg­
es, the parties, and fhe decision.
In the Superior Court Records
civil cases predominate, with disputes over land being by far
the most common.
Criminal cases are not infrequent, however,
and, as usual, are of considerable interest.
Hannah Nowell and
Lambert Desoar, "being found in bed . . . at his house in Bran—
tree,
n n -Ivon fifteen and twenty-five strokes respectively,
"upon tne nakea back. " In addition, he, "the next Thursday
immediately after lecture '^".3 to "stand upon the pillory for
the space of one Lower with Adultry in caoltnll letters writ­
ten upon his breast. " (Vol. I, 127, date of October 50, 1694.)
Samuel Y/hite, found .guilty of robbery, was ordered "to be
branded in the fore head [with} the Letter B " and pay treble
the theft to tne injured party (i b id .. p. 73, date of Octo­
ber 21, 1693).
Francis Dormer, for "scandalous words" about
Governor Bellomont, was to stand in the stocks for an hour at
high noon "with a paper signifying his c r i m e " (ibid., II, 202,
date of October [no day}, 1693).
"Indyans" are frequently In
difficulty for kill in,-; and stealing, and cases of Infanticide
are fa.irly common.
The tax assessments made necessary by the many campaigns
against the French a n d Indians resulted in one case which gives
an interesting pre-view of the spirit which some years later
would find expression in other "embattled farmers. " Henry
Head of Little Compton and Daniel Yvllcocks of Nomquld were
indicted for heading a group which with "Sords, Staves, Clubbs,
and Gunns • • • did assemble themselves together with intent to
• • • hinder the collecting . . . [ofj the Arreares of the pub—
lioue assessments." In speeches (excerpts from which being
given as part of the charges) they had said: " . . . the Govern­
ment of the province [has} taken the very linnen from of[f} the
Hedges and . . . Soe farr were oppressors that the poore people
were faine to Sift their meal to pay their Rates and eat their
bran for bread. . . .
M e will rise whilst we have something,
. . . " (Ibid., I, 66, date of August 29, 1695.) Head and Yttlcocks were fined 15C pounds each.

v.‘‘;o for almost forty years,
years before he died),

to the age of seventy-six (three

travelled the province,

county town to

county town— Salem,

Charlestown, Plymouth, Kittery, Ip.sv/ich,
199
Cambridge, Bristol, a.nd Eoston— winter ana summer, generally
by horseback,

sometimes by water,

often in the last years by

calash and coach, never missing a meeting of court

"for more

than Twenty years together.
Very little is known about
P01
travel in early America,
cut v/e do know thao except for a
very

few miles around Boston t m veil in : was done almost en­

tirely on horseback,

except when it was possible (as, for

example, between Boston anu Newbury)

to go by boat.

M e know

Tire colony had been divided into four "sheires " in 1643:
Essex (Salem, Lynn, .Venham, Ipswich, Rowley, Newbury, Glou­
cester, -and Andover), Middlesex (Chariest own, Cambridge,
Watertown, Sudbury, Concord, Woburn, Medford, R eading), Suf­
folk (Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Dedham, Braintree, Wey­
mouth, Hin wham, H tiII) , Norfolk (Salisbury, Hampton, Haver­
hill, Exeter, Dover, Portsmouth).
(See Davis, Bench ana Bar,
I, 44.)
This remained tne approximate structure except that
Provincial Massachusetts was expanded, necessitating Journeys
by the circuit Judges to such places as Plymouth and Kittery.
^"^Letter -B o ok , II, 90, letter to Governor Shute dated Feb­
ruary 11, 1717/18.
He mentions only Bristol Circuit in this
letter, but the Superior Court Records show that it applies
to the other circuits as well.
In the twenty-five years that
preceded his appointment to Chief Justice he did not miss a
sit tin-;' of the court.
In later years he began occasionally
to be absent,but never often a n d never for a long period.
pm
Alice M. Earle has gathered available material, which
isn’t much, for her Stage-Coach and Tavern Days (New York,
193 5), especially the chapter "From P at h to Turnpike. " The
scarcity of evidence is commented on by Seymour Dunbar in
his extensive A History of Travel in A m e r i ca (Indianapolis,
1915), I, 15, and his first chapter is an illustration of the
fact.
Something like Madam K n ig ht ’s Journal gives us as
good a sense of the matter as we can get.

also that the settled portions of the continent consisted of
a very nrrrov; coe utal strio, and that immediately bordering
lay the forest,
illimitable.
Plymouth,

trackless save for Indian trails,

silent, and

Even a fairly well-travelled path, like that to

could be lost when the snow fell, as Sewall knev;

after going that way for more than twenty years S
Ilarch, 27. £1710.J

Am m uc h disheartened by the Snow on

the around, and ‘ h t which v:as fall in; •, there being a
dismal face of Winter.
along about 10.

[a.J m.

Yet the Sun breaking out,

I stood

Everything look'd so wild with

Snow on the Ground and frees; that was in pain lest I
should Vender:

but it pleas'a God graciously to direct,

so that I got well to D. Jacoos, and then call'd his
Tenant Rlply to guid us ov- -r tne Rocky Swamps to Cur­
tis's.

Din'd at Bairstow's;

Sheriff b r i m t .
Cotton,

from thence bad the under-

At book's the Sheriff met me.

Otis and others with him.

about Sun-set.

Mr. J.

Got to Rickard's

pn£

oently he travelled with v/hat he calls

'tay pilot, " some

ggJJ

verson of the locality who knew the path,

and in later

years he was generally accompanied by a servant, such as the
204
faithful Scipio, a Negro.
If meal time found them on the
202 P i a ry . II, 276.
2(^C E. :., on September 9, 1704, travelling to Bristol in
company with HathorneS "A Taunton man, Mason, overtakes us
and becomes a very good Pilot to us through the wilderness"
(D i a r y . II, 115-116). Generally the arrangements were less
casual.
^Q^Ibid., III, 260, entry for September 10, 1720.
On this

-

229

'

205
road, he and his companions night stoo to eat in the p o c q s ,*
thirsty,

they woula fill a bottle from a stream and drink. 206

On numerous occasions ne '"as thrown from his i i o r p e , ^ a
v'-.ich led him to v:rlte to his Aunt Alice Dur. .er:

fact

"I that am

a Traveller,

ou ;ht the more to sympathise with you In the
20©
bruise you have had. • • • "
On no occasion, however, did
he suffer serious injury, for each tine
of God, " as he says, he

"through the goodness

"had no harm. H

Lest we overemphasize the hazards and difficulties that
he faced as a traveller of the circuits we should note that
more often than not, as
his journeys

wf-s

his

engagingway, he pronounced

’V er y comfortable. "

It is appropriate,

there­

fore, that we leave our consideration of the subject think­
ing of him conin : home

"very olensrntly oer arnica silentla

L u n a e . w-09
Off the circuit,

Sewall*s most important function as

a servant of trie province was as a member of the Governor* s
trip, to Bristol, he and Sclplo got lost and had to stay
over night 'tet Ensign Blake's 3 miles short." See also,
I b i d . , p. 219, e n t r y f o r A p r i l 25, 1719; 1^. i d . , p. 220, e n t r y
f o 1 May 11, 1719; i b i d . , p. 183, e n t r y f o r A p r i l 28, 1718; i b i d . ,
p . 57S, e n t r y f o r A p r i l 30, 1726; I b i d . , p. 355, e n t r y f o r Elay
14, 1725; i b i d . . p . 101, e n t r y f o r S e p te m b e r 6, 1716; i b i d . ,
p. 100, e n t r y f o r A u g u s t 27, 1716.
"Q5Ib ld., p. 197,
6 l b i d .. p. 101,

entry for September 23, 1718.
entry for September 6, 1716.

?07B. w ., ibid.. I , ,472-473, entry for March 10, 1697/8; ibid. .
11, 139-140, entry for October 1, 1705; ibid., pp. 310-311,
entry for May 14, 1711.
g08Le tter- B o o k . I, 364, letter dated March 15, 1707/8.
g09Plnry. Ill, 163,

entry for January 29, 1717/18.

-230-

Council.

Here a^ain we find the constant attender tc duty

( "toe most constant, M in fact, as he confided to his diary
’••hen. Governor Dudley once chided him for be in •; late to a
meeting)Here

also we find mention of various dignities

of office wh:'ch he must have found attractive:

"Splendid

Treat [ a j" by tne G o v e r n o r s ;
the Crown Coffee House,

dinin • at the Er.-.-henge Tavern,
pi O
the Dolphin, and the Green Dragon;

standing with the Governor and other members of the Council
in "the Gallery" of the Townhouse,
the

'tony Auditors below" and

"Serjeants in red Clo&ths with Horlberts pl.e., H a l b e r t s j , "

to hear an act of Parliament published ,rby Beat of Drum, and
Pi 3
Sound of Trumpet";
a nd calling for ulues when the business
214
of the Council was over.
D i a r y , II, 254-255, entry for I.Iay 2, 1709.
The record of
his .attendance may be seen in tne Council Records, II—VIII.
He was, as he says, "the most constant attender. " O ver a
period of thirty-three years (1692-1725), figuring the number
of meetings as about seventy-five a year (the approximate
average for four years chosen at random: 1702, 1707, 1711, and
1720) , he must have attended almost tw'enty-flve hundred me e t ­
ings.
Tiiis, to extend the rough arithmetic one step further,
meant an income from the office (pay being figured, according
to the ledger, fol. 144, at five shillings for each meeting
attended) of around six hundred pounds.
^^-E.g. , D l a r y , I, 396, entries for November 17 a nd December
4, 1694; i b i d . , Ill, 67, entry for November 23, 1715.
212
See, for example, i b id ., I, 495, entry for April 13, 1699;
ibid.. Ill, 110, entry for November 8, 1716; ibid., p. 186,
entry for June 12, 1718; ibid.. entry for June 13, 171S; ibid.,
p. 357, entry for M a y 26, 1725.
oT_3

A composite of details from the D i ar y. I, 496, entry for
April 27, lo99; i b i d . . Ill, 67, entry for November 23, 1716;
ibid. . p. 287, entry for April 6, 1721; a n d the betuer-Boolef I#
373, letter to Thomas Cockerill dated January 10, 1703/9.
D i a r y , II, 372,

entry for February 27, 171:'/13.

-231-

Semail's politics

in t: is job are interest!., ■ to watch..

His Philosophy was expressed in words he uttered at a time
when Hilliam Dummer, Massach us et ts 1 a,-;ent in England, was
belnp attacked by bis Eoston criticsS
■che Government, " declared Sev/all,

"I v/a s for up ho lain ;
pi

5

"whether in or out of it. w

Given b.is choice, he v:ould wish to re in it, but in or out his
desire was for stability.

His first affection was for things

as they were in the days of the fathers, but l&ckinu that he
would wish to maintain the status q u o .
various Royal Governors
without exception,
desire to serve.

His relations with the

in whose Councils he sat was expressed,

in terms of congratulation and an obedient
Governor Plains had known John Hull and was

Invited over by Sewall to ■..rink, a (
-;lass of brandy and talk
216
over t„.e old days#
The next Governor, r.ne Earl of Bellomont,
217
.e pronounced "very satisfactory."
On the arrival of Gover­
nor Dudley he declare,, to him lir i his be in • sent was

"a very

fair First-Fruit" of the goodness of God In pine in. • Q,ueen Anne
on the throne of 2nal; nd,

Dudley cuarreled with almost every

one, and Sev/all found him a. trial more than once, but never
did he allow a breach to form in their relationship.
°fter thirteen years (1702-15),

When,

Dudley was relieved of his

215Diar y. Ill, 34, entry for May 25, 1713.
^ uI b id .. I, 369, entry for November 19, 1392.
PI o
Letter-3ook, I, 212, letter to John Ive dated June 27,
1699.
21 3
Dl--ry, II, 57-53, entry for June 11, 1702.
Learning
of Dudley*s arrival from his son Sam he h••rriedly got repel:/ aad
’■"ent with Gao tain Crofts in his ninnfi-ce "to meet tne ooverno
and Conpratulat his A r r i v a l . "

-232-

post,

Sewall called on him, drank to him, fni presented his

"humble service.

So It went.

When nevrs came thb t Samuel

S h u ;3 was to be Governor (Lt. Governor Taller having been
aefiu : Governor durinr the absentee government of Governor
Burgess,

follower of Dudley), he heard lt v’ith

wanted Shute to
his

"fjreat Joy,

"nake ha.ste in comin ■, " and considered that

"Qualifications commend him to the Embraces of oil that

r.re of his acquaintance. "221 v/hen Shute returned to England
and Vr’llllam Dummer to oh over as actin'- Governor, Sewall arose
st the ceremony of his Installation and spoke as follows*
If your Honour and tills honoura.ble Board please to give
me leave,

I would speak a Y/ord or two upon this solemn

Occasion.

— Altho the unerring Providence of God has

brought you to the Chair of Government
Tempestuous Time [actually,

in a cloudy and

relatively peaceful]]; yet

you have this for your Encouragement,

th- t the People

you Have to do with, are a part of the Israel of God,
and you may expect to have of the Prudence and Patience
of Moses communicated to you for your Conduct.

It is

evident that our Almlght Saviour Counselled the First
Planters to remove hither, and Settle here; and they
dutifully followed his Advice; and therefore He will
D i a r y , III, 65,

entry for November 15, 1715.

ggQIbl d. . p. 95, entry for June 5, 1716.
^ L e t t e r - B o o k , II, 55, letter to Jonathan Belcher dated
July 28, 1716. A n d see ibid. . p. 56, letter to Sir William
Ashhurst dated August 8, ~17l6; ibid.. p. 73, congratulatory
letter to Shute dated October 17, 1717.

never le?-ve nor forsake them, nor theirs:

so that your

Honour must needs be happy In sincerely seeklny their
Interest and Welfare; which your Birth and .-education vfill
incline you to do.

Difflcllla quae oulchraj

I promise

my self that they tiio.t sit at this Board, will yield their
Faithfull Advice to your Honour, accordin

to the Duty of

their Place.
Everyone there,

Sewall notes,

''express’d a handsom Acceptance

opp

of ’"hat 1 sold.

Laus Deo.

When

"Infirmities of A g e " pre­

vented him from greetin’; in person Governor Burnet,

the last

under whom he served, he wrote a little note expressing hope
for his safe and speeoy arrival and sent it to meet the 3-over—
223
nor on his way up from Bristol.
If a part of tils kind of thing obviously derives from
the p o l i t i c i a n s

impulse to watch his fences, another part

Just as truly derives from simple good nature, a nature which
made his human relationships generally, not just the political
ones, notably pleasant and serene.
however,

Neither of these things,

resulted with him in a policy of careless acquiescence

or unprincipled expediency.

We have already noted how, as a

Judge, he stood against Dudley In the episode of the carters
and the Governor1 s coach.

So again as a Councillor, when

Pi?:ry, III, 317-513, entry for January 2, 1722/23.
The
editors note that the quotation if from Erasmus' A d a g i a .
V/hen Dummer again took over in 1729, Sewall then being out
of all offices, Sewall wrote congratulating him "and this
Province" (Letter—3ook, II, 275, letter dat -d September 11*
1729) .
&~3Letter-Book,

II, 244-245, letter dated July 10, 1728.

-254-

Dudlev stood, charged with

"Trading, or alio via

c Trade with

H .■r Majesty's Enemies, the French, ana Indians in their In224
terest"
" ?.nd badgered his Council into passin - a vote of
v? -.cleat ion, Sewall, w! .o at first vent aloe.
of the belief that the charges were

in expression

"Scandalous and ',/icked,

investigated the matter, decided that all was not, as Dudley
had. told the Council,
Driven snow, " ^

"a.a white as Chalk, as clear as the

and publicly reversed himself in a broadside

statement giving the reasons for his action.

Though this

auction of Sewall's was characteristically h o n o r r b l e , ^ ^ it
was also chnracteristical?.y free of the vish to a.nta tonize.
That he was anxious that the matter s .oh.d not result In his
alienation from Dudley is shown in the fact that he v:?? at
d.inner with him on the day after he published his statement,
"drank to his Excellency, and presented ['..is] auty to him. "
224

The pamphlets v;hich this ana other charges against the
Dudley administ'r- ti n brought forth have been reprinted in
the Diarv, II, 9 TL-^lcl. A Memorial of the Present Deplo rable
State of New England (London, 1707) was apparently rotten uo
by Cotton Mather, who was disappointed in his hopes of his
father's becoming President of Harvard.
It was answered by
the pro-Dudley faction in A Modest Enquiry into the G-rounds
and Occasions of a late Pamphlet (London, 1707), which was
in turn answered by The Deplorable State of New-England by
Reason of a Covetous and Treacherous Oovernour, and Pusillani­
mous Counsellors ("Lonaon, 1708) , in which Sewall* s broadside,
~nTne Reasons of my 7/ith-drawing my Vote • •
is reprinted.
The charge against Dudley cited above is in the last of these
pamphlets, p. 110.
^25The Deplorable State of New-England, loc. clt.
226 Diary, II, 205, entr; for November 25, 1707.
poo
' I n Introducing Sewall's broadside statement, the writers
of The Deplorable State of New-England characterize him as '%i
Person of Unspotted Integrity [whose] . . . Relation as a

-235-

Ke rr? definite in tne stand he hr a taken, however,

staying

"olee santly " to Col. Townsend, v;ho sug gested that he with­
drew the paper* and put it in his gjocket,
o cQ
rut [you] in my Pocket.

"I could us eas iiy

Except for his conservative vote in favor of a bill
passed in 1695 restrictin' representation from towns in
the House of Deputies to
such tov/ns " (the bill,

"freeholaers ana residents wuthin

of what might seem to be a popular

character, was aimed at Boston influ ..-nee in the government) ,

PpQ

the balance sheet of his known positions on controversial
220
ouestlons is surprisingly liberal and humane#
He opposed
Dudley* s attempt to diss.13.ov; the election of Speaker by the
231
House;*”
regarded a bill "a a ins t fornication, or Marriage
of Vfr.ite men with Negros or Indians" as
voking to God" and

"an Oppression pro­

" "ju t.Ae Indians out of tne Bill, and some

Brother-in-Law to the Governour [his eon Sam being married
to Dudley's daughter], did not get tre Upper-Hand of his
Conscien ce. • • • ”
ppQ
Diary, II, 203-104, entry for November 26, 1707. On
December 20 he received a letter from his brother Stephen
at Salem saying that "the generality of thou htfull people
there approve of raj; Mount Etna Eruption: That* s his expres­
sion" (ibid., p. 208).
For other controversies wit.'. Dudley on the score of
honesty, see ibid., pp. 213-214, entry for February 2, 1707/8
(on the English practice of buying commissions in the army,
which Dudley spoke of "in a favourable, diminutive way"),
and ibid., p. 218, entry for May 3, 1708 (on the padding of
muster rolls, which the Governor se id. 'taust be allow'd except
would pull his Teeth out").
229 piary. I, 386, entry for November 28, 1695, and editors'
note.
£30see James Truslow Adams' statement in D.A.B., XVI, 611#
Diary, II, 131, entry for May 50, 1705.

-236-

nltigntion for- them Qthe Negroesj left In it

"essay'd .

to prevent Indians ana Negros bein'; Rated with Hoi-ses and
n >v r/

Ho vs; au t could not prevail

and spoke, again without

success, in opposition to a bill for oak in : counterfeiting
a capital erlne, saylrr* that it were best to go slow in
pa sol 1

1

"a sanguinary Lav;" of this kind.

A ouestion vrbich provoked con trove rs;

throu :h many

years of hi? service on the Council was that of paper* mon­
ey, issued for the 'purpose of payin': t..o expenses of the
nrovince in its expeditions a ai.:rt t:.e Indians and the
French.

Parrinpton seizes on the matter to sa v; that in

"the usual class alignment" which attended the controversy,
"the wealthy opposing; the issues, and the poor generally
favorim; them, " Sewall* s position was clear—
opooseo. every issue. • • •

"He vigorously

j_s far from being this

simple, however; mid the statement that Sewall opposed every
issue is cuite definitely false.

"I was, " he says,

"at

blr‘yy » II* 143, entry for December 1, 1705.
The miti­
gation Sewall obtained for Negroes is stated thus:
"And no
master shall unreasonably deny marriage to his negro with
one of the some nation, any law, usage, or custom to the
contrary notwithstanding" (editors* note).
g55piary. Ill, £7, entry for June 22, 1716.
Coffin gives
examples of such ratings in his H istory of Newbury, p. 166.
234 Diary. Ill, 276-277, entry for November 15, 1720.
One
of the things tha.t made such a law especially "sanguinary"
wp.s the fact that there were so many counterfeiters.
On
September 5, 1724, Sewall wrote to Governor Saltonstall of
Connecticut:
"The Truth is, so many Bills of Credit are
Counterfeited; and it is so difficult to convict the Male­
factors; that the Ruine of all the Colonies is threatened
thereby" (Letter-Book, II, 175).
g35Colonlal Mind, p. 92.

-237-

making of the first; Bills of CreO.it in the yea r 1690 . . •,
rno. ”fhen an issue of fifty thousand pounds
he wrote in his diary:

vmz

proposed in 1714,

"Chief-Just ice [Y/ait Y/Inthrop] said tv;as

contrary to the Statute of mortmain [i.e., of inalienable ow­
nership].

I answer'd,

twas ouite on the ether side, for this

wa s all for the Publlck benefit "; ^
r m r y 1 lie was

and on the following Feb238
,f1:usy in signing Bills, "
a Job performed as

O'
a member of the committee appointed to see to their manufacture.
If is true that in 1712 he opposed a bill

"for forcing the

Bills of Credit to be noceptea in all payments for the future"
as containln -; in it the possibility t;jat the government might
"make a vast Quantity . . .
for our Estates. "
there were
that a

and leave them with us in Exchange

They lia.d such a bill in Barbados, and men

"ready to knock one another in the h e a d . "

Ke felt

"better expedient" than this (he does not say a. desir-

role one) would be

"to oblige Creditors to take Wheat,

Indian

Corn, Salt, Iron, Wool at a mode rat valuation, as twas of old:
240
Then there would be Quid pro Qu o . . . . "
It is also true
Diary, II, 366,
Ibid., III,

entry for November 4, 1712.

25-24, entry for October 30, 1714.

258Ibjd . . p. 35.
°3°

“ For performing tills Job he was paid ninety-three pounds,
nine shillings (Ledger, fol. 144).
The Job took him five
months.
On July 1, 1715, he wrote:
"I finish my work on the
Bills of Credit . . . and carry the two last Bundles to Col
Checkley. . •" (Dlary, III, 48).
He had signed an earlier
batch In 1714, for which he was paid not ouite seventy pounds
(Ledger, loc. clt.).
240Djory. II, 365-366, entries for November 3 and 4, 1712.
Farrington, l o c. clt., says that he even went "so far as to
prefer barter to bills. " It would be fairer to say that he

tbrt when an issue of five thousand pounds was proposed in
1716, he -again stood opposed,

this time because the General

Court refused to levy taxes in the amount orluinally agreed
on

"for draw in ;* them into the Treasury a pa in. "

that such a refusal would

Feeling

"tend , , , greatly to weaken

t.':e publ lc k Credit, " and findinp himself alone in his oppo­
sition (where, one might a;.k, was
m e n t 11 at this point?),

"the usual class align­

resolved"to Sign no more Ellis. 1,241

V/hen a thirty thousand p o un d issue was proposed in 1724,
Sewall a,pain stood with t h o s e
a-aln

rt

in favor o f

drawing it in

a hard rather t h n an easy rate,

pivln :■ as his

reason the fact that inflation (or, as he said,
tion o f

the Value o f

th e

"diminu­

Bills of Punlick Credit")

C'ur.e of m u c h Oppression in the Province:

"is the

A n d I dare not have

a Hand in addin.; to the heavy Weight of fils Oppression.
• • •n

Go d is sympathetic: toward the oppressed;

tles the[ir] Tears . . .
of Records.

“He bot­

and enters them fairly in his Book

Let us imitate our Maker,

In shewing cur Sym­

pathy with them, and our syncere and Just desire to help them.

242

Many of the Oppressed are the Pastors of our Congrege.t ions. ”
prefered barter to a policy of confiscatory inflation.

241 Dio.ry. Ill, 87-88, entry for June 2 2 , 1716.
His resig­
nation was ac cepted by the Deputies on the following day
(Journals of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts
[Boston, 1 9 1 9 - 5 0 J, I, 116).
24gP l a r y » 111,-545, entry for December 7, 1724.
On the
twenty-third of the same m o n t h he was a^opointed to a committee
to consider what should be done to help the ministers in the
difficulties they were experiencing "by reason of the L o w Value

-2o9-

’7a s this simply dissimulation, a pious veil for an expression
of rea-ctl.nary class interest?

If it is liberalism to favor

cheap money because it will help the debtor, what is. it to
desire, as Sewall did, a tax propram that v'lll ease the ef­
fects of that cheap money (i.e.,

inflation)

on the man of

small, relatively fixed income?

At what point along the in­

flationary path does a man cease to be a liberal because he
desire- lnf3.atlon and becomes one,

instead, because,

like

oevrll, he desires a tax pro pram that will briiv" inflation
under control?

Answers to these pv. estions would probably

suggest that Professor Parrlngton*s rather casual equating
of the politics of reaction with Sewall*s opposition (when
lt vac that)

to a printin ; press fiscal policy is a thing

that wants some exnnination.

That he was, generally speaking,

profoundly conservalive is true enough, as these pages have
freouently made plain; but lt is Just as true that, like most
men, he resists the sharp dichotomies that characterise hlsto'
ry written with a b i a s •
V
In our discussion thus far we have considered, for the
most part, only the more important aspects of Sewall*s ca­
reer in public affairs.

The number of lessor assignments

to which he devoted himself was very large and provides ad­
ditional proof,

if that be necessary,

that his life as a

of the Bills of Credit** (Journali of the House of Representa­
tives, VI, 208).

public servant nas indeed a career.

During but the last ten

years of his service as a member of the Council,

for example, 24

besides serving on various committees bavin,’
’ to do with the
issuance of the bills of credit,244he served on a committee
Oyi 5
to study an excise tax on nines and liouors;
a committee to
consider

"Settlement of the Eastern Parts" (i.e., Maine) ;^

a committee to study

"Complaints against tl is government menpsi7

tlonea in Mr. Agent Dummer's Letter";'" a committee to report
on student accommodations at Harvard; -'--p. committee

"to treat

with the Reverend Mr. Barter" about going "to tne Eastward"
pe.9
as a missionary to the Indians";'" a committee "to take care
that the Indians have Justice done them" in a purchase of
lands by Elisha Johnson and tahe deposit of the purchase
it50
money "for trie use of the said I n d i a n s a committee to
24 3 The J o u rnals of the House of Re~oresentatives, from which
this informatlon is drawn, did not begin as a separate record
until 1715.
£44A f t e r he resigned in 1716 from the committee charged with
the duty of making them, he was assignee, to committees in 1717,
1718, 1720, and 1724 having to do with the problems they pre­
sented (Journals of the House of Representatives, I, 208; II,
9-10, 372; I V ,* 2087.
2^ 5 I b ld., I, 101,
2 4 6 Ibid.,

°4.7

entry for June 14, 1716.

p. 9, entry for May 31, 1715.

Ibid. . p. 183,

entry for June 1, 1717.

r ~^I b ld ., pp. 262-263, entry for February 6 , 1717.
They
found a need for "some further B u i l d i n g . " See also, ibid., II,
31 entry for November 13, 1718.
g4^ Ib ld.. pp. 53, 85, entries for July 4 a nd November 15, 1718
250 i b i d . , p. 67, entry for November 3, 1718.
Similarly, lb
IV, 126, entry for November 30, 1722.

-241-

coiifer on the town of Billingsgate's changing its nane to
251
Pool;
a conri Three for* determining v/hat is "Just -and Reason­
able vi'jh Respect to the [[Indian] Boundaries • • • to the
252
Ea s tvrar d * ~ a committee to supervise the leasing of nublio
253
lands;
a committee to draw up a letter of vmrniriy to the
hver.ior of Canada concerning his assistance to the Indians
254
"In their late appearance at A r r o w s l c k ”;
a committee to go
to

Martina's Vineyard and check on conrolaints made from there

(probably co .cernin - the Indian reservation there of th_e
255
Society for the Pro ayat lon of the Gospel) ;
a committee to
consider ihhat to do concernin'; the

'toanv passages in which

the Holy Scriptures are oerverted" in the Mew England Courant
a committee to consider v.rhat to da abort

"Abuses and Indigni­

ties to the Delegates of Eight Motions, by casti.v Stones
257
omonr them, and otherwise evilly' en urea tin;; them";
and a
committee to

"draw up a Humble Address to His Majesty" on the

"present State of the Publlck Affairs#
251

I b i d , , II, 75, entry for November 7, 1713#

2 ^ 2 I b id .,
255

pp.

I bld., r>>.

256-257,

entry for July 21, 1720.

207 , 209 , 212,

in 1719.

I b ld ., III, 176, entry for March 15, 1721.
2'VS
Ibid.. IV, 121, entry for November 26, 1722.
254

^ 5 ° IbId . , p. 205, entry for January 14, 1722.
2 5 7 I b ld ..

V, 170, entry for September 7, 1723.

Ibid.. p. 224, entry for November 5, 1723.

2.50

-242-

As a citizen of 5oston,

besides his watch beeping (which,

a? earlier noted, he performed in the various roles of Consta­
ble, Justice of the Pea.^o, militia captain, ana Overseer of
the Poor) , he served in other capacities.
He was Severn "1 times
259
chosen Moderator of the Town Meeting,
“'a most hIgh and honor­
able post, one occupied in later pears by such men as Thomas
Hutchinson, James Otis, John naans, and John Hancock.

He

was also one of the town's first School Inspectors, a proup
of five vu.ich performed as a kind of school board,
be in" to visit the free pra.mi.iar school

its duties

"fro;., time to time • • •

a.s they shall thinck fit to Inform themselves of the methods
used in tea.chinp of the Scollars and to Inouire of their Pro­
ficiency, and be present at the performance of Some of their
Exercises,

the Master belnp before Notified of their Comeing,

And with, him to consult and Advise of further Methods for
the Advancement of Learning and the Good Government of the
Gpl

Sohoole. "

On their first visit they found thinrps satlsfac-

pCQ

Boston R e c o r d s . VIII, 25, meeting of June 5, 1702; ibid.,
p. 26, meeting of February 16, 1702/3; ibid., pp. £ 8 - 2 9 , meeting
of June 1, 1703; ibid., pp. 35-37, meeting of March 11, 1705/6;
ibid., pp. 58-39, meetinp of M a rch 14, 1706; ibid., pp. 61-62,
meeting*of April 29, 1709; ibid., pp. 64-69, meetinp of March
15, 1709/10; ibid., pp. 35-34, meetinp of August 3, 1711; ibid.
). 115, meetinp of December 7, 1715; ibid.. p. 147, meetinp of
September 23, 1720.
See references in the Diary, II, 253, entry
for April 29, 1709; ibid.,
275, entry for March 13, 1709/10.
M y guide in the matter of nis town offices has been Robert
f. Seybolt, The Tov/n Officials of Colonial B o s t o n : 1654-1775
(Cambridge, 19597^
^dOrjook, "Boston: the Eighteenth Century Tov/n, " in Comm.
H i s t . . II, 244.
^ Boston Rec or ds , VIII, 64-69, meeting for March 13, 1709/10.
For other times that he was chosen, see ibid., pp. 74-76, meeting

-243-

tory and r a comm e ride d an Increase
the master,

In pay for Mr. Williams,

"that lie may Support his family . " 2 ® 2 They also

suggested that some ministers go along on the visits to
’bray with the Schollars, and Entertain 'em with Some In­
structions of Piety. *»^65 This did not satisfy Increase Math­
er, who felt that the fact that no ministers had been ap­
pointed to the original group showed
and Contempt. "

"a great disrespect,

He would go preach a sermon to the children

all right, but not in the company of any Inspectors.

". . •

I shall, •' he said,

"conceal the day of my doing that Service
264
from every-body, untill the work is over. "
In Sewall's role as Justice of the Peace he frequently
met with the town's Selectmen to consider various community
oroblems, the most persistent being those of the

"ward on the

Neck at the Line of be fence between Boston & Roxbury "— hours
of Marc h 12, 1710/11; ibid. . pp. 94-96, meeting of Mar ch 1 0 ,
1712/13; ibid. . pp. 134-136, meeting of M a r ch 9, 1716/19.
262

"Cook, p. 246, cited.
Sewall felt that the schoolmaster1a
situation was a fairly acceptable one.
There was "a very good
fair new Schoolhouse . . . and a very good Dwellinghouse for
the Master.
O ur late excellent Master, Mr. Ezekiel Ciiiever
went to his heavenly Mansion, from a very pleasant Earthly
Situation.
At the last Anniversary Meeting the Town augmented
the Master* s Salary to One Hundred pounds per annum.
What
with that, and some small perquisits, a humble Christian Man
that loves Work more than Wages, needs not be discouraged;
considering likewise the Allowance of an Usher with a Salary
o-r p-. - - t y ~ > o u n d s . " (Le tt er -B oo k , I, 391, letter to Increase
Me.ther dated A p r i l 25, 171 S.)
^63 q o o 1i, loc. c l t . , cited.
'^^Letter-Book, I, 594, letter to Sewall dated April 24, 1710
Ten years later, on M a r c h 1, 1719/20, Cotton Mather was invited
to rccor’wr.v the visitors (Letter-Book, II, 11), and the visit
took wince a few -.ays la ter (Dir r y , III, 245, entry for March

for heeping t.e gate shut, number to be on watch,
too

hours of

r.fch, etc*— ana., similarly,

the placing and handling
2R s
of the watches throughout tine town.
His opinion on these
natters was undoubtedly sought for and respected, not so much
a? a Justice of the Peace
in tha t capacity)

(though ho was officially present

as one who from his first years in the town

hoc entered into the activities of its train bands and had
risen to leadership of both the South Company and the Ancient
and Honorable Artillery Company*

The title which he most com

monly bore with Ills fellow townsmen was not that of Judge or
Councillor; to them he was first of all

MCapt. S e w a l l , M

The Puritan of early New- England was quite literally a
soldier of the Lord,
was herd.

The enemy was the devil, and the battle

The Indians were his active agents, who in their

“pagan Powaws

• • , raise£dj their masters,
_

£ 3 0

Bears and Snakes a n d Fires. M
Sewa.ll said, their

in the shapes of

So were the French with, as

,rbavrdy bloudy Cross. ,,267 The militant

spirit of the first years of the Massachusetts enterprise
So_ston Records, XI, 18, meeting of March 16, 1702;
ibid. . p. 151, meeting of
December 10, 1711; ibid., p. 1 54,
meeting of February 1, 1711; i b i d . . p. 156, meeting of Febru­
ary 11, 1711; i b i d . . p. 162, meeting of M a y 9, 1712; ibid..
p. 164, meeting of August 4, 1712; ibid., p. 171, meeting
of September 5 , 1712; i b id. , p. 191, meeting of August 14,
I7!3 ? ibid.. XIII, 58, meeting of August 4, 1719; ibid.. p.
72, meeting of August 2, 1720; ibid.. p. 103, meeting of
September 6, 1722; I b i d . . p. 141, meeting of August 4, 1725;
i b i d . r p. 155, meeting of August 4, 1726,
2

Cotton Mather, Memorable P rovidences. p. 99. Neal, in
lils History of New England, published in 1720, says: " . . .
the chief Object of their Devotions was the Devil. . . • H
^^ D l a r y , II, 143, entry' for November 25, 1705.

-24 b-

was voiced by Edward Johnson,
idence (1654),

w h o , In his Wonder Working Prov­

reminded the colony that

• • • the time is at hand wherin Anti Christ will muster
up all his Forces, and make war with the People of bod.
• . •

See then you store your selves wit,: all sorts of

weapons for war,

furbrish up your Swords • • • incourage

every Souldier-like Spirit amon-: you,
intends to atchleve

for the Lord Christ

-Teeter matters by this little hand-

full then the World is aware of; wherefore

ou shall seeke

and set up men of valour to lead and direct every bouder
among you, and with all dillgince to instruct them from
time to time,
A pa I n :
As the worthy incouragement of a Souldiers labour, let
I.Iillta.ry discipline be had in high esteeme among you,
• • • seeing you are called tc fight the Battalls of
your Lord Christ; who must raigne till hee hath put all
his enemies under his Feet£;3

glorious Victories over

Antl-chrlst are at hand[;j never yet did any Souldier
reJoyce in dlvidin ; the spoyle after Victory, as all the
Souldiers of Christ siiall, to see his Judgement executed
upon the great Whore, and wlthall the Lambs bride pre­
pared for him, who come Skipping over & trampling down the
gg0
great Iiountaines of the Earth, • • •
268Pages 10, 11,

-246'

This w a s not mere rhe" erica 1 extravagance.

The Boston of

of 1660 described by Samuel Maverick was notable in its facili­
ties to do three t h i n g s : worship God, do business, and make
v;ar.

It is, he says,
. . .

the Metropolis of New England lyin - pleasantly on

a plaine and the ascendin'; of a Hi h Mount which lyes
about the middle of the plaine*

The who 11 'Jowne is an

island excoot two Hundred paces of land at one place on
the Sout[h] side.

• • •

It hath two handsome Churches

in it, a hondsome market place, and in the midst of it
a Statehouse.

In the Towne are fov.er full companys of

foote and a Troope of horseC*3
the Towne on

e. little

On

the Southeast side of

Hill there is a Fort, and under lt

a Batterle[,] both havlr.; a dozen of G-unns or more in
them, and on the Northeast side of the Towne there is a
Battery of 6 G-unns commanding the Rode and the entrance
of Charles River.

and on the tope of the Hill above the

Towne and in the strats are severall good G-unns,

The

Towne is full of good shopps well furnished with all
kind of Merchandize and many Artificers,

and Trad1smen

of all s o r t a . ^
The basis of the town* s military organization v;as the
"train-band, " after the pattern of those which had existed
in London since the days of Henry VIII*

In 1537 Henry is­

sued a charter to one of these companies as a
269A Brlefe Description, pp. 237-258.

"Guylde of

-247-

Art ill"' ry o:" Longbowes,

Cro shower- and Hande tomes" and a

special ground was set apart for its exercises, which became
270
known as "the Artillery Garden. "
Some of the members of
the first Boston train band b e i n o f

tl.Ls Ancient and Honour­

able Artillery Company, as it was called,

they applied to the

‘
G eneral Court for a charter in 1657 which would permit the
Boston company an existence and character like the company
in London.

The charter was grante-.. in the following year

nlon • with one thousand acres of land "to bo Improved • • •
271
r providing; necessaries. "
In 1644 a colony-vride organi­
zation of militia, was Instituted (of which Sewall 1 s South
Company,

for example, wag a pa„rt) wdlch reouired
eight train272
ing days a year from all but "timerous persons"
(five shll—
°70
" Facts concerning the English background are in Oliver
A. Heberts, H istory of the Military Company of the Massa-chusetts
(Boston, 1895-1901), I, 2.
^7^Zaciia.riah G. \7hitman, Historical Sketch of the Ancient and
Honourable Artillery Con^c.ny (Boston. 1820) , p. 1*
Governor
v/lnthrop* s reaction to the application, cited by Whitman (ibid.) ,
is very interesting: "• • . the council c o n s i d e r i v ' from the
example of the Praetorian band among the Homans, and Templars
in Europe, hov; dangerous it might be to erect a standing authori­
ty of military men, which might easily in time overthrow the
civil power, thought fit to stop lt betimes; yet they were al ­
lowed to be a company, but subordinate to all authority. "
Originally the compajiy was to train on the first Monday
of each month.
L a ter the number of tralnii.g days was reduced
to five a year.
The big training day m s on the first Monday
in May, election day.
The sermons given on this day (the
so-called Artillery Sermons), a n d "feasts" of the officers
were both part of the English tradition.
(See Roberts, p. 5,
and V/hltman, pp. 53 , 48.)
Whitman, p. 24, points out that in dress as in method of
selecting officers the military companies long remained very
democratic.
Up until the time of the Revolution, for example*
different colors of ribbon were the only distinguishing marks
of office.
27 ^ The Anabaptists and Quakers were regarded as dangerous

-243-

linys fine for ec.cn neglect of a day* s duty).

Officers were

to be chosen, by a vote of the soldiers in the respective com­
panies; a Sergeant Ma jor for each county v;as to be chosen by
vote of the officers; and. a Major General,
four counties, was to be

in charge of the

chosen annually by a vote of the

General Cou.-t.

This system remained l.i effect until the ar270
rival of Andros in 1636.
Under it the Ancient and Honour­

able Artillery Company retained its earlier,
ty,

separate identi­

so tin t it was possible for a man like Sewall to be active

bo th i/i it an-, in inis own regular militia company.
One of tiie more cor.imon distort!, n = of r.lstory is that
y a.

oh

some periods come to be known as

ye' rs be twee n the

"exciting" time of

the

in Hew Sngland and the later t ime, also
Revolution constitute such a period.

"unexciting* M

The

firs t settlements
"exciting, “ of the

More than any other time

in our history,

it is regarded as a kind of historical doldrun.

Such phrases as

"old Colony days" and

are wraoped in a sleepy haze.
pipes,

and quilts,

•'Provincial Hew England"

They are phrases which suggest

and dull sermons on dead issues, and quaint

because of their opoosition to war,
See Arthur H. Bufflnton,
"The Puritan View of War, " Col. Soc. of Mass., P u b s . , XXVIII,
71; also, Mass* R e c o r d s , II, 85.
^73 Y/hitinan, Historical Sk e t c h , p. 23.
In the early years
the train bands had been called out as often as once a week.
This was reduced to once a month, and the eight times a year
noted above was later reduced to four.
Training during July
'■nd August was generally avoided for the "furtherance of hus­
bandry. " (See Hutchinson, H i s t o r y , I, 443, and H. Telfer
Mook, "Training Day in New England, " New England Quarterly,
XI (December, 1938), 680).
The military organization for the Colony may be seen
in Colonial Laws, p. 108; that for the Province in Acts and
Res ol v es . I, 128-133.
The Province organization was much th
same as that for the Colony.

-249-

porringers,

and long winter ni-’hts abed,

afternoons— In a word,

dullness and peace.

is, of course, partially Justified.
^receded it or that w h i c h followed,
cent one.

and drov/sin g summer
Suc'ri a c r 2~ce >tion

Compared with that which
the period was a quies­

A fair Question to ash the historian,

is what he means by

"exciting. "

Chances are that he does not

mean what rf-s e x citing to the pa rt 1cipants
about which he is wri t i n g so m u c h as what
and perhaps to his audience,

nevertheless,

in the events
is exciting to him

generally because of what later

historv has shorn to be the dramatic significance of tuose
events.

If,

fro;, t .e r tan v oir T. o f

the participants,

it is

presumes, that bloody Indi ui attacks followed by equally
the razing o f

bloody reprisals,
on the seas,
of

hanging,

scalpings,

towns,

one

threat o f pirates

ravishments,

ana the fruits

organized slaughter generally—— if it is presumed that such

things are characteristic marks of a n exciting period,
years

in which Sewall lived was

just such a time.

the

In 1676,

the year in w h .ch he entered on the Boston scene and p re­
sumably be:‘an drill in-’ with the South Company,

Edward Ran­

dolph wrote to the government in England that the troops of
horse

in the town were

with bach,
pistols,
soldiers,

breast,

"all v;ell mounted and compleatly armed

heaaplece , buffe coat,

sword,

carbine and

each troop distinguished by their c o a t s . M
he noted,

swords, muskets,

were

The foot

'fellso very well furnished with

and bandaliers.

. . .

The late wars have

h ardened their infantry, made them good fireman,

and taught

- 250'

274

them the

renay use of arrnes.11

refers were,

of course,

The

the Ion ; ana

"late wars " to w: .ich he
decimating stru ■: -le

a -air.st the Indians under Kir).'": Phili~>.

From this tine on,

indeed bayirmln ; vrith nev/s of engagements in this war against
Philip,

notices of blood;/ events run like a red through the

pap os of

S e w a l l 1 s diary and letters.
Sept, 15,

[[1675.3

To illustrate—

was that Inmentable
275
vhe'i Capt. Lati’op with sixty-four hilled,
De oem. 19.

Saturday,

[1675*3 Sabbath d a y ,

gngement at ITarra ;an3et, 5i English

June 22. [1676.3 ^ v*° Indians,
executed a f ter Lecture.
Taunton Scouts,
Saturday,
ITarra nnsets,
house,

• • •

os they were

fi;"ht,

the t formidable ennat in one pit.

Capt,

27 6
• • *

Tom and another,

Last week two killed by
iu the river,

July 1, 1676.

fishing.

• • •

277

Ur. Hezekiah 7/111 et slain by

a little more than Gian-shot off fro:.; his

his head taken off, body stript.

Jethro,

his

hiper, was then taken: retaken by Capt. Bradford the
Thorsday following.

He saw the English and ran to them.

He related Philip to be sound and well, about a 1000 In­
dians (all sorts) with him, but sickly: three died while
he was there.

Related that t..e Mount Hone Indians that

274-

The N a r r a t i v e " of 1676, in Hutchinson, P a p e r s , p. 435.
See the discussion by Harold L. Peterson, "The Military Equip­
ment of the Plymouth and Bay Colonies, 1620-1690, " New England
Quarterly. XX (June, 1947), 197-208.
2 7 5 Di or v.

8 77Ibid.

I, 11.

876 Ibid.

-251-

knew Mr. Willet,

were sorry for his death, nourned, korabed
O7 O
'..is he?d, and hun."* p e r . i n .is rrli1.

Saturday,
torn,

cryin ~,

July 15, [1676.] Quaker mnrcht tkrou ;h the
,rRe ont, &c. "

After,

heard of an hundred

tvrenty one Indians killed and taken.

Note. One Snplish-

nrn lost in tne woods taken ana torturea. to death.

Sept. lo.
rainy.

Mote,

27Q

[1676.] The after w.rt of tne dry very
there were eiyht Indians shot to death on
oqn

the Common, noon Y/lnd-mill hill#*''

Aoril 11 [1677.]

. . .

7/e heard . . .

of t;.e Slaugh­

ter of cone persons at York by the Indians, amonp whom wag
£31
Isaac Smith, who went t net her about boards.
[diary pap from March 1677 to February 1685]
Thorsday, June 13. [1685.] . . .
French Pirat on the Coast,

[July 7, 1685.]

Noyes this day of a

of 36 Guns.

General Court sits hi the Afternoon.

Time is spent in orderinp a Drum to beat up for Volunteers
about 30.

Samson V/aters, Capt.,

to po with Mr. Patteslial's

2 7 8Ioid.
. _

279_.
Ibla.. p. 15.

280 I b id. . p. 17.

281 I b ld., p. 41.

282Ibld., p. 83.

B riy e n te e n
£.r

i d to be

to - f e t c h in tv;o P r i v a t e e r s
in th ■ hay,

. , .285

[September 9, 1685*3
dians near Chelmsford,

• . . heard of a Body of In­

3 or 400,

Concerning them do much increa.se*

Sept. 14, 1635.

t h t this mo rn are

The Rumors and Ferro
834

Co to Cambrid.be, and there hear Hr.

Y'ibh'lecv/orth p-reoch e::cellently fro:.: thoe e w o rds, Fight
the rood Fipht of Faith.
I.Iea-c\field LIi n
b o rough

...

Comin : home, hear of

beiny burnt, and their confusion at Lial-

last Saturday niyiit. ^ 5

Thorsday September 17.

[16-5*3

. • • all Persons

a re f u m i s h t ’-fith Arms and Amur.it ion a.c cordin'; to Lav: be.r. r -,
cause of
Indian.-:.
. . . 836

[August 19, 1633*3
38 Men,

There is a press in Boston,

four out of a Company,

of

to ryoe to the Eastward, by

reason of the fears and dispersions people there are un­
der. 287

[September 35, 1633*3 A Press in Boston of 16 men
to send Eastward;

several bein'; h i l l ’d by the Indians,

285I b l d . , p. 86*

284 Ibld.. p. 95.

gS5I b l d . . pp. 95-96.

886 Ibid. . p. 96*

287Ibid., p. 235.

-255'

[October 3, 1683.1

People r-.re much nlami'd and li

n on v placer, dwell In garrison'd houses.

We&nes.
to Plymouth,

Soot 13.

239
• • •g^9

[1689.] In comlnp up [fron London

durin - his voyage to England] a Privateer

fell foul of us,

took off our A n c i e n t - S t a f f , much dis290
compos'd our v.-ooden Suns. • • •

Oct. 11.

[1639.] Pleasant wether [at sea, Sev/all

having set sail for home on trie preceding day]*

Two

Rorues to windward. of us, which the Man of War keeps off
2°1
hut ca.n* t come up with them. . . •

[February 8 and 9, 1689/90.] Schenectady, a village
20 mile° above Albany,

destroy'd by the French.

60 Men,

V,'omen and Children murder'd.

Women with Child ripp'd up,
pop
Chil dren had their trains dash'd out.

[July 7, 1690.] Brother Stephen Sev/all [of Sa-lem]
goes out v’ith Si::ty or Seventy Dragoons, and several other
to the number of 150.
or 3
along v;ith them.
288 I b l d . . p. 227.
^90I b i d . . p. 274.
991I b id. . p. 278.
g95I b id. . p. 324.

. . .

The L o r d God of Hosts goe

289

,jdt a

229, editors'

note

-254-

Auyt.

I watch at ni hit with. ab'ut 30*
294
Word was S lenectady.

men,

29, 1690•

[September 14, 1690*3
led a

very

^ watch,

7/ora was Salmon-Falls,

comfortable ni. irt; only between 5. and 4, were

dlsa-’ieted by G-uns fired at Charlestown, and Drur:i beat:
But I did not observe a continual Bent cf th • Drum,

so

caus'd not an Alann; one. about day a Uecsenrer was sent
over who tele. us the occasion was some Indians seen in
their bach fields,

Run-away Servants they appear to be;

by which means the Town was generally rais'd: Eut throw
295
'Vod's 'podness Trouble at ...oston prevented.

Tuesday,

Jan.

26, 1691/2,

• . •

This day , . . news
296
was brought of an Att a c h made by the Indians on York,
. . . was i n a great measure destroy'd

persons kil l ' d a n d near ninty captivated.

Wednesday,

July 18, 1694.

about f i f t e

[.3

po.7

Oyster River is surprised

a nd 90 odd oersons kill'd, and captivated,

3 badly wounded.

About 9, night, Mr. Lodowick cone? to Boston, Eetween 10,
a nd 11,

there is an Alarm throu h the Town kept up till near

294.1bId. , p. 329,

^ ^ 5Icid. , p. 350,

fc96 i;-.'ld, , p. 356.
£97Letter-Book,

I, 129, letter to John Ive of this date.

-255-

a a y o re a ic .

pgft

I^Llay 1, 1695.3 We are r;rievousl;- oppressed b y
French a n d p a ga.n Znonies, b y L a n d and S e a ;
■ b t'b e :,

a.re

running o u t apace.

A?

se ve ra l

our

our

Blood and

Captives es­

caped jnl'orm us, Cur heads are set at a certain Bate by
the Governor of Quebeck,
^ _ _ 29S
were of old.

Spot. 17, 1695.

as foreskins of the Philistine

. . .

ten men shot at Pemniaould,

out of 24. r;:oin?: to pet wood.

. . .

Hugh March,

George1s

Son, was killed at the first shot.*"^^

[July 31, 1G9S.3 Four persons were kllld t h e

last

Lords day, as. were going fro.: the 'Worship of God at Dover
u’uich lies up Pascatayny River about 1 > dayes Journey
from hence.

• • •

7/e hear of nothin-

but Rumors of War

and Slaughter against us both by sea a n d Land.

• • •

The newpor-t Galley was lately taken by two French men
301
of War.

£August 15, 1696.J Mrs. K' tch a n d he r children in
Tears for the death of her husband, w h i c h was brought to
298Diary, I, 391.

299Le t t e r - B o o k , I, 155, letter
to a Mr. Burbank of this date.

500D i ary , I, 413.
301 Letter-Book,

I, 165, letter to John Storke of tris date

-256-

her about an h o u r by Sun.
land] fort.

he are in pain for Saco

[Port­

Guns were heard thrice on fifth day all day

Ion

One Peters a n d Hoyt scalp'd at And over this week;
+ • ' 4 - 1
i i '-'O 2
were not*- snot,
out knock'd
on cue neaa.

[September 28, 1696.] Our Enemies

ress upon us hard.

Twenty persons have been lately kil l e d and carried away
2 ^
in several places by surpriz&ls. “

Anrll

29.

[169?.]

. . .

[the] day is signalised by

the A fcchievment of Hannah Dustin, Llary Neff, and Samuel
Lennerson;

who kill ' d Tv;o men,

their Masters [i.e.,

their

Indian captors], and two women and 6. others, and have
oOA
broupht in Ten Sce-lps.

Sabbath;

September 12, 1697.

V/e he' r of the slaughter

made at L a n c a s t e r y e s t e r d a y . ^ 0 5
September 13.

[1697.]

At Rcxbury Mr. Danforth tells

me that Mr. Yfhi ting,

the Minister, was dead and buried:
.
506
Inaians snot a n a scalpea nim aoout noon.

30g D l a r y . I, 431-432.
3Q3L e t t e r - B o o k , I, 171, letter to Bridget Usher of this date.
50^Diary,
452.
One of the Indians had shown Lennerson
"how he used to knock Englishmen on the herd and take off their
Scalps; little thinking that the Captives vrould make some of
their first experiment uoon himself" (I b i d . , r,. 453, entry for
M a y 1).
305 i b i d . , p. 459.
3 Q 6 Ibld.

Febr.

94. [1697/8*3 • - •

day, Andover is surpslen.

Lt.

led,

his kinsman Uaue slain:
307
slain and three more.

Au'”ust 7. 170o.
French and Indians,

Au'tst 11.
Fnemy.
places.

• • •

. . .

Febr.

PP. at brea'c of

Col. 1-rads tree t* s house rif­
Coot. Chub,

and his vrife

From the hastv/aro,, Fear of the

some bein'1 s e o n . ^ ®

[170b. 3 Nev.'s comes of the Onset of the
Fires kindled by the Indians in several

• •

A u u s t IP.

[170b.

3

at n i y h t , Nev/s cones from 'wells

that have burled 15. durst not r,i to their ro3utter*rr.ost:
Lost as they fear 60.

Bnemy r r u n o r o u s . ^

J<anua.ry 19. 1700/4
. . .

Foor men kill'd at Casco-Bay.

Indians ha a their canoes,

Jo.nuary 31. 1706/4.3

and lay . . .

in wait.

311

George Pierce brin.-s the News,

of a Girl bein'" kill'd at Ulchawannuck [Berwick, Lie.]; 30
•a;Tg
Indians assaulted a Garrison there. • . .
5 0 7 Ibid., p. 471.
Ibid.
an t
Ibid., p. 89.

508Ibid., II, 84,
5 1 Q Ibia.
312
I b i d . . o. 9o.

[Feorua ry 3, 1705/4*3

A Gkirr 1 so n- he u re is surpris* d

f>t Hr.vr I'hlll. . . / o l b

March 5. [17x05/4*3

The dismal Hews oh -ch-? Thr u "liter

-•

*71 A

made at Deerfield is certainly and generally bvo~ a. • • . 1

[March 6, 1705/4*3

. * . Fifty-Seven ‘
p ersons were

> 112 1d, and. Ninety Cr.wtlva tec ov.t ef the 1 itwle Town of
Deerfield.

The v -r. worthy Mini:ter Mi*. John ./illIans,

and his wife are anon;; the Captives.
abl e

H 0 ": they will be

to travel to Gannada in the very deep Snow, and ter­

rible Cold since fuescny Mi. :ht last, when they were Taken;
515
would nahe a hard he rt bleed to thin1-: of,'

[October 15, 1706*3
[Dunstable3 in the Ni;.;ht •
be: t them out;

ure; t number of Indians s u m * i s G
but God helped the Enrlish to

tuov. h with the loss of several brave Men;

0 4
316
i-4ive or Six.

Loras-Gay, Au,;ust 29. 1708.

about 4 p . m. An Express

brinys the News, the dole full Nev/s, of the Surprise of Haver5 1 3 Ibid.,

p. 95.

5 l 4 Ibld. ,

p. 96.

^ ^Letter-Book. I, 2. 3-299, letter to Henry Newman of this
date.
Ibid. . o. 555, addendum to letter of tills date to
Storke. "

"Cousin

hill by 150. French rvnd Indians.
a n d family si' in*
m uch in my mind,

LIr. hnIf end his rife

About break of Lb y, Those fora: run
I v/ill sr.ire the Shewn -rd, : mi the Sheep

rh< 1 1 be scattered:

Y.'b t a

of -)Oor Kwvarill Flo ch.

. •

dreedfull So-' t 'ewiww- is here
.

Th :• P n’ ce of Utrecht i.. 171o, which ended for the tine
below" the struy.yle betv/eew the French ;w.. 3n~:l ish, brou dvt
“e: n o r r; • relief f row. th .
* Indian troubl-.w:.
«tr “I

pi rat es ’•'.rovlin • the co-st,

Th-re were still

'd

however;

nd in 1724 v;ar with

the India.ns beye.11 a ;r in•
Satterday, Au-’uet PP.

The S h e e m e s s cones up,

Cart Haiman with his Neridwrack

and

Scalps at vhsicb there is

”re''t Shout in ' and Triumph.
51S
v’Ath Trembling.

The Lord help sis to rejoice

£Feb ruery 26, 17 i/5. J

Cousin Y«’illiam Gerrish Just

nor comes in, and tells me that Cw.pt. Lovell of buns table
came up with Ten Indian Lien last Sat te relay niyht (that
stormy ni.yht) and kill'd them all.
pair a a Snow-Shoes,

Took Ten Guns, Twenty

and soma Sever.

Citations have been made purposely numerous on this mat­
ter (and they miyht have been much more so)
517Diary,

in the bnme the t

II, 534.

5 ~5

Ibld.. Ill, 159, entry for April 59, 1717, and ibid., p.
333, entry for April 14, 1724.
t5l 9 Ibici. , pp. 342-343.
b20L o t ter-Book, II, 182-185, postscript of this date to a
1 o 1 1 er to TimotHy ,'oodorlaye•

J' e reader nuv yet .fro.': them,

i.i a way t.v t he could not fro:

a simple assertion of fact, a real isatic.i that the cloud of
vor,

very real and bloody,

of Sew. 1 1 1 s adult life.

huny over Key; England during most

In the 11. bit of ir. v.e can, uehirps,

a..-•'’yroci-ate tho fervency of his feeliny when,

after viewing

some of the tcvm* s fort if ic*1 i ons, he exclaimed, "The Lord
3 hi
0 ityl "
V/e can understand how it was that a m an
’.'lose customary interest v: s wore in s- vin.: Indians*
than it was i... obtain!.; ; their scalps,
defeat of P h i l i p : "As to our enemies,
mor.sure,

souls

could write after the
bod hath,

given us to see our aesire on them.

in a

-re' t

Host ^in;; le-

-

ers in the late Massacre have themselves had blood to drink,
15 °

e idin'; their lives by Bullets and Halters ",

-

or how,

in

1690, a year thnt brought reports of women being: "ripp'd up"
and children navi,: * "their Brai.n dash'a. out, "

he could be

s .-> fur removed from ordinary feel in-’ as to send to friends in
324
England "4 Ind. Scalps in Barral3 marked with ink 3. S. 11
The picture was not,

however,

one of unrelieved, grimness,

lorton's position was relatively safe, and despite the
^'•'^•Dlr.ry, III, 157,
^ ^ I b i d . , I, 25,
tober 23, 1676.

"pres—

entry for A u u s i: 50, 171?.

copy of a letter to Edward Hull dated Oc­

5 ^5 lbId., p. 310, entry for February 8 and
394
" L e t t e r - B o o k , I, 113-114, memorandum of letter to Edward
Hull dated December 2, 1690.
This suggests a scientific and
festive day Sevrall spent on September 22, 1676:
"Snent ti.e
day from 9 in the M. w ith Mr. [Dr. J Brakenbury, Mr. Thomson,
Butler, Hooper, Gragg, Pemberton, dissectin'’ the middlemost

-261-

pes " of men to go out a;;ainst tne enemy and frequent nevs of
disasters at one on another- of the frontier settlements,
trainin'.; days m.ixea pleasure a n d duty in
In toe year of the Deerfield massacre

-plea

(1704),

sant

its

proportion.

for example,

3ar--.ii Knihit wrote this clescript i ;n of traininp dry in Bos­
ton:

• . on trrinin : dayss Che dout., divert themselves

by Shootinr at

the Target . . .

fandj hoe that hitts nearest

the white has some yards of R e d Riboir. p re sented him, which
heir- tied to his hatt band,
oa ch, he is L e u away

the two ends streaming down his

in Tri ..mph, with

;re t applause,

as the

winners of the Olympia eh Game s.
A n intimate view of the institulon o f
nrovided by Sewall himself,

ti-alniw; day is

particularly in the unpublished

"Di ry and Com; lonola ce Booh, 1675— , " a part of which is
d e v o te d

to a

re co rd

o f

his a ctivities w i t h t h e

The interact and humor of this m i l i t a r y
the followin'.; excerpt.
tember 13, 1632,

South Company.

Journal my be seen in

The tra in in ; it describes was on Sep­

the fourth a n d last of that year.

The South-Company Trains: u pon a little kreast on the
side o f

the G a t e - H o u s e C •3

Lieut.

Frary [-commanding in

of the Indian executed the day before.
. . . [HoooerJ taking
i h e K P in his hand, affirmed it to be tjhe stonack.
I spent
18s., 6d, in Ale, 6d in Iladera v/ine, end 6d I pave to the
m a i d . " {D i a r y , I, 21.)
•325j0urnal, pp. 52-50.
See H. Telfer Hook, "Training Day
in N e w England, " N e w England «tuarterly.XI (December, 1938),
675-697, for a description of the institution through its
colorful heyday and decline in the first half of the nine­
teenth century.
Particularly a f ter 1820 it became almost en­
tirely a holiday.
The training aspect had become a farce,
and the institution was abolished a few years before the
Civil far.

tiie absence of Co ft, John Kul 11 roe; to Fro y- r, coll?
over ti.e Roll, & • • • Uuddy-River S o u l o i e m
then past into Rnxbury.

Join u.s;

Two Conpanyes fnon Boston,

Volunteer? ur.der t;.e comanc. of Cant, Hutchinson, &
Cmt.

Tr-nsena,

follc;v us m i

tle T"iti. his Troop,

me

o "ooe., 'ey Copt. Brat­

then iy Soutr. Company r ,j then 'ey

Roneury [;] so the m i t e ,

red Cross'd colours rm d j pass

t o ~ m d Dorchester by ti.e bury in-" ::lace,& cone round on
the oth-r side & -pair. Ca.pt. Brattle t: the Party,

Capt.

T h m t e r £e his Troop joins with us * ; _ fire stoutly one
upon snether, & so to Dinner.
vite to Dinner . . .

Ur. Pynchon . . .

under ti.e Trees.

I in­

After Dinner the

m.ite Colours roe first f,j South Company Sc i-lorbury drawir.o the Fiioes it. tie Peer of ti.e Musketeers [v.v.oj fire
or. then all the way smartly till cone to larpe Prsture on
the left Hand as yoe to Dorchester.
Set a v.'ntch.

...

Capt. Brattle

Officers stood in a .liny to receive the

'.'ord "’i.ich r&s S-.id~oleth but before it came to me,
5 lnbele. & so h

had pass'd a pre.-.t part of the Ring ('Tra

ditlcn 1= so treacherous)
Cmt.

*tvns

therefore piven over a pain.

Thaxter beats up the out-puard.

3o Skirmish.

At

last Ur. Bowles ? raves, after sir-.finp part of the 46. Ps.
So Lead out of the field . . .

apainst Mr. Eliot's . . .

muddy-Rlver Men, and then make up our Files Sc goe to Mr.
Bowles's &

Drink Cider, He havir.p Invited us: and so home

very well blessed be Cod. . . .

My Father Hull went not

-263—

out.

Twas extream due'-/, which was the cnief discomfort.

Besides their training duties,

the militr.ry companies were

called upon to a up ear at various public functions, and the 5r
often turned out for the funer*al of some Boston worthy.
for example,

Here

is Sewa.ll' s description of their exercises at

the fun •ra1 of Major Clark.
Monday, March 19.

[1662/3*3

The mornin-; is serene, &

still; but very cold for the time of year, & an hard
frost.

So that the Snow is much upon v.he ground yet.

But we nick out a s m a l l plot void o f Snow where to draw
up, & go to Prayer.

Then all are cravrn up by Succession,

Dorchester t;io* a very ancient Company, was here in the
last place, because of the order to make Boston a Regi
ment by it self.

There were three Troops of Horse, which

Capt. Prentice Led.

...

Cant Townsend led the Foot:

Capt. Henchman Commander in Cl^ief:
Troopers,

Llarcht 3. & 5.

The

I think, or at least the Trumpeters were some­

what discontented that they were not placed with the
Drummer,

so Just as the Herse came to Red-Llon Lone,

Sam. Bligh turned up there, & sounded a brisk Levy, to
the great trouble of many.

. . .

All the Captains had
329
Scarves, & Commission officers & Sarjeants, gloves.
328
An Ensign in the South Company in 1681,
Sewall was
evidently elected to be Its Ca-'-tain In 1665 following the
526Fol. 33.

5g7Ibld.

^ ^ I b l d . , fol. 31.
He lists its officers for this year.
Hull was Captain and Theophilus Frary was Lieutenant.

264-

death of its previous commander,
the G-enerPl Court,

John Hull; for in that year

"Upon cor.mlaint of Leftenant Frary, that

[the] • • • conroany is under much discoi;ra-emeut, by reason
of the removing of Mr. Sewall . . .
or ny, " Judged that

to command, another

"3amuel Seawall" s ould be

Con­

"captaine of

that company as f o r m e r l y . 1*529 He remained in the post until
shortly before the arrival of nndros,

when the nrooosal to

out the red cross bach Into the colors of the military com­
panies caused him to resign his commission.
some of ti.e c o m m n i e s

The practice of

in canyiin; it had Ion:: been dlstres-

sirw to him, and. when he faced the prospect of

^uttiny it

into those of the South Company, he was, ac he says,
great exercise " about the matter,

"in

'te.nd afraid if I should

have a hand in* t whether it may not hinder ray Entrance into
the Holy Lend. "*^0 £C tton Mather assured him that the sin
would not be his, but Sev/all could not help feeling that if
he remained Captain he must share the blame of it, especially
since he .ad. so often and so vigorously .spoken against the
practice since the time when Capt.
dv

./alley had first intro-

I the cross into the colors of his company in Aoril, 1821
329

Mass. Records. V, 426, entry for De oember 5, 1683; Hass.
A r c h i v e s . LXX, 105-106.
D i ar y , I, 147, entry for August 20, 1686.
331

I b id . . entry for August 22, 1686.
Sewell*s reaction was
apparently the popular one.
The flrat training day described
in the military journal was the one at which Capt. 17alley
"had a red Cross in his colours but vailed; yet so as it
might be seen through the . . . vail" (fol. 27).
Various of

-265-

At the training on A u ^ s t 50, 1686, therefore, Sewall ap­
peared only to take leave of his company,

living each soldier

a copy of John Cotton*s Gods Promise to His Plantation (1650)
and twenty shillings to the company as a whole

"for a T r e a t . "

On November 11, on hi? way home from deliver in • up his commls
slon to the Council, he was as:: h
whe re he

to the hone of Capt. Hill,

"une xp e c tJCed jiy . . . t’cund a pood Supper.

Hutchinson,

Townsend,

Capt.

Savage, V/ini-1* and sundry others to the

number of 14 or 15, were t he re.

After Supper sung the 46£&

Ps. 1,35 3
This surprise party by some of his fellow officers and
the South Company* s expressed unhappiness at the loss of hl/n
the leaders pot together before t'r.e July training of the came
year and agreed thr-1 "it was not convenient ” to Introduce
t'r.e cross % t this time " and thought the matter was closed*
But on July 11 Capt. Walley, says Sewall, "Instead of having
no cross at all (as I supposed) huo. it unveiled; which oc­
casioned several Firings.
Capt. Hutchinson & Townsend ob­
structed his coming into common at Noon. " In later trainings
V/alley persisted, however, and Sewall repeatedly notes the
fact.
It was fifty years before this (1654) that Endecott had
t o m the cross from the colors at Salem.
The matter was embnrassing to the colony authorities because it was obviously
a gesture of defiance against England.
A compromise arrange­
ment had been reached whereby the military companies kept it
out while the flag at the fort on Castle Island in the harbor
kept it in.
When its reintroduction was proposed, therefore,
in 1686, Sewall was able to write! "• . . to introduce it in­
to Eoston at this time was much, seein ; it had been kept out
more than my Life-time" (Diary. I, 147, entry for August 22,.
1686).
5 3 2I b l d . . p. 150.
3?3 Ibld., p. 156. At the time of the first training of the
following spring, he notes: " . . . Serjeant Bull warns the
South-Company now under the Command of Capt. Willlam W h i t e :
those the words. . .** (ibid., p. 173, entry for April 19, 1687v

-266-

o.s its commander in 1633 are but two instances which seem

to attest to Sewall* s. popularity as a military commander.
There are others.

On the first trainin'- day after his re­

turn -from England,

he went into the field with trie South

Company,

exercised them in

lings, " and

few Distances,

“thanked them, 11 as he says,

Facings, Doub­

"for their Respect

in mentioning me when in England, warning the Company in my
Name; end told them the place I was in required more Time and
Strength than I had,

so took leave of them.
Despite this
*^35
and other such p r o t e s t s , i t was not until 1693 that he was
able to note concerning orders for the South Company to train:
"• • • words run, late under the Command of Capt. Samuel
*7/>

Sewall.

He remained in the Ancient and Honourable Artillery

Company,

however, and in 1701 was elected Captain of that or337
ganization.
The reason for the popularity he thus apparently
The training was set for the twenty-ti.lrd, when he noted: ’Many
persons: some officers have red paper Crosses fastened tc their
Hats" ( ibid. . entry for April 23} ,‘
^°^Ibl d . . p.- 316, entry for M a r c h 24, 1689/90. Andros had
now been overthrown and the old Charter forms were back into
effect.
Since there is no mention made of the cross in the
colors, it presumably was out again.
S^®See Letter-Bo o k , I, 125, letter to Elisha. Hutchinson
dated October 17, IB91, and D i ary, I, 350, entry for October
16, 1691.
Diary, I, 384, entry for October 5, 1693.
Roberts,
History of the Military Company, I, 258, says he was Major
of the regiment in 1695— 96, but I find no proof of this.
Sibley, II, 347, makes him Major of a regiment in 1675-76.
I find no proof of this either, and the date makes the state­
ment quite implausible.
^ ^ H e r e again he was following in the footsteps of John HuUL
who had been an Ensign of the company in 1663, Lieutenant in

enjoyed in both the companies is suggested, in the fact that
after be inn; elected, to head the Artillery Company he rjave a
modest speech in which he expressed his surprise

"to see they

riad mistaken a sorry pruning Hook for a Military 3^ear, "
promised to do his dutiful best, ana asked the company over
33S
to his house for "bread, Beer, wine[, and]] Sillibub,
as
he had previously treated the 3outh Company and. given out
35 Q
money for drinks all around#
It is s u p ;,jested, also, in
his giving a silver cup at one traininn; "to him who made the
best S h ot t , " spying with self-deprecating good humor that
since at a previous training he had called on them to shoot
and had not himself

"hit the Butt, "

he gave it "in Token of

the value [he 3 had for that virtue in others, which I my self
could not attain to."

It is suggested, too, in the fact
341
that, unlike other of the officers*
he apparently never
found it necessary to employ any of the prescribed punlsh1664, and Captain in 1671 and 1678 (Roberts, I, 193).
Sev/all
joined in 1679, was first sergeant in 1630, Ensign in 1683,
and Captain in 1701 (Robex'ts, I, 251-252, 259; ' hit.nan, pp.
44, 16*2).
Diary, II, 35-36, entry for June 2, 1701.
Sillabub is
a dish made of cream or milk and wine, cider, or the like.
^ ^ Ibld., I, 360, entry for April 25, 1693; ibid., p. 150,
entry for August 30 , 1686.
^-0_IbicU, II, 54-55, entry for May 4, 1702. After dinner
on this occasion, they sang four stanzas of the sixty-eighth
psalm.
When some objected to their singing so much, Sev/all,
v/ho loved his psalms, answered, "Twas but Four Deep. "
34-^See "Diary and Commonplace Book, 1675— , " fol. 37, train­
ing for April 19, 1686, and fol. 27, training for July 11,
1681, for examples of soldiers being "laid Neck & Heels, " a
punishment knov/n as "the Manacles. "

-268'

ments for refractory soldiers, namely fining,
vocden horse, 11 and

"riding the

"laying neck and heels*

It wa.s probably this same unwillingness to inflict
personal injury which,

despite all his years as a soldier,

kept him fro..; the field of actual battle*
a sense,

It is true,

in

that as a judge he shared re :;pons ibility for all

sorts of legalised mayhem.

But in ills personal life he was

the most peaceable of men.

The sin pi--4 time that he notes

}iavlr.g done bodily harm to anyone v;as when his four year old
son Joseph hit his sister Betty on the hea
knob, rankin'" it bleed.

For t :1s,

wit

a brass door

“and for his playing at

prayer-time, and eating when Return Thanks, ” Sew-all "whipd
3 A3
him pretty smartly. ” * He was the kind of man who would
much prefer to
hands on him.

•'have d i s c o u r s e ” wit . an antagonist than lay
As a magistrate he was never what he called

”a s t r i k e r ” and disliked such as were.
those

Twice he was am ong

“pressed in H i s Majesties name to appear nt the Town­

house conpleat i n

Arms, “

once in November of 1638 Just before

he left for England and a w i n in the summer of 1690, and each
time he took the acceptable but unheroic course of hiring
others to serve in his s t e a d . T h e

closest he ever got

342Act £ a n a R e s o l v e s , I, 129.
Dia ry , I, 369,
rr

a

entry for November 6, 1692.

x

On November 3, 1688, he was ordered to report (ibid., p.
235) and tried to get Robert Grundy to go in his place, tel­
ling him that he w o u ld probably be pressed before long in
any case and outlining conditions that would, be more desir­
able for him than simply "the King* s P ay " that he would oth#jBfe

-269-

to the acsne of actual conflict was when he and two others
were ordered by Governor Dudley to
some pirates at Marblehead.

"search for and seize "

They set out for Salem,

where

they enlisted the services of Bewail*s more warlike brother,
Stephen, who, with the help of forty-two volunteers and

"the

Singular all-pcwerfull gracious Providence of God, " effected
the capture, Samuel having returned in the meantime to Boston,
where he witnessed the execution several weeks later.
description he .gives of this event is noteworthy I

The

"After

Dinner, " he writes,
about 3. p.m.

I went to see the Execution.

. . .

were the people ohat saw upon Broughton*s Hill.

Many
But

when I came to see how the River was cover'd with People,
I was amazed:
and Canoes,
Mr.

Some say there were 100 Boats.

salth Cousin Moody of York.

Cotton Mather came with Capt.

150 Boats

He told them.

Quelch [the pirate chief}

and six other for Execution from the Prison to Scarlet's
Wharf, and from thence in the Boat to the place of Execu­
tion about the midway between Hanson* s point and Brough­
ton's Warehouse [on the Charles River flats}*
was there also.

Mr. Bridge

When the scaffold was hoisted to a due

height, the seven Malefactors went up; Mr. Mather pray*d
for them standing upon the Boat.

Ropes were all fasten'd

wise receive(Letter-Book, I, 91).
Robert Grundy apparently
failed to respond, and !he secured Jonathan Wales for five
pounds (Diary, loc. clt.)• In June of 1690 he got John Brad­
shaw Miles to go in his place for nine pounds immediate pay*ment and seven pounds fifteen shillings more in the fall (Le**
er, fol. 19).

-270

to the Gallows

(?,nv*i Kin ;, who wes Repr'ov'o),

Scaffold was let tc sink,

there we. r ruch a Screech of

the 7om»-»n that my wife he-rd It

1"tin;* in our Entry

ne::t the Orchard, and we s much surer is ed
wind vo s sou-wost.

V.lien the

t it; .yet the

Our horse is a full mile fron the

i' ce.
_ 545
r»-l
It

vis.s

characteristic of Sewall that,

rather than .po

o■'t “ nd f iyht yir- t e ; , he should Interest n in self instead,
-•s he did for many years,

in me kin-' coll.ection: of money and

. vvr'-ri ;i:v for the ranscn of various
or Stilly.

When,

in 1690,

"poor Captives in A l t
p eer

ti:e French and Indians destroyed

Schenectady and ravayed town after town in Hew Hampshire and
in II'-!jne, Sev/all, instead of joininu those who went out to
ii kit,

joined ’,7111 lam Stouyhton in a. journey to New York,

there to meet with reyresentntives of t.e other colonies concorned"to treat advise and conclude of ^roosr methods to be
tck^u fcr the . . .

subdue in •-; of the Comon Enemy.

. . . "^47

v'
A-3
v ‘ For this entire episode, see the D i a ry . II, 103-111,
entrie- for June 7 to July 2, 1704.
^L e 11 e r- Bo o k , I, 200, letter to John Ive dated June 10,
1698.
For his work in ransonln.-j; "honest Joshua G-ee, " see the
Letter-Booh, I, 53, 45, 49, 77, all letters to his London ayent,
John Ives, and dated September 4, 168G, I.Iarch 30, 1637, July 9,
1587, Ma rch 31, 1S38.
For another, Benjamin Halawell, see
ibid.. p. 77, letter to John Ive dated March 51, 16Q8, and
Account Booh, entries for February £4, 1690/1, and February S,
1691/2.
For another, Anthony Heywood, see the Letter-Book,
I, 156, 157, letters to Edward Hull dated July £2 and Octo­
ber 30, 169-5.
There are numerous other references w iich miyht
be cited.
Sallee was a principal port of Morocco, about two hundred
miles southwest of (Gibraltar.
^ Kass. Archives, XXXVI, S, 9, a copy of their commission.
For iiis account of ti.e journey, sec th ■ Diary, I, 317-319,

-271-

?-:nck home a-'a in, he accepted a commissi

from Connecticut

to net as its f>pent in the handlin,: of moneys raised for the
relief of Mew Hampshire ana Maine, layiny it out in salt,
aye, Indian corn, pork, ra ils, etc* for shipment to the strick­
en a
en towns. “ In 1697 ne undertook tne same Job a.’ain, a e c k r ln " himself

"gratified and h o n o u r e d M to be chosen in so worthy

desi.yn nnu findiny in Connecticut1 s shov; of brotherlv love

!■

confirmation of his belief that the New En ’land provinces

■voro

"Coucon German to the Citizens of the New Jerusalem*
It is nporooriate to conclude this discussion of Sev/all1s

military activities with his description of an Artillery train­
ing on October 6, 170?.,

the year in which he was elected Cap­

tain of the company:
Very pleasant fair- './ether; Artil?.ory trains in the A f t e r ­
noon,

Mar ch with the Company to the Elms; Go to prayer,

March down and Shoot at a

rk*

Mr,

Cushiny I think was

the first that hit it, Mr, Gerrlsii tv/ice, Mr* Fitch,

Chaun-

entries for April 21 to May 9, 1690,
Plans were mode for a n
attack on Montreal by forces of Connecticut and New York, for
a campaign a •• inst tne eastern Indians, and a naval expeditl n
ayainst Quebec.
All three projects were failures and Massa­
chusetts* expenses caused her to make her first issue of oa-oer
money.
x Letter-Bo o k , I, 5-3, an account sheet and a letter to
John Allyn, Secretary to the Governor of Connecticut, dated
December 3, 1692*
^4 9 I bld. . p. 191. letter to Eleazer Kimberly dated October
5, 1697; i bid*. p. 182, letter to an unidentified addressee
dated M a r c h 30, 1697.
Between these two are a scries of let­
ters havlrr; to do v/ith the Job he had undertaken.

-f7&-

cy, r no. the Ensign of the Officers •
nlssed, as I aid for the first*
v.’ith the exercise.

’./ere much contented

Led them to ohe Trees .a -en, per­

form* a sane facings ‘ no Doublin v *
. . ,

By far the nost

Dre*- them together.

I inform* a the Company I v.ao told the Company* s

Halberds &c. were borrowed;

I understood the Leading

staff was so, and therefore ask*d their Acceptance of
a Ha.lf-Pike, which they very kindly did;

I deliver'd it

to 1.1r* Grlbbs for their Use*
They would, needs give me a Volley,
Respect on this occasion*
me in fourty shillings,
•

•

•

in token of their

The Pike will,

I suppose,

stand

bein • headed and shod w it h Silver*

o 50

The silver ferrule of this pike still exists, bearing the in­
scription :
A g me n Massachusetts
est in tutelam Sponsae
AGrhl Uxoris*
1701
Ex dono Honorabalis
SAMUEL 15 SE.ALL Armigeri
rnich is to say:

"The Massachusetts Company is for the pro­

tection of the Bride,

the wife of the Lamb. 1701*

of the Honorable Samuel Sewall, E s q u i r e . "

By gift

The motto sentence,

with its Joining of liars, Christ, and the Church, was most
apt for a Puritan military organization.
050 D i a r y . II, 4b.

Chapter Five
WRITER
Today Samuel Sewall Is k n o w n primarily as the writer of
a diary, a unique recorder of N e w England life of the late
seventeenth a n d early eighteenth centuries*

To the m e n of

hie own time, however, he was Important not as a writer but
as a public official a n d as one who occupied a high social
and economic position In the community*
thought of as a writer,

Insofar as he was

It was as the author of certain pro­

phetical a n d humanitarian tracts, a n d as a poet*

Like hie

prophetical writings, his verses have mainly a curious a nd
historical Interest*

More memorable are his utterances on

the subjects of the Negro and the Indian,

in which we are

introduced to the problem of minority groups in the Purian
community and, b y relation,

to the questions of liberty and

equality in Puritan political theory,

the significance of

which found Illustration In the revolutionary movement In
New England during the latter half of the eighteenth century*
Next to his diary,

the work by w h ich Sewall best de­

serves to be remembered Is his Selling of J o s e p h , a n antislavery tract published In 1700 a n d termed by him
in defence of Liberty*

*%i Sheet

He describes the occasion of his

writing this In the following diary entry:
^•Letter-Bo o k * I, 326, letter to Rev* John Higginson dated
April 13, 1706*

r 1i

S ./ S S s

The

Selling
o F

JO
S
E
P
H
A Memorial.
lORA?MTJC H at L ib e rty i< «• real value m xt mute L ife : Nome ought to part w ith
<

F

t t tbemfelves, or deprive others

o f

it, In ti upon mot I mature Confidoratum.

T h e N m ie rn u fn e f*o f Slaves at thfedav in the Province, and the CJneafincfi
o f them under their Slavery, hath put m any upon O in k in g
w hether
tl<e fo u n d a tio n o f it he firm ly and w ell L i d ; fo as to luftain the V a ft W e ig h t that i f
built upon It. I t is m o d certain that all M e n , as they are the Sons o f Adam , *>3
C oheirs ; and havd equal R ig h t unto L ib e rty , am i all other o utw ard O m i o r t s o f Life.
bath given the Earth [ w ith all i n C om m od ities
:
Sons of A d a m , Pfal
And hath made of One bluud, a ll Nations o f A fm . for to dive I
aI
o f tbs E a rt» t
m d bar k. determined theTtme> before appointed,-oOod tbe bound* of ib ttr habitation
I bat they
jhculd feek tbe Lord
Fotafmueb tbtn as mu me tbe Ojf>p>i*g ej G O D
AB
N o w although h i T it le given by the la lf A D . \ M , doth In fin it.L b ’ tte ' M ens b f ia t t t ,1
sefpeAing G O D and thcm lelves; and • grat.ts them a m olt b-rntfici.tl and inviolable
L e .iL under the Bioad Seal ot H e aven , w ho w etc before cnly T em n *s at W ill : V e t
through the Indulgence ol G O D 10 out F irll l'arcn s alter the F a ll, t t e outw ard E lf am
ot all and every ot their C h ild re n , remains tli<i lam e, as to one another.
So chat
O rig in a lly , and N a tu ra lly ,tiic re i* no iuch t! ir i i as ^1 >vcry. J o fp b was rig h tfu lly n o 1
tnoro a b'ave co his fite rh ie n than they w e ie u» h ;m : and they had no m ore Au h x ity to S e ll h im , dian they had t * slay him . 'A n d ii th y had n o t i n g ref d o t o S -ll n i n l l 9
the Ifbmaelut: bargaining w i h them , and pay ing d««wn' T w e n ty pieces o f >»lver, cOuta'
n o t m ake a T id e . H c it t e r c o .ld Fottpbar ha» e any l etter In t o e ll in I im than t* e
Jjhmaehiet had. Gen. 37. t o , 2 7 , 2 8
For he that 1I14I! in this calc p L a a A lte ra tu h o f
Proierty, Lem s to hav« o. ivi td a great part o f his ow n c tiim fo H u m a n ity
I h etff'ld
ski propn tion ^et veen T w e n ty Pieces o f Sil- e r, and L I B E R T Y .
T h e C o m m o d ity it felt is the £.taiui*r. It
G ()!d be' iittporied in any quantities, m o d are etiaiet
to m eddle w ith it, though they n ight, have i: at eafy ra ts ; left it it (houkl h>v<d
been w rongfully taken irons the O t h e r s , I t fhoutd kindle a fire to the C o id u m p tio rt
o f thctr w hole E lfate. ^Ti> pity t h iie (hould be m o ie C aution ufed in b u y in g A.
H o t f e , or a little lilclofexluR : 'h an cf^die |s In purchafing M e n and W o m c * : W h en a t
llie y are the O tfspring o l G O p , and their L iberty is,

COD
16.

3 wire A*
n

11£•

fttc

:
1726,27,19.

.............A m r o fretiofior O m n i ,
•

A n d feeing G O D hath flak!. He f i a t Stealetb a Man and
found in bn bard be (ball fur eh bo put to beat b. E *n d . as.
ve> lulling E q ity , w h e .e iri M a n Stealirig ds ranked am otlgft
C a p ita l C iim c * : W h a t Judder C r y can there be m ade o f th at

,

Selleth him , or i f be ba
L aw being
«b« m o lt atrocious o f
Celebrated W a rn in g ,

»6. T h is

~

Caveat Emvtor

. - .•

of E-

/
Am f

-274-

Fourth-day, June, 19*

1700*

• • •

Having been long and

much dissatisfied w ith the Trade of fetching Negros from
Guinea; at last I had a strong Inclination to Write some­
thing about It; but it wore off*
Sphes.

[Paul Baynes,

A t last reading Bayne,

Commentary on the First Chapter of

the Ephesians {1618)3 about servants, who mentions Blacka­
moors;

I began to be uneasy that I had so long neglected

doing any thing*

When I was thus thinking,

in came Broths

er Belknap to shew me a Petition he Intended to present
to the General Court for the freeing a Negro a n d his wife,
who were unjustly held In Bondage*

A n d there Is a Motion

by a Boston Committee to get a Law that all Importers of
Negros shal pay 40® per head, to discourage the bringing
p
of them.
A n d Mr* C. Mather resolves to publish a sheet
to exhort Masters to labour their Conversion.

Which makes

me hope that I was call*d of God to Write this Apology for
them; Let his Blessing accompany the same*'"
“Drawn up in haste, “ as Sewall later said ,4 for presenta­
tion to the Council a n d General Court, The Selling of Joseph
speaks yet today w ith a force that is little diminished by
the passage of more than two hundred a n d fifty years*

If

ever its author was touched by greatness it was here, an d no
^Boston R e c o r d s . IX, 5, date of May 26, 1701*
3 P l ary.

II, 16.

^Letter-Book, I, 245, memorandum of letter to Paul Dudley
dated November 20, 1700*

-275-

estimate either of the man or of the Puritan heritage which
he

represents can fairly omit a consideration of Its pages.

"Forasmuch as

Liberty,

" It begins,

Is In real value next unto Life: None ought to part with
it, or deprive others of it# • . *

It is most certain

thrt all Men, as they are the Sons of Adam, are Coheirs;
a n d have equal Right unto Liberty, a n d all other outward
Comforts of Life*
Nations of Men*

GOD hath • • • made of One Blood, all

• • •

So that Originally, and Naturally,

there Is no such thing as Slavery*
no more a Slave to his Brethren,
and they

Joseph was rightfully

than they were to him:

had no more Authority to Sell him, than they had

to Slay him*

A n d if they had nothing to

do to Sell him;

the Ishmaelltes bargaining with them, a n d paying down
Twenty pieces of Silver, could not make a Title*

• • •

For he that shall in this case plead Alteration of Prop­
erty,

seems to have forfeited a great part of his own

claim to Humanity*
Pieces of

There Is no proportion between Twenty

SLLver, a n d LIBERTY.

. . .

A n d seeing GOD hath said, He that Stealeth a M a n and
Selleth him, o r If he be found in his hand, he shall sure­
ly be put to Death • • • What louder Cry can there be made
of that Celebrated Warning,
Caveat Emptorl^

5Page 1*

-276-

Touching briefly on the practical and immediate objec­
tions to the institution of slavery, he notes that because
"there is such a disparity in their Conditions,
Hair • • • they can n e ver Elnbody with us . . .

Colour &
to the Peopl­

ing of the Land. *

Furthermore, since Negroes, like Indians,
g
were exempt from military duty, •fee many Negro men as there
are among us,
Bands. "

so many empty places there are in our Train

These matters are slight, however, compared with

the moral objections.

"♦ • • it is too well known what

Temptations Masters are under,

to connive at the Fornica­

tion of their Slaves; lest they should be obliged to find
them Wives.

• • »

It is likewise most lamentable to think,

how in taking Negroes out of Africa, and Selling of them
here, That which GOD has Joyned together men do boldly rend
asunder; Men from their Country, Husbands from their Wives,
Parents from their C h i H ren*

H o w horrible is the Uncleanness

• • • if not Murder, that the Ships are guilty of that bring
gree t Crowds of these Miserable Men, and women* **
Answering the o l d argument that

"These Blackamores are

of the Posterity of Cham, and therefore are under the Curse
of Slavery, " he says:
this: viz.

"Of all Offices, one would not begg

Unoall*d for, to be an Executioner of the Vin­

dictive Wrath of God; the extent and duration of which is
to us uncertain.

If this ever was a Commission; How do we

g

G-. H. Moore, Notes on the History of Slavery in Massa
chusetts (New York, 188677 P* 244.

7Page 2.

know but that it Is long since out of Date?
it to their Cost,

Many have found

that a Prophetical Denunciation of Judgment

against a Person or People, would not warrant them to inflict
that evil.

This departure from a literal interpretation of

the Scriptures in the name of simple humanity is noteworthy*
Qnployed by Sewall as a means of demanding the abolition of
slavery,

it would be used by men of later generations in

Massachusetts as a means of challenging every other element
of Scripture which they found repugnant to humane sensibili­
ties*
To the argument that
Pagan Country,
Sewall replies:
of it*

"the Nigers are brought out of a

into places where the Gospel is P r e a c h e d , "
"Evil must not be done,

that good may come

The extraordinary a n d comprehensive Benefit accruing

to the Church of God, and to Joseph personally, did not recQ
tify his brethrens Sale of him* "
A law of the Colony passed in 1641 declared:

"• • • there

shall never be any Bondslavery • • • amongst us, unless it be
lawful Captives taken In Just Wars,

Cor suchj as willingly

sell themselves * * . to us. • • • "^0

Answering those who

would object that such slaves as there might be in Massachu­
setts were but

lawful

Captives " taken in wars that

ricans have • • • one w i t h another, " he says:
8

Ibld,

9pages 2-3.
^ C o l o n i a l L a w s , p. 10*

"the A f ­

fEvery W a r is

F73-

upon one side Unjust*
Captives.

• • •

A n Unlawful War can* t make lawful

I am sure,

If some Gentlemen should go down

to the Brewsters to take the Air, and Fish:

And a stronger

party from Hull should surprise them, and Sell them for Slaves
to a Ship outward bound:

they would think themselves unjust­

ly dealt with; both by Sellers a n d Buyers*

• • • whatsoever

ye would that m e n should do to you, do ye even so to them*
•

e

e

J.1
The last objection with which he deals Is that

had Servants brought with his Money, and b o m

'Abraham

In his House* "

His answer is that
Until the Circumstances of Abraham's purchase be recorded,
no Argument can be drawn from it.
ty obliges us to conclude,
good*

In the mean time, Chari­

that He knew it was lawful and

It is Observable that the Israelites were strictly

forbidden the buying, or selling one another for Slaves*
• • •

GOD expects that Christians should be of a more

Ingenuous and benign frame of spirit*

Christians should

carry it to all the World, as the Israelites were to carry
it one towards another*

And, for men obstinately to per­

sist In holding their Neighbours and Brethren under the
Rigor of perpetual Bondage,

seems to be no proper way of

gaining Assurance that God has given them Spiritual Free­
dom*

Our Blessed Saviour has altered the Measures of the

ancient Love Song, and set it to a most Excellent New Tune,

■^Page 3*

which all ought to bo ambitious of Learning. . . .

These

Ethiopians, as black as they are; seeing they are the Sons
and Daughters of the First Adam, the Brethren and Sisters
of

the Last ADAH, and the Offspring of GOD;They

be

treated with a Respect a g r e e a b l e . ^

ought to

It was The Selling of Joseph which Whittier had in mind
when he wrote of S e w a l l :
Honor and priase to the Puritan
Who the halting steps of his age outran,
And,

seeing the Infinite worth of man

In the priceless gift the Father gave,
In the infinite love that stooped to save,
*L3
Dared not brand his brother a slave.
Unlike most of Whittier*s lines on Sewall, these would seem
to be a reasonably accurate statement of the fact.
least,

Such, at

is the feeling of G. H. Moore, historian ofslavery

in Massachusetts, who cites Sewall* s tract as evidence that
he was

"far in advance of his day and generation** in his views

on the s u b j e c t . ^

Moses Colt Tyler declares it to be

minated by lofty ethical intuitions . . .
powerful statement
which left

"illu­

an acute, compact,

of the Case against American slavery, " one

•ta.lmost nothing new to be said a century and a

half afterward, when the sad thing came up for final adjustl gIbld.
13 From
14

*The Prophecy of Samuel Sewall, " Works, I, 211-212.

Notes* p. 88.

ment.

*L 5

Weeden says of it that

"a century a n d a half of

Old a n d N e w England culture, w ith the French Revolution by
the way, added little to this powerful rendering of the rights
16
of m a n * "
The Selllng of Joseph

stands in comparative isolation

in the history of the Ame r i c a n anti— slavery movement*

There

had been scattered protests over since the institution of
slavery was first established in the New World, notably by
groups of Mennonltes a n d Quakers in Pennsylvania,

1 7

but Sew­

all 1 s was the first such tract to appear in Puritan M a s s a ­
chusetts and a third of a century pas s e d before another com­
parable to it app e a r e d in

"A Testimony against that Anti-

15A History of A m e r i c a n L i t e r a t u r e . II, 100*
16
Economic a n d Social History of New E n g l a n d . I, 429*
17
Mar y S* Locke, A n t 1-Slavery in Ame r i c a . . ., 1619-1808
(Boston, 1901), pp* 9-17*
William Ussellnx had opposed the
importation of slaves into the Swedish colonies as early as
1624, but only on the grounds of good business*
He felt that
white servants pro v i d e d a b e t t e r basis for profitable com­
merce.
In 1682 the Free Society of Traders in Pennsylvania
tried to provide against perpetual servitude by providing for
the freeing of slaves after a service of fourteen years*
Slml
lar Instances can be cited for other of the colonies during
the years of their founding*
The anti-slavery movements among the Puritans a n d Quakers
were the most important*
In 1637 R o ger Williams protested
against slavery for the captive Pequots, a n d in 1662 Rhode
Island provided for freedom a f ter a peri o d of years*
At about
this same time the General court of Massachusetts declared
against "the hainous and crying slnn of m a n n stealing, " an d
in 1675 John Eliot objected to the sale of Indians on the
grounds that they w o u l d in many cases be removed "from all
meanes of grace* "
In 1688 the Mennonltes near Germantown published a reso­
lution against slavery, citing the Golden Rule and concluding:
"Here is liberty of conscience* • • • Here ought also to be
liberty of the body. " In Philadelphia in 1693 appeared Georg

-281-

Christlan Practice of making Slaves of Men . . . " by Ellhu
TO

Coleman, a Quaker of Nantucket.

After this it was not until

the years of the Revolution that the slave a^ain found sig19
nificant advocacy of his cause.
Few men in the Puritan community were disposed to the
exercise of conscience concerning slavery.
years of the colony,

From the earliest

Indian captives had been sought after by

the \7inthrop3 and others with the same undisturbed sense of
righteousness that accompanied the partitioning of any other
plunder of war.

Similarly,

the trade in Negroes, of little

importance in the first years but rapidly developing at the
turn of the century, 21 caused little moral concern in someone
like Cotton Mather,

for example, who, upon being presented with

a Negro by some grateful members of his congregation, announced
°2
that he "rejoiced in Heaven* s Smile.
The practice of a pious
Newport elder, we are told, was to return thanks to God on
Sunday for the safe arrival of a cargo of slaves during the

Keith* s Exhortation . . . tc> Friends based on the scripture
later used by Wendell Phillips:
"Thou shalt not deliver unto
his Master the Servant that is escaped from his Master unto thee* 11
^®Moore, pp* 109-110*
^ Ibld.
"There may have been other occasional efforts, " sajB
Moore, referring to a petition in 1755 from Salem to the General
Court against the importation of Negroes, " . . . but they must
have been comparatively few and f r u i tless."
20Weeden, "Early African Slave Trade, " p. 106, says that
"Sewall*s was about the earliest and almost the only voice
raised in behalf of a. large humanity. **
pi
yAdams, Provincial Society, pp* 9, 164.
Governor Dudley,
in a report to the Board of Trade in 1708, gave the number in
that year as four hundred, half of which had arrived in the
last decade (Moore, p. 50)•
23Wertenbaker, Puritan 0 1 lgarchy. p. 198, cited*

week, feeling grateful

"that an overruling Providence had

been pleased to bring to this land of freedom another cargo
of benighted h e a t h e n to enjoy the blessing of a gospel dis­
pensation,

F o r taking a stand against what he termed "this
24
wicked practice of Slavery, " Sewall found himself the object,
25
as he says, of many "Frowns a n d hard Words* "
One reaction
1,23

to The Selling of Joseph took the shape of a written reply
by John Saffln, his colleague on the Superior Court and him­
self a slave-holder*

Saffln* s ire had been aroused not so

much by the tract Itself as by the attempt of his slave Adam
to gain his freedom

and by Sewall*a Judicial support of that

attempt * 2 6 This work by Saffln, entitled A Brief a n d Candid
Answer to £ late Pri n t e d S h eet. Entltuled. The Selling of
23yeeden,

"Early African Slave Trade, ** p* 122*

2 4 Letter-3ook. II, 39, memorandum of a letter to Henry New­
man dated December 18, 1714*
2 5 Ibid.. I, 326, letter to Reverend J ohn Higglnson dated
April 13, 1706*
"• • • it Is no small refreshment to me, "
he writes, "that I have the Learned, Reverend and A g e d Mr*
Higglnson for m y Abettor*
By the Interposition of this Brestwork, I hope to carry on and manage this enterprise with Safe­
ty and Success* "

^6 The case is described at length by A b n e r C* Goodell, "John
Saffln and his Slave A d a m , " Col. Soc. of Mass., P r o c . . I (189294), 85-112,
Saffln had drawn up a deed of manumission by which
Adam was to have his liberty after seven years, during which
time he was to serve "cheerfully quietly a n d Industriously."
The seven years expired in 1701, when Saffln refused to carry
out the bargain, saying that its terms had not been met by the
slave, that Instead he had been "turbulent, outrageous and In­
solent. " The case was protracted over several years, but Adam
finally gained his freedom*
Goodell states (p. 8 8 ) that "Saffln was called before Sew­
all, who spoke severely to him about his failure to fulfill
the bargain* " I do not know the source for tills statement.

— 2 8 3 —>

Joseph (1701),27ls one more Illustration of the climate of
hypocritical piety and plain malignity of spirit In which
Sewall maintained his point of view*

It argues that the

cases of Joseph and enslaved Negroes are not parallel, the
selling of Negroes being an Improvement In their state be­
cause It Is to a life

%mong C h r i s t i a n s t h a t

to argue

against slavery on the grounds of our all being sons of
Adam Is to argue for banishing degree In society altogeth­
er, a thing which he Is quite certain Sewall does not wish
to do; that the faot that white servants were preferable
did not make the selling of black ones unlawful; and that
the laws against man-stealing did not apply to

"strangers, "

Ignoring Sewall's argument that It ought to for those of
a truly Christian spirit.

A t the very end of the piece the

author abandons his forensic footwork to let his real feel­
ings show In these lines :
Cowardly a n d cruel are those Blacks Innate,
Prone to Revenge,

ImpfsJ of Inveterate hate.

He that exasperates them, soon espies
Mischief a n d murder In their very eyes.
Libidinous, Deceitful, False a n d Rude,
The Spume Issue of Ingratitude.
The Premises consider'd, all may tell,
How near good Joseph they are parallel.
27Repr. In Moore, pp. 251-256.

Had Sewall possessed the crusading zeal of the later
abolitionists In the anti— slavery cause he would not have
allowed the matter to stop here.

But as we have already

had several occasions to note, he did not possess such a
spirit.

Having stated his case he was Inclined to let the

matter rest.

He

“f o r b o r e , " as he said, "troubling the Prov28
ince with any Reply. "
In the winter of 1705, however, he

was again moved to action by a bill sent in by the deputies
providing for what he regarded as

"extraordinary penalties "

for inter-racial marriages.
be

Feeling that its passage would
29
•fen Oppression provoking to God, " he first caused to be

printed an article on the question of slavery which he had
seen in an English publication called the Athenian Oracle.
and which was a n approximate restatement of his own earlier
arguments.3® A f ter doing this he wrote a piece which appeared
31
in the News-Letter for June 12, 1706, wherein he put forward
much the same kind of practical objections to the institution
^ Letter-Book. I, 326, letter to Rev. John Higglnson dated
April 13, 1706.
Similarly, ibid.. p. 322, letter to Nathaniel
Byfield dated January 4, 1705/6.
On June 8 , 1703, he was an­
gered by the appearance of A d a m once more in court and the op­
position of Saffin: "Adam is again imprison’d to be Tried at
Suffolk Sessions.
Trial order’d by the General Assembly.
Superanuated Squier [i.e., SaffinJ, w l g g ’d and powder'd
with pretence,
Much beguiles the Just Assembly by his lying Impudence.
None being by, h l s g ^ F n Attorneys push it on with might
and main
By which means poor simple Adam sinks to slavery a g a i n . "
(Diary. II, 79.)
This outburst, as bitter as anything Sewall ever wrote, he was
apparently content to express only to his diary.
2 9 Piary, II, 143, entry for December 1, 1705.
^Letter-Book. I. 326, letter to Rev. John Higglnson dated
April 13, 1706.
See Locke, Anti-Slavery in A m e r i c a , pp. 18-19
31Johnson, American Economic Thought, pp. 20-21; Moore,

of slavery as he had earlier expressed In The Selling of Jo32
seph.
A f t e r this he wrote nothing more, though he continued
to oppose oppressive racial legislation in C o u n c i l ^ a n d to
express privately an antipathy for the slave traffic .**4
The Interest of The Selling of Joseph lies not so m uch
In the work Itself, considerable though that may be, as In
the reason for Sewall*s writing It.
been, as he says,

Why was It that he had

"long and m u c h dissatisfied with the Trade

of fetching Negros from G u i n e a ”?

Why was It that a man so

N o t e s . p. 106*
The attribution cannot be proved, but It makes
good circumstantial sense*
^ T h e nature of the article is indicated in its title:
"Computation that the Importation of Negroes is not so pos­
sible as that of White Servants* " Johnson. American Economic
Thought, p* 109, says concerning it that ". * . Sewall was
the only [AmerlcanJ writer who examined the economic con­
siderations Involved in slavery a n d servitude. " He also notes
(pp. 20-21) that Sewall*e argument that the use of white ser­
vants in colonial manufactures would "save a considerable sum
In a year to make R e t u r n s " places him in the frame of mercan­
tilist theory*
33
See chap. 4, sec* IV*
3 4 E.g.,

L e t t e r - B o o k . II, 182, letter to Timothy Woodbridge
dated February 25, 1724/5*
It may be noted here that Lorenzo J* Greene, The Negro
In Colonial New E n g l a n d . 1620-1776 (New York, 1942)7 P» 41,
makes the mistaken assertion that Sewall performed the hypo­
critical act of himself engagin in the slave traffic, citing
the following advertisement from the Boston News-Letter for
September 13, 1714:
"To be disposed of by MrT Samuel ~Sewall
Merchant, at his warehouse near the Swing Bridge In Merchants
Row Boston, several Irish M a i d Servants time, most of them
for Five years, one Irish M a n Servant, who is a good Barber
and Wiggmaker, A lso Four or Five likely Negro B o y s . " This
was not the Judge but "Samuel Sewall, de Steohano. ■ as his
uncle liked to call him*
See the Diary. Ill, 33, entry for
December 31, 1714, for a visit of this son of Stephen with
the elder Samuel.
That he was a merchant In Boston is shown
by Sewall's letter to Samuel Storke dated October 29, 1717,
in which he says: "I suppose you are not unacquainted with

respectful of the status quo oame to feel
had. so long neglected doing any thing
"call'd of God to W r i t e "7

"uneasy that Che 3

*%tnd at last felt

Parrlngton Is content to say that

"when his native kindliness was touched he spoke out.

. . .

That his feelings betokened a kindly disposition Is quite
true, but to say merely this Is to leave a very Important
aspect of the matter unexpressed, an aspect suggested by
a diary entry such as this:

liord' s-day CDecember 16, 1 7 1 1 j.

Four persons were taken Into church.

Mrs. Frances Bromfleld

and Marshal's Negro woman, two of them.
acceptable.

Their Relations very

Or this, for November 20, 1715:

ton-administers the Lord's Supper. . . .

*%lr. Pember­

Mr. Sewall [[i.e.,

his minister son, JosephJ baptlseth H annah Man, and an Ethi­
opian Woman.

"®7

Distinctions of color no more than of rank

and power figured in the qualificetion for membership In the
Congregation of the Saints.

However much the Puritan was

unwilling to admit his black brother to social equality,

the

equality of all m e n before God was something he was not dis­
posed to question.

That the Calvlnlstlc doctrine of election

was, In a sense, a n aristocratic concept Is a fact which was
nicely Illustrated at a town meeting in Milford,

Connecticut,

Mr. Samuel Sewall Son of Major Sewall of Salem.
He Is an ac­
complish'd Merchant and dwells In Town "(Letter-Book. II, 75).
55 Colonlal M i n d , p. 95.
5 6 Plarv.

II, 329.

57 Ibid.. Ill, 67.

-287-

ln 1640, where It wag

"Voted that the earth Is the Lord's and

the fulness thereof; voted, that the earth Is given to the
saints; voted, that we are the saints . " 3 8 But It Is also true,
and historically of considerably more significance,

that if

membership in the elect meant equality in the sight of God,
equality In the sight of men should be a fact as well.

It

was this Implication of the great Reformation doctrine of the
priesthood of all believers that Sewall felt
to express* 39

"call'd of God"

Perry Miller concludes The New England M ind with the re­
mark that

*New England was founded as a Puritan commonwealth

and was intended to be a holy and unique corner of the world,
but it went into the eighteenth century well prepared in the
terms of its own tradition to keep pace w i t h the intellectual
and emotional alterations of a new era.

. . .

1,48

Appearing

at the very opening of the eighteenth century, Sewall's

"Sheet

in defence of Liberty" takes its place (however alarming the
fact might have been to its pacific author)

in the line of

development that led to Lexington a nd Concord.

The transi­

tion from an assertion of the black man's natural right to
be free of his master to an assertion of the white man's nat38

Charles T. Davis, "Some Thoughts on Early Colonial De­
velopment, " Mass. Hist. Soc., P r o c . . LXIV (May, 1932), 509.
39Parrington is, of course, aware of the force of this
doctrine in the development of democratic ideas in New Eng­
land (e.g., pp. 6-11)*
He reserves application of it, however,
for discussions of his more particular libertarian heroes, such
as Thomas Hooker and Roger Williams*
Wright, American Inter­
pretations of Natural L a w , p. 43, makes the appropriate appli­
cation in tKe case of Sewall, saying that he was "giving a
liberal Interpretation to the divine law principles of the
early New E nglanders."
4Qpage 491*

ural right to be free of his kind is a reasonable one quite
41
capable of being traced*
II
In order to see Sew a l l *£ prophetical writings in the prop
er light it is necessary to understand the state of Indian
affairs in N e w England during the early years of the Massa­
chusetts settlement*

The reader of the diary gets a n occasion

al saddening glimpse of the pathetic state to which the red
man had been brought in the years following the defeat of
41

See, for example, Charles Borgeaud, The Rise of M o d e m
Democracy in England a n d New England (New York, 1894)*
The
thesis of this fascinating work is that from the earliest
writers of the Reformation to Jean Jacques Rousseau "runs a
red thread, sometimes hard to distinguish * * * but which may
always be found. • • "(p. 7)* Alice M* Baldwin, in The New
England Clergy and the American Revolution (Durham, N. C.,
1 9 2 8 ) , provides a most thorough and convincing documentation
of the idea that la direct line of descent Cexists} from
seventeenth century philosophy to the doctrines underlying
the American Revolution" (p* xli).
Similarly, Morris, Studies
p. 63, concludes that "the political ideas of John Locke which
formed the basis of Revolutionary political theory, were mere­
ly an expansion of the political Calvinism which molded New
England thought in the seventeenth century. " The same idea
is demonstrated by Herbert D. Poster, "International Calvin­
ism through Locke a n d the Revolution of 1688, " Am. Hist* R e v * »
XXXII (April, 1927), eap. pp. 490-491*
See also, Otto Von
G-lerke, Natural L a w a n d the Theory of S ociety. 1500 to 1800
(Cambridge, England, 1934), I, xlvii; G r i n n e l l , “Bench and
Bar, " p* 169; same author's "John Winthrop a n d the Constitu­
tional Thinking of John Adams, " Mass* Hist* S oo*, Prop. .
LXIII (February, 1930), p. 116; Edwin Mead, “The Meaning of
Massachusetts," New England Quarterly. Ill (January, 1930), 25*
The priesthood of all believers, the right of free in­
quiry, the concept of a natural law (or the law of Cod) of
higher validity than the acts of human legislative bodies, the
covenant idea as applied to the government of men— these were
the great doctrinal levers of revolution*
It is worth noting
that Sewall, for all his love of stability in government,
declared in his Phaenomena (1697) that rulers "who will not
take warning by Belshazzar, and Motezuraa; and will not learn

-i?S9-

Philip.

November 27, 1685:

'May an Indian, J a m e s 1s Squaw,

was Frozen to death u pon the Neck near Roxbury Gate on Thorsday night . . .

4.2

being f u d l e d . "

December 30, 1685:

"An

Indian M a n is found dead on the Neck with a Bottle of Rumm
between his Legs.

February 13, 1685/6:

died on the N eck last night.

1,44

"An Indian Squaw

J u n e 20, 1712:

"...

rode

wit h my wife a n d Joseph In our Coach £a l o n g 3 Dorchester Road,
45
almost as far as the first Brook.
Brig* a Indian drove us. "
In the back country, a n d particularly along the borders of
New Hampshire a n d Maine,

the Indian was still a n antagonist

to be feared, but in the holy commonwealth of Massachusetts
he was a menial a n d a drunkard, miserable and without hope.
As Cotton Mather remarked, writing of the plague that had
come among them in the years prior to the first settlement,
"...

the Woods were almost cleared of those pernicious

Creatures to make Room for a Better Growth.

1,46

Like all colonizing charters of the time, that for Massa­
chusetts Bay declared that to

"wynn . . .

the natives of the

country, to the knowledg a n d obedience of the only true God
in all their Administrations, to glorlfie . . . God . . .
must expect to come to worse ends than they did" (p. 4).
4 2Plary. I, 108.
44

Ibid.. p. 121.

4 3 Ibld.. p. 115.
4 5 Ibld.. II,

353-354.

4 ^Magnalla. bk. I,
ch. 2.
Elsewhere he refers to them as
"rattlesnakes" a n d "wildbeasts. " John Eliot, the famous
apostle to the Indians, spoke of them as "the dregs of mankind,*
and Daniel Gookln, also an Indian missionary, regarded them as
"not many degrees above beasts" (see Samuel Eliot, "Early Rela­
tions with the Indians, ■ in Early History of Massachusetts .
Lowell Lectures [Boston, 1869J, p. 310).

and Saviour or mankind© " w a s

"the prlncipall end© of £the]

* • • plantation, " and members of the Court of Assistants
swore as a part of their oath of office to work for the advancement of the Gospel In the regions assigned to the colony*
It was not until 1646, however,

47

that significant work began,

when, on October 28 of that year, J o h n Eliot and three others,
"having sought God, " as he says,

"went unto the Indians In­

habiting within our bounds, with desire to make known the things
of their peace to them#

At this first service, held at an

Indian village near Eliot's Roxbury pastorate In a wigwam
crowded with men, women, and children (a place which seemed
to Eliot a

"darke a n d gloom;/ habitation of filthiness and

uncleane spirits "), there was prayer, an hour and a quarter
of sermon, and questions,

for the purpose,

seeing whether It was possible

"to screw, by variety of means,

something or other of God into them# "
this the missionaries
they answered,

'no#'

says Eliot, of

A f t e r three hours of

•tasked them if they were weary, and
Unfortunately, not all of the Indians

Colonial Laws, p. 164.
The Charter has been often re­
printed#
The lines here quoted are from the copy at the
opening of the first volume of the Records of the Court of
Assistants#
^ T h e Day-Breaking If not the Sun-Rlslng of the Go so ell
<
with the Indians In New England (London, 164,?7, In Mass# Hist#
Soc., Colls#, ser# 3, IV (Cambridge, Mass., 1334), p# 3.
As
William D. Love, Samson Occam a n d the Christian Indians of New
England (Boston, 1900), pp# 3-4, points out, the delay in
missionary effort represents no special hypocrisy on the colony* s
part, Inasmuch as the Charter mention of it was mainly a pious
formality so far as the home government was concerned#
4 9The Dav-Bre«k 1ngp- p. 4 ff#
See also, Samuel Eliot, fEarly
Relations with the I n d i a n s , " pp# 316-317#

were so receptive*
to King Philip,

When Eliot attempted to preach the Gospel

that haughty individual took hold of a button

on E H iot,s coat a n d told him that he
Gospel than for that Button*
Mayhew, missionary at Nantucket,
good first*

"cared no more for his

Another Sachem told Experience
to

"go a n d make the English

• • •

Among the tribes to which the missionaries were allowed
entrance, however,

the work was surprisingly successful*

In

1651 Eliot founded the first of the towns of the so-called
"praying Indians, " at Natick, about eighteen miles from Rox­
bury, establishing it in the theocratic forms he had praised
in his Christian Commonwealth two years before*

In the words

of John Dunton, he

"reduc'd 'em to the Jewish plan of g o v e m 52
ment, and for that purpose expounded to 'em Exod* 18*"
Other such towns were quickly established, until by the time
of the war with Philip there were no less than fourteen in the
region of the Bay proper with others at Nantucket a n d Martha's
Vineyard under the care of Experience a n d Thomas Mayhew and
still others at Plymouth*

In addition,

the famous Indian

Bible, a twelve-hundred page translation into Algonklan by
5 0 Neal,
51

History.

I, 232-233.

Ibid. ■ p. 257.

5 2 ki£e

a n d E r r o r s . p. 114*
The pertinent portion of the
text referred to is that in which Moses is instructed by
Jethro to "provide out of all the people able men, such as
fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such
over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds,
rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: A n d let them Judge
the people at all seasons:
and it shall be, that every great
matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter the
shall Judge* • • • So Moses hearkened to the voice of his
father in law, and did all that he s a i d * "

-292-

the indefatiguable Eliot, begun in 1650, had been printed
at the Cambridge press between 1660 and 1663 and two hundred
copies distributed.®®
Such an undertaking as the printing of the Indian Bible,
not to mention the support of the various missionaries them­
selves, needed money far beyond what the colony was able to
afford*

The decade of the forties,

in fact, when the Indian

work was first begun, was a time of financial crisis in Massa­
chusetts, and money for use in any cause was in desperately
short supply*®^ Edward Winslow,
financial aid,

sent to England to obtain

saw in the c o l o n y fs necessity a thing whereby

both God and Massachusetts might be served a nd proposed that
a missionary society be organized to raise funds for convert­
ing the natives of New England.

Thanks to a series of enthu­

siastic promotional pamphlets from the pens

of Eliot and

others describing the sucoese of the work undertaken with the
Indians,

the idea caught hold, a n d the London Corporation,

chartered in 1649 to take charge of the funds gathered, was
soon in possession of Investments yielding a thousand pounds
*>3
See the chapter on Eliot in Morlson* s Builders of the
Bay Colony for a n agreeable sketch of early work among the
Indians* Also, Barry, History. Vol* I, chap* 13; Love, Sam­
son O c c a m , chap* 1; Hutchinson, History. I, 160-169*
54
See Marlon H* Gottfried, "The First Depression in Massa­
chusetts, " |Iew England jSjuajrterly, IX (December, 1936), 655-678*
The unfavorable “
b alance of trade with England had exhausted
the financial reserves of the settlers, a n d the commerce by
which the colony would soon become prosperous had not yet been
established*

a year.

55

To supervise the handling of money sent to New England,

the organization,

which bore the name of the Society for the

Propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ In New England and
Adjacent Parts, appointed commissioners In the field who were
to meet from time to time and make report to London on the
state of Indian affairs.

A m o n g the most faithful of these

commissioners was Samuel Sewall.

Appointed in 1699,^® he was

shortly thereafter elected to succeed William Stoughton as
K7
Secretary a n d Treasurer, ^ a post which he held for twentyin ship, "Samuel Sewall a n d the New England Company, "
p. 56; Morison, Builders of the Bay, pp. 298-500; J. Hammond
Trumbull, wThe Origin of Indian Missions in New England, *
Am. Ant. Soc., P r o c . . LXI (October, 1873), 27.
56
D i a r y . I, 502, entry for October 14, 1699.
On January
20, 1697, Increase M a t h e r wrote Sir William Ashhurst, Gover­
nor of the Company in England, saying that "Several of those
that were appointed y o u r Commissioners here, are gone to
theire Rest, particularly, Governor Bradstreet, Sir William
Phips, & M a j o r Richards.
M r Morton is quite done[.3
Infir­
mities of age have rendered him unserviceable these,many
moneths.
It is therefore needfull that some other Commis­
sioners should be added, their being now none Left but M r
Stoughton, MaJ. General Wlnthorp [sic], and m y selfe[.3 M r
Stoughton desires that there may be added, m y son Cotton
Mather, & M r Nehemlah Walker who is my son in law & succeeds
Mr. Eliot in his pastoral office in Roxbury. . . .
M r Stough­
ton also desires that M r Samuell Sewell & M r Peter Serjeant
may be Joined w i t h us.
Give me Leave to recommend once more
to you, old Mr. J o h n Foster who is one of the Governor* s
Council, & a very good & discreet Gentleman. " (John W . Ford
e d . , Some Correspondence between the Governors and Treasur­
ers of the New Eng l a n d dompany in London a n d the Commissioners
of the United Colonies in A m e r i c a , the M issionaries of the
Company a nd Others Between the Years~T675 and 1712 [London,
1 8 9 6 3 , P. 8177“
5?Letter - B o o k . I, 251, letter to Sir William Ashhurst dated
May 3, 1700.

t^Q

five years,w calling meetings, painfully getting together his
annual accounts, making Journeys of inspection to reserva­
tion lands held by the society, and deling- out funds and
supplies to those working in the cause*
The amount of money involved was considerable (he notes,
for example,

the arrival of bills of exchange worth six hundred

I b id*. II, 166, letter to Sir William Ashhurst dated May
9, 1724*
He delivered over to A d a m Winthrop, his successor,
a considerable amount of "Stationary Ware, " such as New Primers
Indian and English, " a '^Psalter, with the Gospel according to
John, English a n d Indian, " etc* (ibid.. p* 177. letter to Sir
Robert Ashhurst dated October 6 , 1724)*
In the Diary. Ill,
334, entry for April 30, 1724, he mentions turning over "the
Company* s Bonds a n d Mortgages, m y L ord Lyraerick*s Deed for
his Land at Marthas's Vinyard, Mr. Vines Ellacott's deeds for
Hog-Island, alias Cousins's Island, in Casco Bay; and all the
Company's Books small a n d great, amounting to the number of
Two Thousand, Nine Hundred and thirteen B o o k s . " Ashhurst had
written him on April 9, 1724,asking him to stay on, "having
by long Experience found your Zeal for the great Work we are
engaged in, and punctual discharge of the Trust reposed in
you" (Lette r - B o o k . II, 166)* Although he gave up the Job of
secretarjr-treagurer, he remained a commissioner until his death*
In addition to the references already noted, his work with
the society may be traced through the following J Letter-Book. I,
239, letter to Sir William Ashhurst dated August “2, 1700; Diary.
II, 29, entry for January 10, 1700/1; Letter-Book, I, 250, letter
to the Earl of Bellomont dated January 2jl, IVou/jl ; ibid.. p*
311, letter to Sir William Ashhurst dated March 19, 1704/5;
Ibid*, p* 338, letter to same dated October 19, 1706; D i a r y .
II, 362-363, entry for Septomber 23, 1712; ibid*. Ill, 12, entry
for July 26, 1714; i b i d * . p* 115, entry for January 2, 1716/17;
ibid*. p* 127, entry for April 17, 1717; ibid.. p. 188, entry
for July 9, 1718; ibid*. p* 192, entry for August 29, 1718;
ibid.. p* 216, entry for M a rch 31, 1719; ibid.. p* 278, entry
for January 18, 1720/1; ibid*. p. 281, entry for February 16,
1720/1; L e t t e r - B o o k . II, 162, letter to Rev. Solomon Stoddard
dated M a r c h 14, 1723/4; ibid.. p* 255, letter to Isaac Simon
and others dated October 8 , 1728; D i a r y . Ill, 395, entry for
March 27, 1729.
The whole subject is \rary thoroughly handled
in Wins hip *e. "Samuel Sewall and the New England Company* *
®®The pages of the receipt book which he kept for this par­
ticular Job show , for example, that he had forty-one callers
for funds in 1709, thirty-eight in 1713, and fifty-three in
1718.
Curiously enough, the diary contains not a single refer­
ence to any of them*

pounds In 1701),

and one cannot look through the pages of

the receipt book which he reserved for this Job without think
ing that at least the financial purpose for which the mis­
sionary effort was conceived was being well fulfilled.
money went,

for the most part,

The

to merchants for supplies , to

outlying preachers for a supplement to their regular salaries
to settlers living n ear the Indians for keeping an eye on
their affairs, and to students of the Indian language for
their support a n d encouragement.

If the glory to God was

great,

the benefit to the Bay was also considerable.
SI
then, of course, the two things were synonymous.

But

A f t e r the death of Eliot in 1690, work among the Indians
had fallen off.

Sickness had made disastrous inroads at the

Vineyard, a n d everywhere there were examples of Christianized
Indians being brutalized by the white man* s rum.

True,

such

of them as yet remained in the southern parts of the colony
L e t t er - B o o k . I, 250, letter to Earl of Bellomont dated
January 2 1 , lVoO/1.
Morison, Builders of the B a y , p. 299,
notes that "in ten years ^ 4 6 7 3 were transmitted to New Eng­
land. ■ He doe a n 11 say w h i c h ten. Randolph, writing from
Massachusetts in 1684, stated that the income was three or
four hundred pounds a year and that w i t h this the colonists
"enriched themselves, yet charged it all as laid out upon the
poor I n d i a n s ” (Palfrey, III, 501, cited).
fiT
Wlnshlp, "Samuel Sewall a n d the New England Company, "
pp. 56-57, observes:
"It is probably not entirely accidental
that the field work of the Company is the side of its organi­
zation that was neglected, at least in the records. . . .
There are more signs in London than in Boston of concern over
the spiritual balance sheet, and in London the anxiety is apt
to be traceable to criticism of the lack of visible returns,
with its consequent threat of shrinkage in contributions. "
^ 2Increase Mather,

Icbabod (Boston, 1702), pp* 1-2.

P R O P O S A 1.‘
l't'IK iiM .

!Iv A -v<>P :lill

■

PROPHESIES
H u m b l y O ffe re d
Pa

S A M I HI
S I ' W A l l . £0 .
bellow ot H.trvm.l (’ollc^e ^

3 (.

.iiivi

lo m c tim c

CamtmDgc

in i2cn> ensiaiiD,
E/.ck. xlvii. '

T h e n f a i t / he u n t o m e , T h e f e W a t e r s i l f * e o ut
t o w a r d s t h e F .a jl C o u n t r y , a n d go d o w n i n t o t h e d e f e r t ,
a n d g o t n t o t h e Sea : w h i c h b e i n g b r o u g h t for:!; into t i e
S e a , t h e I f ' a t e r s (' raf f be heat ed.

Q n ie l i g i t u r ■ D a m n a m u s V e te re s
M in tm c
Sed p e ll
p rio ru m
J iu fta
in
D om o D o m i n i ,
j i i o i i p c lfu m u s ,
la b o r a m u s ----- H o n t a m F r o p h e t ia m yearn I / n i o n am
J c n b im u s .

H ic r o n . p ro lo g .

< £ \ f A S

S A

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P c n ta tc u c h u m .

S E T ,

B O S T O N , Printed by Bartholomew Green. i 7 1 3.

could be considered In some degree removed from paganism,
but the number of communicants

'^according to the most strict

order of the Congregational way" remained disappointingly
small.

63

Sewall*a first mention of the Indian work,

in a

letter to England written while Eliot was yet alive, was an
expression of disappointment with the way things were going.
"As to the Design of Converting them, " he says,
may sorrowfully sing the 127. Psalm.

"we in N. E.

Except the Lord build

the House, they Labour in vain that build.

. . .

beseech

/iim to put his Hand to that work, and not in a great measure
as it were to stand and look on.

1,64

It is against this background of Indian affairs that
Sewall*s Phaenomena (1697) and what he termed its *ta.ppendix,
the Proposals Touching.the_Aggoiap l IshBQQt of Prophecies (1713),
should be viewed*

As noted earlier,

works such as these, if

considered merely in their prophetical aspect, must seem mere­
ly fantastic to the modern reader, or, to use Parrlngton* s
phrase, an evidence of intellectual interest

"in things either

63
Magnalia. bk. VI, ch. 6 . Mather gives the number as *tet
least one hundred" for 1688, no great harvest certainly after
more than four decades of effort. A letter to Ashhurst dated
March 2, 1705, and written by the two Mathers and the Rev.
Nehemlah Walker, summarizes the state of affairs at the end
of the century.
The writers quite understandably put matters
in the best possible light, but they limit their report to
"the Southern parts of this province," and even here they are
able to say of the spiritual condition of the Indians only
that *%Llmost all that remain under the influence of the Eng­
lish . . . are so far Christianised as that they believe there
is a God, a n d that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the
Saviour of the world." (Ford, Some Correspondence. pp. 83-85.)
^ L e t t e r - B o o k . I, 22, letter to Stephen Dummer dated Febru­
ary 15, 16Q5/6.
®5lbid., II, 23, letter to Joseph Dudley dated August 25,
1713.

occult or lnconsequentlal. 11

The fact Is, however, that,

considered In their historical context, they appear as neither
one of these things; for their object, beyond the prophetical
one of demonstrating that America,

"far from deserving the Nick

names of Gog and Magog . . . stands fair for being made the
Seat of the Divine Metropolis,

was a program of immediate

and practical action that would make this happy culmination
possible.

Since, as everyone knew, Christ would not come to

establish his kingdom until the Gospel had been preached unto
all the world,
thing about the

the first and most needful step was to do some­
"sorrowfull Decay and Languishing of the Work"

among the Indians

'fend the little Faith . . .

the exercise concerning I t . W r i t i n g

to be found in

under the heading of

"A Plea for the Dumb Indian, " Sewall asked his readers:
say you?
Jesusl

Do you so love Christ, as to say . . .
Come oulcklyl

"What

Come Lord

Are you in good earnest • • .?

Desire

then, Pray and Labour that the Gospel may be preached in all
the World; in this Indian End of it.

For till then, ^hrist

himself tells you, He will not, He cannot come.
as it were, shut against Him. . . .
Upl and open the Doorl

The Door is,

For Love, or shame, Get

As to the cost,

"Truth is a Kind

66 Colonial M i n d , p. 93.
®7See the Phaenomena 1 s dedication to Ashhurst, and similar­
ly, the Proposals. pp.~l-2, 4.
gp

69

Dedication to Ashhurst.
Phaenomena. p. 55.

of Gold that cannot be bought too dear*
There was the strong possibility, moreover, as John Eliot
and others had long believed,

that the Indians were descendants

of the lost tribes of Israel, and that the English In showing
kindness to them might well be

"shew[lng] Kindness to Israel­

ites unawares, "71a fact which leads him to declare, quoting
Ro ger VT13.1 l a m s :
Boast not proud English,

of thy birth and blood:

Thy brother Indian Is by birth as good.*^
If things come about as Sewall hopes,

the Indians,

"instead

of being branded for Slaves with hot Irons in the Face, and
arras; and driven by scores in mortal Chains • • • shall wear
the Name of Cod in their foreheads, and • • • be delivered
*73

unto the glorious Liberty of the Children of God* *
70

Ibid,. p. 58.
71Ibid. . the dedication*
See the Letter-Book, I, 22, letter
to Stephen Dummer dated February 15, 1685/6: "Dr, Thorowgood
writ a Treatise above 30, years ago, entitled Jews in America,
shewing the [Indians] • • • to be Abraham's Posterity.
If so,
the day of their Espousals will make all the Christian World
glad, and the R ich among the People will desire their favour. "
7 2phaenomena, p. 53. The lines are from Williams' Key into
the Language of America (London, 1643).
73The dedication.
Before leaving the subject of the Phaenomena. it may be
noted that the reader of the diary a n d letters is Introduced
to every smallest detail of the conception, publication, and
success of what he refers to in the dedication to Ashhurst as
"these first fruits" of his pen.
Writing to the ministers of
the Scottish settlement In Darien, he notes the "Synchronisme"
between his work a n d the time of their expedition and explains
how he had come to write it.
In the summer of 1696, he says,
I would fain have had the following Question held at our
Commencement at Cambridge; via: Res Antlchrlstlana In
A m e r i c a . Est Euphrates llle Apocalyptlcus in ouem Angelus
Sextus effundlt phlalam suam? When this did not take, I

-299-

The modern reader, encountering speculation of America's
being the

"3 eat of the Divine Metropolis" and of the Indians*

being descendants of the Children of Israel,

Is understandably

Inclined to wonder whether he should smile or merely yawn#

If

printed a pretty many Copies of the Question • • • and
sent them to learned Men of my Acquaintance who gave me
long and elaborat Answers by way of Opposition#
T 0 these
I replied, and shewed wherein their Answer was not satis­
factory to me# A n d at last, to ease myself of the toil
of Writing, and to give a more full account of my Senti­
ments concerning America, I printed this little Disqui­
sition# fLetter-Book, I, 227-228, letter dated April 8 ,
1700.3
March 27, 1697#
I read to the Lieut-Governour
[Stoughtonj my Phaenomena Aoooalyptlca. what had written
of it* He licenses the printing of It# [Diary, I, 450.3
May 1. 1697#
The first Sheet of Phaenomena Apocalyptlca is wrought off# flbld.. p. 452*71
Fourth-day, May 12. . . .
This day wrought off the
first half-sheet of the Phaenomena; which I corrected my
self# ribid.. pp. 452-453#3
Sixth half sheet, July 17, wrought off the Letter D.
of my Phaen# flbld., p. 457.3
[September 8 , 1697.3 I presented his Honour [Stoughton3 with the view of a half-sheet, which begins .In quatuor angulls terrafe. flbld.. p. 458.3
[November 4, 1697.3 G-overnour, Mr. Secretary and I
went to see Mr. Morton; before these works began, Had the
Epistle to his Honour [a letter to Stoughton appears at the
end of the work 3 , a proof of it, in my pocket: but had no
opportunity to shew it: was taken this day. ribid., p. 462.3
[November 9.3 The Epistle to the Lieut-fcovernour,
which is the last half-Sheet, is wro*t off, and the Book
is set to sale in Mr. Wilkins's shop#
One is sold. • • •
Mr. Flint of Norwich came in to the Prlntlng-Room: I gave
him a Book stich* d up, which is the first perfect Sook
I have given away, flbld., p. 462.3
[November 10.3 L"6 Governour and Council met at the
Council Chamber. • • • I took that opportunity to pre­
sent the L* Governour with seven Phaenomenal flbld.. p#
462.3
From this time on he distributed the Phaenomena. as he
did all his works, with an eager hand# A copy of it went off
to Harvard library "well bound in calve Leather, with Mr.
Oakes's election sermon, and Mr. Willard's Traot about Swear­
ing. • . "Ci b i d . . p. 475, entry for March 16, 1697/8),
another
went to his brother at Salem (ibid., p. 463, entry for November

-300-

he pauses to consider,

however,

the thought may occur to him

that when we e n t e r the realm of belief involving the super­
sensible,

ab solute e v a l u a t i o n becomes impossible;

is no such b e l i e f but what is quite literally

that there

"fantastic";

13, 1697), a n o t h e r to Sher i f f B r adford
went a l o n g in
Boston . . . on h o r s e b a c k " (i b i d . . entry for N o v e m b e r 16,
1697), a n o th e r to Nicholas Noyes of Salem, who came to dine
after lecture a n d who sent next day, in return, a copy of
his own "Treatise a g a i n s t P e r r i w l g s " (i b i d . . pp. 463-464,
entries for N o v e m b e r 17 a n d 18), five to Edward Hull in
London for p a s s i n g out, "especially of m y cousins" (L e t t e r B o o k . I, 2 0 2 , l e t t e r d a t e d June 11-18, 1698), and so on#
On one of the end-pages of the unpubl i s h e d "Diary a n d Com­
monplace Book, 1 675— " there is a list of those given out
over a p e r i o d of four years, to the number of something over
two hundred a n d f i f t y .
This did not exhaust his supply;
for on N o v e m b e r 14, 1727, he wrote to P r e sident W a d s w orth
of Harvard: "I have sent you three Dosen of the Phaenomena
to be distributed, That have set Solstice these Thirty years,
and I abide in the same O p i n i o n still.
If this handfull of
Spring-Water m a y be any way refreshing I shall rejoice"
(L e t t e r - B o o k . II, 230)•
A s evidence of his unshaken convic­
tion, he had contracted for a second edition the pre ceding
spring (D i a r y . Ill, 383, entry for A p ril 15, 1727).
Whe n he got out the supplementary P r o posals in 1713, he
sent one off to Cotton M a t h e r w i t h a let t e r saying:
"I offer
to y o u r view a small Indian Basket of Summer Fruit.
It has
been lon g a - g a t h e r i n g by a weak a n d unskillfull hand:
Tis more
than Thirty years since you a n d I have h a d Conference about:
I now p ray y o u r advice.
Tp whom, when, a n d how to p r e s e n t it.
Please to read from the 9 tla page to the End; • • • I a m of
Opinion . . . b y it m a n y A p o c a l y p t i c a l Phaenomena are well
Solved. " (L e t t e r - B o o k . II, 22, l e t t e r dated Augu s t 4, 1713.)
A week l a t e r he wrote in his diary: "Dr. Cotton M a t h e r not
having a n s w e r ' d m y L e t t e r n o r l o o k ' d u pon me on his Lecture
day last Thorsday; I was in a strait to k n o w what to do, as
to the disposal of m y Proposals; a n u let none go.
N o w Dr#
Incr. M a t h e r spake pleasantly to me; of his own a c c o r d thank'd
me for my book, said his Son h a d shew*d it him; I was fond of
America. " This was all the encouragement he needed: "After
I came home I sent him Two Duz. by Bastian about 2 a - c l o c k "
(D l r r v . II, 392-393, entry for A u g u s t 12, 1713). Six more went
off to Governor Dudley (L e t t e r —B o o k . II, 23, letter d a ted
A ugu s t 25, 1713), two to the Rev. Je d e d l a h Andros at P h i l a ­
delphia (i b i d . . p. 34, me m o r a n d u m of a l e t t e r d a ted A u g u s t 25,
1714), six to S i r W i l l i a m A s h h u r s t in Eng l a n d (i b i d . . m e m o ­
randum of let t e r d a ted A u g u s t 31, 1714), a n d so on#

that florae of the most fantastic have provided bases for dynam­
ic cultures and historical movements; and that, finally, until
man finds himself possessed of a better means of evaluation,
he must be satisfied with the pragmatic one of looking to re­
sults.

In the case of Sewall, his prophetical beliefs led

to a positive a n d humane policy toward the Indians.
In his
74
capacity as a public official, as earlier noted,
he opposed
oppressive legislation directed against them*

In a private

capacity, he interested himself both in their education and
in their spiritual well-being, laying out land to that purpose
from hie holdings In the NArragansett country,7 ^for example,
and providing funds for an Indian meeting house at Sandwich
on Cape Cod, a fact which caused the congregation, as Cotton
Mather r e m a r k e d , "to pray for him under that character,

•he

loveth our nation, for he hath built us a synagogue. • w

In

addition to his routine duties as what might be termed the
executive secretary for the Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel, he made at least three trips to its more remote
holdings, two to Martha* s Vineyard, one in 1702 and another
in 1714, and one to the island of Arrowsick off the coast
of Maine in the fall of 1717.
7 ^Chap.

Since the Journal he kept on

4, sec. IV.

7 ®See chap. 3, sec. V.
7 6 Magnal l a ,

I, 569.
See the Letter-Book, I, 62, letter to
Edward Miltoh, carpenter at Sandwich, dated September 26,
1687.
It was to be *to. convenient comfortable Meetinghouse
• • • the Dimensions about four and twenty foot in Length,
about Eighteen foot broad, with two Galleries. ■

the last of these

journeys was unknown to the editors of the

Sewall papers, the character of Its contents may be briefly
77
noted.
Setting sail from Boston's L o n g Wharf in the sloop
Sea-Flower on the evening of August 1, he reached the Island
of Arrowslck four days later.
the gentlemen with him
he says,

"that . . .

Going ashore, he called upon

"to take notice & bear w i t n e s s , " as

I did enter upon a n d take possession of

that Island in the Name . . .

of the Company.

I cut a branch

of Thorntree [performing thereby the ancient rite of
and twig"j,

"turf and

eat very good goosberries & Rasberriee gathered

there, gathered Apples,

cut up a Turf of the ground and cut

Fresh and Salt grass for the Sheep aboard. "

On August 9, at

a meeting of Indian leaders with officials of the English
government, Sewall being present:
treated with.

. . .

"Indians about Eight, are

Natives desire a line might be run; and

seem'd to be against more houses being bullded.
somthing dissatisfied.
out. "

Watch Enlargd and more Sentinels set

Next day the Indians came back,

unusual manner of going away . . .
Belts of Wampum. "

•ta.cknowledged their

and presented

. . .

two

A n agreement was reached on the day follow­

ing, and when it was signed and sealed, Sewall
to Drink.

Went away

"gave them all

The young men gave volleys; made a Dance: and all

was managed with great Joy. "

Taking ship home again, he ar-

77See the Bibliography, sec. Ill, part B, Journal of Voyage
to Arrowslck a n d Circuit Court Record. The opening pages of
the manuscript are devoted to the Arrowslck Journey.

A Memorial
Kennebeck Indians.
Relating to the

h a T my often fpeakmg the lame thir.g-, may r./.u tc
gravaminous ; I humbly offer my S e n tim e n t- ab.-u:
lending a Military Force ngainft the K r r r . ' r . k Indian*;.,
in Writing.
It isRelolved thattheGovernment has ;(ieiuReaffm toprmecute the Eaflern In d ian t for their Rebellio. But I am humbly ot
Opinion, thatlufficientEnquiry has not bee :made. Whether the
Government has done allthat isneteflaryon tr part, t<> prevent a
Rupture.
—
A T'the Conference ofhis Excellency with theSachems, and Chief
Men of the haflcr/t Indi tns, at G corgc-Ti-■->: on ..1'd u / il k Ifland,
A u g u ji, 9
. 1717. The Indians fhewed a great Reludtancy aguinfft.
Erecting Forts liigher up the River; and againft the anival of a
MultitudeofNew Inhabitants; leftthey Ihould prove unable heartily
toembrace them. Thev aliodelircd the Running of a I.inc between
the t,xghjhy andthem ;and made fbme Ihopnials on their part,which
were rejected :butno Propolals forfixingBoundaries, were offered to
them.
Wl T h o u T doubt, Boundariesare neccflary forthe prelervntion
of Honefty and Peace among thole th.at border one upon another.
This isevidentfrom theLaw made forthe Renewing ofthem between
Townlhips once in threeYears time, fucecllively;and thepenalty of
FivePounds inflictedonthole,who fhall negledt their Duty herein.

T

A

i 11t:

-303-

rived at the Long Wharf In the early morning of the fifteenth*
When the watch told him that his family was well, he was 'hnuch
revlvd, " and as he proceeded homeward he gratefully considered
his good fortune In having
In having overcome

"escaped the danger of the P i r a t e s , "

"the Difficulty arisen In our Treaty with

the Indians, " and In having been well
Sea-sick;
When,

"whereas many were

others m uch troubled with Fluxes* "
in 1721, a resolution was passed for sending an

expedition Into Maine to put down recent uprisings of the In­
dians there,

Sewall published his Memorial to the Kennebeck

Indians, wherein he recalled his meeting with them on the
Island of Arrowslck four years before and offered his opinion
that the fault of the uprisings lay less with the Indians than
with the English*

The Indians had wanted a line drawn,

show­

ing *%t great Reluctancy against Erecting Forts higher up the
CKennebecJ River; and against the arrival of a Multitude of
N e w Inhabitants; lest they should prove unable heartily to
embrace them*

• « • but no Proposals for fixing Boundaries,

were offered to them*

Such a course, Sewall had long felt#7®

wag as unreasonable as it was dishonorable*

"Boundaries are

7QPages 1-2*
7 9 See the Letter-Book. I, 232-233, letter to Sir William
Ashhurst dated M a y 3, 1700* Unless boundaries are drawn, he
says, the Indians will become persuaded that the English "will
never leave till they have crouded them quite out of all their
Lands*
A nd it will be a vain attempt for us to offer Heaven
to them, If they take up prejudices against us, as if we did
grudge them a Living upon their own E a r t h . "
For convenience of reference, it may be noted that the
substance of what Sewall has to say in his Memorial to the Ken­
nebeck Indiana is substantially repeated in the Letter-Book. IX#
108-110, letter to Jeremiah Dummer dated February 23, l?l9-20*

necessary for the preservation of Honesty and Peace among those
that border one upon another, ^ a n d

the failure of the govern­

ment to cooperate In the establishing of them must suggest to
the Indians that Instead of being Interested I n
as the Charter had specifically commanded,
intent on their destruction.

Therefore,

their welfare,

the English were

"• . • it Is Necessary

to state and settle plain and lasting Bounds between the Eng­
lish, and the Indians;

that so the Natives may have a certain

and establish'd Enjoyment of their Own Country: and that the
English may have Deua Nobiscum legibly embroidered in their
Banners.
aoPage 2.
a^Page 4*
In contrast to the enunciation of pious princi­
ple, the records provide several realistic and, if one will,
cynical sidelights on Sewall's relations w ith the Indians*
On January 30, 1707/3, for example, John Neesnummin, a n Indian
preacher, came with letters from Roland Cotton, missionary on
the Cape.
Sewall tried to arrange for him to lodge at an inn,
"but after they sent
me word they could not doe it . . . I
was fain to lodg him
in my Study'' (Diary. II, 212).
As the
editors of the diary note,
Sewall, while not ashing the Indian
to sleep in the barn, as most would have done, was yet not wil­
ling to allow h i m a bed chamber. As with the Negro, so with
the Indian, freedom from oppression was one thing, social equali­
ty another.
It was one thing, also, to favor a Just land policy for
the Indians and something else again to find your own land
titles challenged by them.
In 1633 John Hull had paid one
hundred and fifty pounds for something over a thousand acres of
land at Woburn, the so-called liand of Nod. " Eighteen years
later Sam Thomas, Indian, "grandson of the old Sagamore of
those parts, " entered claim for the title of this tract, and
the Hull heirs drew up a petition to present to the 0 -eneral
Court asking confirmation of their title rights and demanding
that something be done to stop "the Further Spreading of this
Gangrene" (Mass. A r c h i v e s . XLV, 264,266, date of June 5, 1701).
The title of lands at Newbury was also in dispute.
On
June 16, 1679, Sewall received a letter from Daniel Denison

Sewall*e position on the Indian, as on that of the Negro
was an honorable one,

Hla failure,

insofar as It was that,

lay In not supplying the leadership which would have given
his policies more than theoretical significance.
a particularly damning qualification.

This Is not

It Is merely saying

that his stature was not of heroic proportions.

The men are

few who have altered the course of empire by a consideration
of right.
III
On New Year* s Day morning, 1701, while it was yet dark,
there appeared on Boston Common four trumpeters who had been
hired by Sewall (cost: five pieces of eight)
greeting the new century.
horns,

to assist him in

After sounding a blast on their

they retired to the nearby home of their employer,

where they continued to sound their

"levets " until sunrise,

at which time one of the bell-men of Boston who was present
which stated:
"I am desired by Job (who married Old Will's
grandchild [Old Will being an Indian! and in her right claims
the land at Newbury falls, which he long possessed and now
you say you purchased of him) that you would make out your
right and they will be satisfied, or otherwise let him or
them have a quiet possession, or otherwise let the law decide
the title, ** In 1681 he p aid twenty pounds to Old Will's heirs
for the one hundred and sixty acres In question, (See Coffin,
The His tor?/ of N e w b u r y , p, 363,)
Sewall's father had been
Involved in the same kind of affair twenty years before (see
Maes. Records. IV, part 2 , p, 21),
One can do with this sort of thing Just about as one
chooses.
The feeling of the present writer Is that It says
more about a historical situation than it does about the char­
acter of Samuel Sewall,
It Is the kind of thing which is
bound to attend the fundamentally Immoral act of the usurpa­
tion of a continent.
Immoral, that is, unless, like the Puri­
tans, one is convinced that it is done, as Cotton Mather said,
"to make Room for a Better G r o w t h , "

WEDNESDAY
January i. 1701.
A little before Break-a-day at
/

*BoJlon

o f th

n5 \ f a j p t c b u f e t s *

o

N C E more ! OurCJOD, vouchfafe to Shine:
Correct the Coldnefs of our Clim e.
Make halte with th y Impartial I ight,
And terminate this long dark N <ghc.

Give the poor I n d i a n s Eyes to lee
T h e Light of Life* : and let them free.
So M en lhali G O D in C H R IS T adoie ,
A nd W orfhip Idols vain, no more.
So

ancl s j i f r i c a ,
Europa,
with ^ A m e r i c a ;
A ll Four, in Confort join’d, lhall Sing
N e w Songs o f Praite to C H R IST our KJNG.

-506-

re cited these verses:
Once more!

our God vouchsafe to s h i n e :

Correct the Coldness of our Clime.
Make haste with thy Impartial Light,
A n d terminate this long dark night.
Give the poor Indians Eyes to see
The Light of l i f e : and set them free.
So Men shall God in Christ adore,
And worship Idols vain, no more.
So Asia, and Africa,
Europa, with America;
All Four,

in Consort Join'd, shall Sing

New Songs of Praise to Christ our King.

Q2

Their author was Sewall, who, as we have already had several
occasions to note, was a ready maker of both Latin ana English
verse.

Exactly how ready he was the reader may quickly learn

by glancing through the poetry section of the bibliography
which accompanies this study.

If the extensiveness of his

poetic product as it is there shown proves a matter of sur­
prise,

the reason is not so much the obvious one of Sewall's

poetry having been forgotten as it is that such activity is
Qp

Diary. II, 27, entry for January 1, 1700/1. Mary C.
Crawford. Old Boston in Colonial D a y s : o r . St. Botolph* s
Town (Boston, 1922), p. 2^2, notes that at the opening of
the present century these same verses were publicly read
by the Rev. Edward Everett Hale.
In 1713 Sewall reprinted
the poem at the end of his Proposals, adding three stanzas.
The six stanzas of the final poem are in the Diary. II, 392393, editors' note.

-507-

not Included In our stereotype of the Puritan*

The oblivion

which has descended upon the great body of early New England
verse has led us carelessly to think in terms of its not ex­
isting*

True, the names of Michael Wlgglesworth, Benjamin

Tompson, Edward Taylor, plus perhaps one or two more , are no
longer strange to us, but except to a relatively few special­
ized students of our early literature,

it comes as a some­

what startling fact that in Harvard's first years, as Pro­
fessor Morlson has pointed out, that school
more abundant galaxy of poets,

"sent forth a

in proportion to her numbers,

than at any subsequent period of her history • • •

or

that our knowledge of the verse of the time covers what
Jantz terms

"a. haphazard fifth" of that which was p r o d u c e d ; ® 4

or that the number of poets in the New England community
during the years in v;nich Sewall was writing was around seventy. ^ G-enerally speaking,

the poetry which was produced ap­

pears to us to merit the forgetfulness which it has been
accorded.

The same forgetfulness should not, however, attend

the fact that it was written.

It Is important to realize that

Boston was a writing community with an interest in literary
83

Harvard College. I, 132.
The great preserving medium
wag the Cambridge Almanac, which became, says Morlson, "the
annual poetry magazine of Harvard College. "
8 4 "The First Century of New England Verse, " p. 225.
The
standard list, he remarks (p. 2 2 1 ), was compiled in "an amus­
ingly haphazard fashion more than a century ago . . . CbyJ an
anonymous reviewer in the American Quarterly Register of
December 1827. . . . "
®®Jantz, pp. 395-408.

— 508—

concerns which,

though sufficiently barren in some respects

(e.g., its comparative disregard of the better contemporary
N 86
English writers),
makes the emergence from it of a writer
such as Franklin understandable as something more than a cultural freak.
If Sewall*s correspondence be taken as indicative,

there

was in the first years of the eighteenth century considerable
86The aspect in which, from our point of view, the literary
culture of the time was most notably lacking was its failure
to accord recognition to the writers of the day who seem to
us most worthy of it* Palfrey, IV, 384, note 1, for example,
remarks of the catalogue of the Harvard library which appeared
in 1723 that it did not contain *%iny work of the wits of Queen
Anne's time— of Addison, Atterbury, Eollngbroke, Gay, Pope,
Prior, Swift, Steele, Young* • • • There was nothing of Locke
or of Dryden • • . and Shakespeare and Milton had been recent
accessions, " Shakespeare being present in a 1709 edition and
Milton in one of 1720*
Many of these were available, however,
as Palfrey further remarks, in the local book shops* Perry
Miller, New England Mind, p* 91, writing on the same subject,
says:
"WorkB of literary merit did not often find space on
Puritan bookshelves because of their style or beauty*
Even
if occasional works esteemed by us turn out to have been im­
portant to the Puritan, his reasons were certainly quite dif­
ferent from ours; Milton and Bunyan in Puritan eyes were con­
troversialists and theologians who loomed no larger than Owen
or Baxter, John Cotton or Thomas H o o k e r * - Sewall*£ reading
is discussed in chap. 2, sec. II, above*
art

Professor Wright, Literary Culture, p. 215, observes that
we "unquestionably • • • owe the writings of the greatest Ameri
can writer of the eighteenth century to the literary movement
which developed in New England and centered in Boston about
1720. . . . " At another point (p. 205) he states that "the
central figure in this movement was Samuel Sewall* . . . " Ae
far as the present writer has been able to determine, both the
literary movement and Sewall*s central place in it are too
vaguely defined to warrant such positive assertions*
It is
plain enough, however, that the literary activity was consider­
able, as was Sewall's interest in it, a fact which will pres­
ently be demonstrated* A n assertion of more than this is
neither necessary nor particularly meaningful*

group Interest In poetry in Boston and the surrounding towns,
the first indication of which is the literary friendship beQO
tween Sewall and a local schoolmaster, Richard Henchman*
Between Sewall and Henchman in particular, but also between
Sewall and such other litterateurs as Edward Taylor, Nicholas
Noyes, Jeremiah Dummer, and Nehemiah Hobart,
change of verses and of criticism*
example, begins:

there was an ex­

A letter to Henchman,

for

“I send home your Verses with Thanks*

There are many good strokes in them:

but in my mind • • • *^-

a beginning which has, to say the least, a familiar ring*
Sewall,

in turn,

and censure.

s© it verses to Henchman for his
W h e n he was disappointed in his

"Examination
"Expectation

of receiving’ a distich or 2" from Nicholas Noyes at Salem,
he was, as he says, put quite

"out of tune. "9^- When,

other hand, Jeremiah Dummer gratified him with an

on the

"excellent

Poem, " he expressed his indebtedness and declared that he had
92
pleased *taany Friends with the Sight of it. “
Uany such
®®See the L e t t e r - B o o k , I, 314, editors* note*
In his last
years Henchman was one of Boston's licensed liquor dealers*
Wright, p. 60, gives the first evidence of this friendship
as a poem addressed to Sewall by Henchman on January 1, 1700/1.
The first mention b y Sewall is in a letter to his brother
Stephen dated January 27, 1703/4, where he writes of returning
some of Henchman's verses (Letter-Book. I, 290).
The editors
of the letter-book note verses at the Boston public library
addressed by Henchman to Sewall and bearing a n earlier date*
It is apparently to the earliest of these that Wright refers*
^^Letter-Book. I, 293, letter dated February 24, 1703/4*
90 Ibid*. II, 318, letter dated October 13, 1705.
91Ibid.. I, 315-316, letter dated October 9, 1705.
9 ^Ibld*. pp* 388-389, letter dated February 13, 1709/10*

pieces he copied Into a memorandum book,

thereby making one
93
of the beet collections which we have or our early verse*

His constant habit, also, was to enclose verses with his
correspondence,

sometlues his own,

For the modern taste,

the greater part of Puritan verse

has a rather forbidding character*
is In Latin,

o
sometimes those of others*''

M u c h of it, for one thing,

the worth of which few present-day readers will

feel Impelled to Judge*

That written by Sewall has been pro95
nounced feeble but correct.
It is Interesting to note that
in Sewall*s own day his efforts in Latin verse were so light­
ly regarded by at least one part of the Boston public as to
result in a published travesty of them (now lost) in the
96
spring of 1701*
Undiscouraged by such treatment, he contin­
ued to turn out numerous distlchs as the time and subject
seemed to warrant,

leaving them with friends,

enclosing them

See the comment in Jantz, p. 219*
For a discussion of
this manuscript collection, see chap* 2, sec* II, above*
94
See, for example, L e t t e r - B o o k . I, 253, letter to Edward
Taylor dated M a r c h 14, 15, 1700/1; i b i d . . p. 257, letter to Mr
Vreeman dated August 4, 1701; i b id*. p. 258, letter to Edward
Hull dated August 27, 1701; i b i d . . p. 259, letter to James
Pierpont dated September 17, 1701; Diary . II, 140, entry for
October 15, 1705; L e t t e r - B o o k . I, 351, letter to Samuel Wood
dated August 19, 1707; i b id*. p* 408, letter to U r . Moodey
of York, ** dated December 18, 1710; ibid*. p* 408, letter to
Joseph Lord dated February 5, 1710/11: ^ l a r v . II, 359, entry
for August 16, 1712; ibid*. p* 360, entry for August 17, 1712;
ibid-f p # 361, entry for August 20, 1712; ibid.. Ill, 240,
entry for January 16, 1719/20; L e t t e r - B o o k . II, 104, letter
to Timothy Woodbridge dated February 1, 1719/20; Diary, III,
279, entry for February 8, 1720/1; Le t t e r - B o o k . II, letter
to Edward Taylor dated February 16, 17, 1719/20; D i a r y . Ill,
283, entry for M a r c h 7, 1720/1*
95Wllliam Everett, "Judge Sewell1s Latin Epigrams, " Mass*
Hist* Soc*, P r o c * . ser* 2, IV (Boston, 1389), 80*
96P l ary, II, 35, entry for M a y 29, 1701.

-511

In his correspondence,

or simply fashioning them for his own

amusement and setting them down In his d i a r y . ^
Of the poetry written In English, by far the larger part
consisted of

"shadie l a m e n t a t i o n ” produced on the occasion

of someone’s demise,

frequently for pinning to the hearse.93

Though any type of occasional verse is difficult,

success

in the funereal variety attempted by the Puritan writer is,
in our point of view,

impossible.

The poet who sets for his

object the edification of the reader, as the Puritan writer
felt obliged to do, has foredoomed himself to at least par­
tial failure.
entitled

So at least it seems to us.

Sewall's poem

”A small Vial of Tears brought from the Funeral of

JOHN WINTHROP, a very goodly Child" (1711),

is fairly illus­

trative of its type:
In loving, lovely,

Darling John,

Wlnthrop a n d Dudley Met In O n e :
Such Harmony of Charming Features
Rarely appears in Mortal Creatures.
But O h — 1

What, meet to part so sooni

Must we Resign this Budding Boon?
We must:

We willI

CHRIST's Will is done;

Our wills shall make an Unison.
JESUS will call John from the Grave,
From Sin, Eternally to Save.
9<7S e e the poetry section of tne Sewall bibliography at the
end of this study.
90See the D i a r y . I, 83, entry for June 9, 1685, descriptlo
of the funeraT of the Rev. Thomas Shepard.

-312-

Agreeable enough In Its opening lines, the poem dies at the
point of exhortatIon,
it seems to us.

So, at least, v/e must once again add,

It didn't seem so to the Puritan,

For him,

it was precisely at this point that a poem Justified itself.
Like the other arts, poetry's highest end was not an aesthetic
one; it was to strengthen the cause of God in New England.
Beauty was not Its own exouse for being;
as a handmaiden of the good.

it. existed,

rather,

The poet* s aim, as Michael

Wig'le sworth declared, wag “to set forth truth and win men's
99
souls to bliss. "
We today may be critical of such an aim,
but we ought not to be contemptuous either of it or of the
efforts that were made for its fulfillment.
unfair In the matter,

Just as it Is

say, of the Salem Witchcraft delusion

to Judge the ignorance of one age in terms of the enlighten­
ment of another,

so It Is unfair to apply to the poetry of

Puritan New England a critical standard other than that by
which it was written.

To say this is not to suggest a

re-evaluation of early New England poetry.

The satisfactions

that Sewall's generation derived from the work of its poets
were theirs alone to enjoy; even if we wished, we could not
share them.

It is to suggest,

however, that if our aim be the

understanding of a historical period we ought not to permit
aesthetic considerations to stand in the way.

Examples of

early New England poetry gathered together in a volume such
®9F. 0. Matthlessen, ‘Michael Wlgglesworth, a Puritan A r ­
tist, “ New England Quarterly. I (October, 1923), 492, cited.

-515—

as Kenneth 3* Murdock's Handkerchiefs from Paul (Cambridge,
Mass., 1927),

Infelicitous as they generally are, tell us

much that we should know if we would understand their crea­
tors.100
While the most inviting aubject for Sewall, as for his
fe'.low poets, was that of death,

there were other less grim

occasions which offered suitable poetic possibilities as
well.

When Samuel Willard, after a siege of illness,

re­

turned to his pulpit in the South Church on Thanksgiving
Day, 1700,

Sewall circulated a memorial broadside for the day,

as he had earlier in the same year for the beginning of the
new century.

When another man of God, the Reverend J ohn Spar-

hawk, had a son born to him,

Sewall wrote to him saying:

Hath G. who freely gave you his own Son,
Freely bestowed on you, one of your own?
You certainly can justly do no less
Than thankfully to own, yours to be his. . . .
On the

occasion of

"the drying up of that Ancient River,

RIVER MERRYMAK, " Sewall wrote his
six lines.

longest poem,

THE

one of thirty-

It pleased him so well that he ordered no less

than three hundred copies run off for distribution.101
it one is reminded of that other New England phenomenon,

In
"the

lOOrphe introduction to this brief anthology of forgotten
verse is extremely valuable, and its viewpoint has frequently
been reflected in the above lines.
See also, Matthiessen,
pp. 491-504; Jantz, pp. 222-224; Wright, pp. 92-93.
101Diary. Ill* 279, entry for February 8, 1720/1.

-514-

wonderful one-hoss shay, "

Like It, the Merrimack enjoyed a

•'pleasant, steady course" and

"hop’d for Ages to endure, ”

But,

At length, an Ambushment was laid
Near Powwaw Hill, when none afraid;
A n d unawares, at one Huge Sup,
Hydropick Hampshire Drunk it UpI
The poem cannot, of course,

stop at this point.

reader1s uplift must be added.
Look to thy selfi

Lines for the

Therefore,
Wadchuset Hill;

A n d Bold Menadnuck, Fear same Illl
Envy'd Earth knows no certain Bound;
In HEAV'N alone,

CONTENT is found.

The examples that have been given are representative of
the kind of verse which Sewall felt Justified in bringing
into print.

The fact that it stands well with the work of

such other writers of the time as John Wilson, Anna Hayden,
Samuel Torrey, Samuel Danforth, William Adams, Thomas Wally,
Joshua Moody, a n d others will no doubt seem sufficient indication of why all of them have been forgotten.

102

Consider­

ably better are some few utterances which he did not allow
to get beyond his diary or personal correspondence.
doubt that their brevity evinces, as Jantz says,

One may

"a classic

terseness and restraint"3'03 so much as it does a poetical
102See Murdock’s Handkerchiefs from Paul for selections by
some of these.
Selections by others are in Sewall’s memoran­
dum book,
103 "The First Century of New England Verse, " p . 312,

-315-

shortness of wind, but they are an Improvement over the
more pretentious pieces.
a local painter,

When, for example, Tom Child,

died, Sewall noted the fact in his diary

ana added:
Tom Child had often painted Death,
But never to the Life, before:
DoiT' 3 it now, he's out of Breath;
Tie paints it once , and paints no more.

104

After the death of his wife in 1717 he wrote to his friend
Jeremiah Dummer telling him what had happened and ending his
letter with the lines:
What signify these Locis, and Bolts, and Bars?
105
My Treasures gone, and with it all my Fears,
After the death of his fellow councillor and Judge, Isaac
Addington, he w r o t e :
Isaac's withdrawn; my laughter* s done
X06
In Council now, I see not Addington,
Slight as such lines are in themselves, they are valu­
able for the variety and relief they afford the reader of
Sewall's pages, and particularly the diary.

One is pleased

to find in this fascinating document even such an entry as
that for May 11, 1698 2
lQ4pia r y .

II,

"As I lay in my bed in the morn

170, entry for November 10, 1706,

1 0 5Letter-Booic. II* 14, letter dated January 25, 1717/18,
l06journal of Journey to Martha's Vineyard and Circuit
Court Journal, entry for March 31, 1715,

—316—

[thinking of the hard winter behind},

this verse came into

my mind,
To Horses,

Swine, Net-Cattell,

Sheep and Deer,

Ninety a n d Seven prov'd a Mortal year.
Or that for April 9, 1726:

M. • • Mrs. M a r y Coney died som-

what suddenly on Tuesday morning . . .

a n d was inter'd in

one of the n e w Tombs in the South-burying place; Bearers,
Sam. Sewall, John Clark esqr; Sam. Brown esqr, Thomas Fitch
esqr; Sa. Checkley esqr.

Capt. J o h n Ballantine.

. . .

Three

Sams being Bearers together on the right side, occasion'd my
binding all the Bearers up together in this band.
Three Sams, two Johns, and one good Tom
Bore Prudent Mary to her Tomb.a-*-88
Obviously,

it w o u l d be unfortunate if such lines were printed

for themselves, but in the context in which they appear they
contribute to rather than detract from the reader's pleasure.
It is in Just such artless trivia that a great part of the
diary* s fascination lies.
IV
Sewall lives today because he kept a diary.

He is im­

portant less for what he was than for what he enabled us to
know both of him a n d of the society in which he lived.

By

means of the diary we can approach face-te-face, as it were,
107 P l a r y . I, 479.
1 0 8 I b i d . , III, 375,

more than half a century of New England life:

from the

winter of 1674, when he was still a student at Harvard, to
the fall of 1729, a few months before he died*
good diary.

As with any

It Is Impossible satisfactorily to Indicate Its

character by means of excerpts from It,

To be known,

It

must be approached entire, with something of the same pa­
tience and Industry that went Into its writing.

There Is

much In it that Is dull and more that Is trivial; to say
otherwise would be to misrepresent the facts.

But the reader

who is willing to answer Its demands finds himself enabled
to enter, almost Imperceptibly,

the world In which Sewall

lived.
No other diary of that Introspective,

diary-keeping time—

and there are literally hundreds of others surviving, as a
glance at Harristte >1*

Forbes* New England Diaries (Tops-

field, Mass,, 1923) will quickly shoxr— sets forth the Puritan
scene in such detail or in pages so quick with life.

Next to

It, the diary which is best known is that of Cotton Mather,
In Mather*s diary, however, because its author has his eyes
so persistently on the other side of the Jordan, contemporary
New England is largely ignored.
Samuel Sewall,
and unreality,

Not so with the diary of

No work serves better to dispell the mystery
the uncritical disparagement and the equally

uncritical praise that have gathered about the time in which
it was written; for in it we enter the region of fact.
Mather, fishing in Spy Pond,

Cotton

“falls into the Water, the boat

-ola-

beIng ticklish, but receives no hurt. "I99 Lieutenant Governor Stoughton Is found

"Carting Ears of Corn from the upper

Barn. " H O Sewall himself gallops across Boston Common on a
runaway horse, his hat Jammed under his arm, catching a

"great

cold In ChisJ ear thereby, and friends stop by to chat with
him while he builds a chicken coop out in the y a r d . m

In such

a climate legend can hardly survive.
The power of the diary to evoke in the reader a sense of
present reality might be endlessly illustrated.

Telling of a

mid-week meeting of the South Church Society, for example,
Mrs. Noyes being among those present,

he writes:

"I went

away a little before her but she overtook me near the New
Meetinghouse;

I saw the Glimpse of her Light and call'd to

her; spake a few words and parted; feeling in my self a pecu■i*[g
liar displeasure that our way lay no further together.
The Council meeting late, he notes that
Candle was brought in.

"twas dark, and the

A f ter the funeral of Thomas

Graves, Mr. Morton, being short of breath,

"sat upon the

Tomb in the burying-place, and said, for ought he knew he
should be next. " H d

Meeting Ma dam Dudley* s coach on the

109 piary. Ill, 98, entry for August 15, 1716.
H Q Ibid..

I, 462, entry

for October 20, 1697.

1 1 1 Ibid., p. 42, entry
for May (n.d.), 1677; ibid., p. 24,
entry for October 13, 1676.
H g Ibld.. II, 219, entry for M a rch 10, 1707/8.
H S Ibid. .

I, 458, entry

for September 10, 1697.

H^Ibld..

p. 454, entry

for June 1, 1697.

-519-

causeway of the salt works, he

"saw no person;

passing by suddenly In the D u s k , i t

the Coach

is in such details,

slight as they are, that the diary lives*
It is appropriate that the examples Just sighted should
be on the gloomy side*

Emerson once remarked of his Journal

that it contained no Jokes,
alone,M

saying that

"every man is grave

Sewall might have said the same thing with even

more Justification.

The Puritan was not given to seeing

things in a humorous light*

Though someone like the popular

Dr* Robert Wilde, whom Wood described as

"a fat,

Jolly, and

boon Presbyterian, " could write,
Here lies the carcase of a cursed sinner,
Doomed to be roasted for the devil's dinner • • ,,
such a man was exceptional among Puritans even in England.
If he had any counterpart in Massachusetts,
not Samuel Sewall.

it was certainly

What humor there is in Sewall's diary is

almost entirely of the inadvertent variety, as when, on Feb­
ruary 5, 17025/3, he learned that
brother of BenjaminJ . . .

"Ebenezer Franklin Can elder

a male-Infant • , . was drown'd

in a Tub of Suds. " ^ ^ W h e n Edward Taylor told him of

*Mr« Pod's

prayer to God to bring his Affection to close with a person
pious, but hard-favoured, " Sewall*s only reaction was to
115Ibld.. Ill, 280, entry for February 10, 1720/1.
Whiting, Studies in English Puritanism from the Resto­
ration to the Revolution, 11560-1668 (.New York, 19131), pp. 558—
559.
Wilde was, says Whiting, the "single humorous writer
which appears on the P u r l i n side. "
^ ^ D l a r y . II, 73, entry for February 6.

— 0 20—

wonder,

"Has God answered me In finding out one Godly and

fit for me. • • ?

His diary, like the clothes he fre­

quently ordered for himself and his family,

is

"sad-colored."

The funerals which he attended were Innumerable, and there
is a whole series of passages on the sick and dying that are
of painful vividness.

On his way to Cambridge court, he

stopped to see Increase Mather,

dying of "the stone."

"was agonizing and Crying out, Pity mei
him, " says Sewall,
seem*d pacify'd.
with his prayers

Pity m e l "

Mather
"I told

"God plty'd him, to whioh he assented and
Dar.ie

Walker, whom Sewall had attended

"had an odd Conceipt all the last night of

her life that she was in Travail; and though
ing and gave attention to

she ceas'd

groan­

me when at prayer; yet one of the

last words I heard her say, was, My child is dead within me;
which were indeed some of the very last.
Baily cried out,

The dying Mr.

"I am even gon, even goni . . .

Paroxism said, Cutting,

Cutting,

In his

Cutting all to pieces. . . . "

When Sewall visited him again several weeks later, he heard
him say:

"I long to be at home; why tarry thy chariot

wheels?"

Finally:

"New pains: Cryes out, My Headl
my Head!
121
what shall I d o e ? "
Vidting the ancient schoolmaster Ezekiel
lift

Ibid.. I, 482, entry for July 15, 1698.

1 1 9 I b id.. III» 324-326,

entry for July 30, 1723*

120 Ibld.. I, 417, entry for December 21, 1695.
^'^Ibld.. II, 170, 172, 193, entries for October 18, November
28, and December 11, 1706.

Cheever, he

was received

"with

meby the Hand several times.
G o d 1& people,

abundance of Affection,

He said,

The Afflictions of

God by them did as a Goldsmith,

knock; knock, knock, knock,

Knock, knock,

to finish the plate.

On Thursday, November 9, 1682,

taking

. . . 1,122

Sewall attended the m ar­

riage of Daniel Quinsey to Anne Shepard—
. . .

many Persons present, almost Capt. Brattle’s great

Hall full.

. . .

Mr. Willard begun w ith Prayer.

Tho. Shepard concluded.

. . .

Mr.

A good Space after, when

had eaten Cake a n d drunk Wine a n d Beer plentifully,
were called into the Hall again to Sing.

we

In Singing Time

Mrs. Brattle goes out being ill; Most of the Company goes
away,

thinking it a qualm or some Fit; But she grows worse

speaks not a word, and so dyes away in her chair,
ing her feet (for she had slipt down).

I hold­

At length out of

the Kitching we carry the chair and Her In It, into the
Wedding

Hall; and after a while lay the Corps of the dead

Aunt in

the Lride-Bed:

So that now

the strangeness and

horror of the thing filled the (Just now)
with EJulation:

Joyous House

The Bridegroom and Bride lye at Mr. Airs,

son in law to the deceased,

going away like Persons put to

flight in Battel.123
It is in passages such as this that the diary may be said to
merit the name of literature.
122 Ibid.. II, 230,
123 Ibid.. p. 18*.

Written in haste, crude, occa—

entry for August 19, 1708.

sionally ungrammatical,

It h a b a virtue to which these matters

are not only subordinate but a positive help:
llngly alive*
thrt*

it is compel-

We do not ask of a diary that it be more than

We do not look for a polished style, ana we can do

without penetrating thought.

What we want is the face of

life, and this Sewall gives us.
The manner of Sewall*a writing is ordinarily downright.
He could shape a period if the occasion seemed to require it,
but he declared himself
use of such phrases as

"somewhat disgusted" by Cotton Mather'
"sweet sented hands of Christ, Lord

High Treasurer of Aetheopia,

[andj Ribband of Humility.

A letter written w hen he was a youth Just out of college
shows him attempting,

somewhat clumsily,

an affected style

(e.g**

"the A x i o m that was begirt and s&dled with so many
125
Vinculums "),
but only rarely, as when he becomes involved
in some matter of prophecy,

is the writing of the grown man

other than simple a n d direct.
w&s considerable.

His gift for homely phrase

What coaid be better than the picture

we get of the angry Reverend Mr. Pemberton, upbraiding Sewall
"with extraordinary Vehemency (capering with his feet), w126
or of the equally troublesome General Nicholson, a Church of
Englander who partook of the Lord* & Supper on Saturday and
"was this Lord's Day Rummagln a n d Chittering with Wheelbarrows
12 4I b ld.. I, 119-120,

entry for January 28, 1685/6*

125See the L e t t e r - B o o k , I, 17-20, letter dated M a rch 16,
1671.
lg6 P l a r y , II, 291, entry for November 28, 1710.

-323-

&c., to get aboard at the long Wharf • • ., ^ ^ o r
funeral of Governor Dudley, where there

of the

"were very many

people,

spectators out of windows, on Pences and Trees,
128
like Pigeons"?
A fine of ten shillings for some Boston
rioters he considered

"too small a Plaister for so great

a S o r e . * ^ ^ The dying Mr. Morton, he says,
out his flaming hand to me.
diary soon learns,

. . .

"earnestly streach'd

As the reader of the

it abounds in such turns of phrase.

It was inevitable that Sewall should be named

"a Puritan

P e p y s j ^ a n d the title is one that is Justified on grounds
other than that of alliteration.

In this connection we cannot

do better than repeat wha.t a reviewer in the Nation wrote at
the time when the diary was first making its appearance in
printed form.

"Sewall*s 'Diary1," he says,

speaking of the

second of the three published volumes,
increases in interest is it proceeds.

Indeed, taking

into consideration the writer's field of observation,
its remoteness from the world's great theatre's of action,
its smallness and intense provincialism— taking these
things into consideration,

if there is anything better

in their peculiar lines than these volumes we have yet
to meet it.

Gov. Joseph Dudley does not fill the place

of Charles II; nor was

"Boston's greatest F i r e , " whereby

1 2 7 Ibid.. Ill, 32, entry for December 26, 1714.
128 I b ld.. p. 249, entry for April 8, 1720.
129Ibld.. II, 46-47, entry for November 11, 1701.
130 ibid.. I, 476, entry for April 8, 1698.
13lTfre title of Lodge's essay on Sewall in his Studies in
History.

f

on November 27, 1676,

'ta.bout fifty Landlords were de-

spoyled of their Housing.
of God, Mr. Mather,

N.B. The House of the Man

aid God's House were burnt with f Ire *L—

not even this conflagration was at all equal in Interest
to the London fire of September ten years previous; nor
are the futile expeditions of Queen Anne's War like the
naval engagements of Van Tromp a n d De Ruyter.
ever,

This, how­

is merely saying that Boston of 1710 was not London

of 1666, and tnat Judge Sewall did not have the incidents
to describe which fell in the way of Secretary Pepys.

So

far, however, as glimpses of life and manners are covered—
the revival of a buried past with its lights and shadows—
Sewall is hardly inferior to Pepys.

It is the touch of

nature again; and, though the nature and social existence
revealed may not be inviting,

it is none the less genuine.

It is like an engraving of Hogarth or a chapter of Fielding
132Vol. XXX (February 26 and March 4, 1680), 157-158, 177-179

Chapter Six
PRIVATE LIFE AND LAST YEARS
The home of John Hull was at the South end of Boston
on the east side of High (now Washington)
south of Mylne (now Summer)

Street*

street a few doors

Somewhat less than a

mile to the south along the same street were the fortifica­
tions on the Neck, and not quite half a mile up the street
to the north stood the Townhouse*
was the South Churoh*

Half way to the Townhouse

A few hundred yards to the rear of the

residence lay Boston Common.

Begun by John Hull's father,

the building had at first been a simple rectangular struc­
ture with a chimney at one end.

The 3on had built an addi­

tion on the far side of the chimney and a kitchen at its
rear*

On the fourth and front side of the chimney were the

stairs to the upper floor and a hall opening onto the street*
The second story overhung the first, and the lower ends of
the second-story posts were probably carved into pendants*'*’
■*-Thls information has been compiled from several sources*
The most valuable statement is in Llorison, Builders of the
Bay, p. 137.
See also, Robert F. Seybolt, "The Private
Schools of Seventeenth Century Boston, 11 New England Quarterly.
VIII (September, 1935), 419; Dow, Every Day L i f e , p* 169;
Estes Howe, '•The Abode of John Hull and Samuel Sewall, ” Mass*
Hist. Soc*, P r o p * . I (Boston, 1885), 312-326; Letter-Book. I,
159-160, editors* note; Clarke, John H u l l , pp. £1-22; Winsor,
Memorial History, II, xxv, no. 84 on the plan.
See the illustra
tlons nt the end of Wertenbaker*s The First Americana: 16071690 (hew York, 1927) for plans of the Hempstead House of New
London, Conn*, which went through the same changes and addi­
tions as the Hull residence*
The John Bonner map of "The Town
of Boston in New Eng l a n d , " drawn in 1722, is a valuable guide
which has been often reproduced.
In a letter to Nehemiah Crew dated January, 1690/1, Sewall
wrote as follows:
“[Boston 3 is built on an Island & Peninsula ■*

It was In this house that on February 28, 1675/6, Sewall
was married to Hannah Hull.
what came to be known as
newer

The marriage wag performed in

“the Old H a l l , " in contrast with the

"Little Hall" which John Hull had added.

then all in one, " Sewall later wrote,

”• • • 't wr.‘;

"a very large Room. “2

The dividirg of the Old Hall into several rooms to which Sewall
here makes reference ( “. . . 't was then all in one") was
accomplished as a part of the alterations and new building
which Sewall ’undertook in the spring of 1696.

When they were

finally completed more them five years later, the place had
doubtless become one of the

"stately Edifices" which Ned Ward

saw in High Street during his visit in 1699,

"some of whic h , "

he says,

"cost their owners two or three Thousand Pounds the

raising.

Sewall was made woraewhnt uneasy by the pretsn-

extended in length from N. East to Sou-vest about a Mile &
half, from the Ferry to the Fortification.
The Buildings
reach but little more than a Mile and a quarter and more
thinly at the South-end. My House stands Just a Mile from
the Ferry." (Col. Soc. of Mass., Pubs., XIV rBoston, 1913J,
152-153.)
2 "Gen. Letter, " xiv.
3A Trip to New England, p. 5. Sewall had begun ordering
materials as early as October 24, 1691, when he wrote to John
G-errish and Richard Waldron for "Three Thousand of good Boards
clear, sound, Inch and quarter cut" to be delivered "as near
the South-End of the Town as may be; and I will give you ready
Money for them; shillings or pieces of fi" (Letter-Book, I,
125-124)•
On February 19, 1691/2 he
8 ordered his London
agent, John Ive, to purchase twenty-eight sheets of "kindly
well-temper'd ductile lead, that may endure the Frost and Sun
without cracking or warping . . . fourteen foot long and four
foot and a half wide, " two or three hundred of "Free-stone
squar'd, i.e. hewn," sixty "small Blocks of Stone, two foot
long, one foot high, one foot upon the head, for coins; also
sixty Blocks of Three foot long, and one foot square. Let
them be such stones as will endure the weather." (Letter-Book.
I, 128-130.)

sions of such a project, feeling that it might seem to
speak • . . a G-randure . . .

"be­

beyond [his] estate, " something

which he had thus far “purposely avoided.

His pastor, Mr.

Willard, assured him that what he was -claiming seemed both
5
necessary and meet, but still he hesitated.
Finally, however,
a fire in the kitchen chimney ( w. . . by the good Providence
of God, no harm done . . .

and we sat merrily to dinner on the

Westfield Pork that was snatch'd from the fire • • • ") so
frightened old lady Hull that she decided they were
remove.

This was on March 22, 1692/3.

the kitchen was torn down and work began.

"called to

On April 26 following
7

^■etter-Book. I, 137-133, letter to John Ive dated October
25, 1693. The supplies mentioned in the preceding note had
arrived and
were "excesslvely dearer" than he had imagined.
The Ledger,
fol. 1, carries the list. The cost of the whole,
with shipping,
came to seventy-nine pounds, five shillings.
5 Diary.
I, 356, entry for January 25, 1691/2.
S lbld..

p* 376, entry for March 22, 1692/3.

7 Ibid. .
p. 377.
The reader of the diary follows the build­
ing through all its stages.
May 5,1693: Digging of cellar begins
(ibid.).
May 16,
1693: First stonework islaid (ibid.).
June 20, 1693: "John Barnard lays our Cellar Floor" (ibid..
p. 379).
June 26, 1693: "The Brick-Work is begun. .
(ibid.).
October 18, 1093: "John Barnard raises the Roof of the
brick House. . ." (ibid.. p. 385).
November 21, 1693: 'Our House is covered ana defended
against tho wether" (ibid.).
November 24, 16931 ®The first Snow falls" (ibid.).
January 5, 1693/4: "Being in the chamber . . . next Tiler's
I fell down, and razed off the skir. of my right Legg upon the
shin bone • • .; I was fain to fall across the Joysts, to pre­
vent falling through. . ." (ibid.. p. 383).
January 13, 1693/4: "The Floor of the lower Chamber towards
the North-HJast, is laid; I drove a Nail" (ibid.).
January 19, 1693/4: "Kitchen floor is finished" (ibid.).

Built across the front of the old residence,

the new

structure was a symbol of the more spacious and comfortable
life that even so conservative a man as Sewall began to enjoy
at the turn of the century.

The changes had been great in

the fifty years which had passed since John Hull's father
first erected his simple frame dwelling.
for

the roof there were sheets of

of clapboard siding there was cut
and brickwork.

lead from England.
stone,

Instead

also from England,

Larger casements made possible rooms that were

pleasantly airy and light.
sure approval of God.
there was,

In place of shingles

Only one thing was lacking:

the

Cn the afternoon of April 29, 1695,

says Sewall,

a very extraordinary Storm of

Hail,

so that the ground

was made white with it, as with the blossoms when fallen;
1twas as bigg as pistoll and Musquet Bullets; It broke
of the Glass of the new House about 480 Quarrels Csquares]
of the Front.

.. .

Mr. Cotton Mather dined with us, and

was with me in the new Kitchen when this was; He had Just
been mentioning that more Ministers Houses than others
proportionably had been smitten with Lightening; enquiring
what the meaning of God should be in it.

Many Hail-Stones

broke throw the Glass and flew to the middle of the Room,
January 27, 1695/4: “The Hall Floor is finished” (ibid.).
January 30, 1693/4: **The Kitchin Casements are Glazed
and set up" ( ibid.).
February 24, 1693/4: "This day our Stairs . . . are fin­
ished" (ibid.. p. 389).
October 20, 1694: "This week the upper Floors are laid
with boards that had only this Summer1s seasoning" (ibid., p.
392).
October 12, 1695:
"John Cunable finishes the stairs out
of the wooden house to the top of the Erick house "(ibid.,p.4l4

or farther:
its Ruins.

People afterward Gazed upon the House to see
I got Mr. Mather to pray with us after this

awfull Providence; He told. God He had broken the brittle
part of our house, a n d prayd that we might be ready for
the time when our Clay-Tabernacles should be broken.
Twas a sorrowfull thing to me to see the house so far
8
undon again before twas finished.
When at last the house was completed,

his friends stopped

by to Inspect the finished result and express their pleasure.
Ninety-two year old Simon Bradstreet wished him Joy of it,
Mdrank a glass or two of wine, eat some fruit, took a pipe of
9
Tobacco in the new Hall. "
His "Cousin Quincey, " who came
with others to dine, was particularly pleased with the painted
shutters (which, with the rest of the

"colouring" on the house,

bad been done by the painter Tom Childs) ^ a n d

"in pleasancy

said he thought he had been got into Paradise.
four poplars stood
the Western sun,

"in the Foreyard,
and two

A row of

to shade the windows from

"Cherubim* s Heads " adorned the

gates to the s t r e e t . A n orchard and garden occupied a part
8 P l r r y . I, 402.
^ I b l d . . p. 412,

entry for September 17, 1695.

^ L e d g e r , fol. 59.
This was the same Tom Childs whose epi­
taph Sewall later wrote.
See the preceding chapter, sec. III.
11D i a r y . I, 413, entry for September 18, 1695.
l gIbld.. II, 129, entry for A p ril 23, 1705.
13I b ld.. III. 347, 348, entries for January 26 and February
1, 1724/5.
One*was blown down in a high wind, and Sewall notes
that they "had stood there near Thirty years. "

of the spacious grounds at the rear*14
Such an establishment, however,

lay many years in the

future when the twenty-three year old Sewall and his eighteen
year old wife first established themselves in the High Street
house.

Just what the first domestic arrangements were as

between the Hulls and the younger couple we are not told.
Sewall is, in fact,

surprisingly reticent on the subject of

his ra&rrled life generally*

Rarely,

for example, does he

report a conversation w i t h his wife.

One gets the rather

strong impression,

Indeed, that she was retired almost per­

manently to an upper chamber for the purpose of bringing forth
children.

This she did with a fearsome regularity for twenty-

five years (as long,
she did

that is, as she was able), after which

"leave off bearing. 1,15

Whether or not she was ori­

ginally as plump as Hawthorne wo <ld have her be, we cannot
say; but by the time she had borne thirteen of her fourteen
children (seven sons and seven daughters)

she had become so

stout that she couldh*t tell for sure whether she was “with
IS
child or no M when she bore the last one*
In one of his
Infrequent references to the subject Sewall wrote what,

so

far as the record is concerned, amounts almost to a character
of his marriage in three words—

'U x o r pi*gtegnana est.

Oc­

casionally we learn of Hannah being taken to a neighboring town,
l 4 See the concluding paragraphs of chap. 3*
l 5Plary. II, 50, entry for January 6, 1701/2.
1 6Ibld.
1 7 I b l d . . I, 418, entry for January 6, 1695/6.

-331-

such

a r.

D c " c h 'c c te r,

S h e rb o rn ,

or C a m b r i d g e ,

? rn in tr e e ,

to
T O

:-tte n d
r nd

a

le c tu re ,

once

b rie f

she

but

-)f one:

o f

h rr

her

1 ;-e n

s to le n

i'

th e

e m e rg e s

p le a s a n t

cent

on

a

n v e n ie n c e
dvo

e**

gods

o f

le tte r

le t te r

Just

"ta k e

th e

Fov-le i n

Love

u n i d e n t i f le d

b e fo re

th e y

got

to

o f

Eos to n ,

b e in g

so

th e

tw o

sons
hope

its

tc

and

w ith

.and
th a t

w rite r

th e

she

o f

fo r

or
her

th e

h a v in g

th re e

One
a

y e ts

w h ic h

e a te n

She

o f

w ife

of

had

by

had
e:‘ t h e r

th e

crew

th e

In ­

by f o r b s . r e i n g

is

"g la d

to

hoar

her c a n r e c e n t
l i v i n r;,

and

by tk o L o r d ' s Various

th^ i m p r e s s i o n

p e rso n

a

p re ve n t

c h ile re n

will b e n e f i t

o f

(I.’rs. F o v / l e

fu tu re ,

s p /n /f

A e r , 11

B erm uda,

"to

s e n d h i/. "

c h iln r-^ r,

she

w a r,

c f

shi

th e

w rite r

e d ib le s

she

d e c e iv e d

tro u b le

P r o v i d e n c e ")

th a t

to

some

engrosses t h e
wayes.

or

obscurity or:

fro m

V Ie s s in .;;" h e r
of

frie n d ,

o f

y o u rs e lf

b u ry in g

a

husbnnefs c o r r e s p o 1 ;de n t s t h e r e

//if t

voyage

to

v is it

m ild

iron t h i s

t .u r.e r,

k in d n e s s ,

*<n:'_ p i e t y *

In a body entitled Trie British An oil o ; Conta in lag about
Two Thousan. A./cmors to Curious huections (London, 1711)
Sewall found it asked:

"Is there nov;, cr will there be at

the Resurrection, any Females in Heaven, Since there seems
20
to be no need of them there? " — his answer tc which was
Ibid., to . 67, entry for March 10, 1684/5; ibid. , p . S3,
entry for June 20, 1685; lbIn. , p. 84, entry for June £4,
1G85'; ibid., P* ISO, entry for June 1C, 1687; ibid., p. 1S7,
entries for August 29 and 31, 1687; ibid . , pp. 190-191, entries
for October 3-6, 1687; lbia. , p. 454, entry for June 9, 1697.
•^Letter-Book, I, 35— 36, letter dated July £5, 1636,
2<^See George E. Ellis's digest of Sewell's T-alltlia Crml
in Mass. Hist. Soc., Proc., XII (February. 1675y, 380-584.
The work was apparently” printed in 1711(?) but now exists only
in manuscript.
The reference to The British Apollo Is to Vol. II
of the second edition.

indignantly in the affirmative ( "• • • God is their Father,
& therefore Heaven is their Country: Ubi Pater ibl Patria ”) •
Whatever he though concerning woman* s rights in heaven,
however, their place in the earthly present was plain.

In

his Proposals Touching the Accomplishment of Prophesies he
gives what would seem to be an oblique characterization of
his own wife's domestic position when he says:

"Amongst

all the Ornaments wherewith the Chaste Mother is enriched,
there is none more constantly worn, or more adorning than
that of the Peremptory desire of her Husband's Presence.
This causes her to record the time of his departure, keep
an exact reckoning of his absence; and with frequent Calcu­
lations and Enquiries,

to long and look out for the appointed
.21
Season of his Expected Return. "
His attitude was, in short,
typically medieval a n a Paulistlc.

Woman was the weaker ves­

sel, her husband's legal vassal on whom the virtues of silence
2.2,

and obedience were traditionally enjoined. ' Such an attitude
did not,

for the Puritan,

sanction abuse or domestic tyranny;

Solomon had ce.lled his wife his crown, and a crown snould not
be trampled.

Neither d i d it mean (given a proper acquiescence

to the doctrine on the part of the wife, as was apparently the

^ P a g e 1.
22

See the discussion in Knappen, pp. 45S-456.
In 1672,
writing from Nev/bury to a friend at Harvard, Sewall said of
hie sister Betty (Mehitabel, then seven years o l d ) : "She can
Read, ana Spin passing well; Things (Me Saltern Judice) very
desirable in a Woman.
She read through one Volume [of J the
Book of Martyrs, in three Moneths space; improving only leisure
time [at] N i g h t . " (Letter-Book. I, 19.)

case with. Hannah Sewall) a marriage without tenderness and
affection, as the well known correspondence between John and
Margaret YTinthrop eloquently testifies,

We learn of Sewall* s

feelings toward his wife on his voyage to England.
times in the journal th?
having
heavy,"

he kept during that year he notes
25
'‘dreamed of ray Wife, " a thing which made him "very
t

Eating some things she had prepared for him to take

along on the trip, he declares that
24
is ready to cut me to the heart, "
from

Several

25

"my dear Wife, "

other things,

"the remembrance of [her]
He rejoices in letters

and writes in return asking, among

to be remembered to

"our dear Quaternion.

S . H . E . J . r e f e r r i n g to their four children then living, Samuel,
Off
Hannah, Elizabeth, and Joseph.
He records with apparent ap­
proval the sentiment expressed by Nicholas Noyes at the wed­
ding of one of Sewall* s nieces in Salem,

that

"Love was the
27
Sugar to sweeten every Condition In the married Relation, "
and he was disgusted by humor concerned witn marital license.
Dining with some of his friends on December 20, 1716, he heard
Mr. Acmooty read a letter

"Bantering Matrimony; mention'd the

inconvenience that the body might not be unclrcumscrib*d; I
^ D i a r y , I, 240,
June 16, 20, 1689.

259, entries for December 16, 1688, and

^ Ibld.. p. 237, entry for November 27, 1698.
25Ibld.. p. 295, entry for February 25, 1689/90.
26Dlary. I, 269-270, entry for August 3, 1689. A n d see
ibid.. pp. 268, 271, entries for July 27 and August 20, 1689.
27Ibid., II, 403, entry for October 22, 1713.

disliking the Theam,
uneircumcls*d.

said, did you read unclrcumscrib'd or

He said unclrcumscrib’a.

I think this a
OQ
little check’d the Career ol* his Eleuthera. "
The reader

of his diary finds none of the kind of adventure below stairs,
on Sewall's part at least, which enlivens the diary of Pepys.
Indeed, during the more than forty years of his marriage to
his wife Hanxiah, the single occasion on which he made even
a reference in his diary to another woman's attractiveness
wag when, visiting in Southampton during his English journey,
he saw

young Maid, comely enough, whom some allot for my

Cousin.

His courtship of Madam Wlnthrop after his wife's

death is another and more interesting story.
Hannah Sewall's last years were ones of illness and pain.
As Sewall wrote to Increase Mather,

"She has brought forth

fourteen Children, and is depress’d with chronical Infirmities
and D i s e a s e s . I n

October, 171?,

she was

Vehement Cold, which began to abate . . .
that Month,

"seised with a

but upon the 1 5 ^ of

it return'd with much greater force.

Her Pains

grew intolerable, and she Expired upon the 19 . ,on Saturday a
little before

sun-set,

which fill' a fthej House v/ith a flood

28I b i d . , III* 113-114, entry for December 20, 1716.
g9I b l d .. I, 295, entry for February 22, 1633/39.
^Letter - B o o k ,
390-391, letter dated March 16, 1709/10.
For other such references, see Ibid., 277, letter to Joseph
Dudley dated January 5, 1702/3; Diary, II, 241, entries for
October 23 and November 1, 1708; Lettar-3ook, I, 376, letter
to Samuel Danforth dated November 13, 1703; ibid.. p. 383,
letter to Rev. Joseph G-errieh dated May 2, 1709; i b i d ., II, 31,
letter to Seth Shove dated July 14, 1714; ibid., p. 65, letter
to Rev. John Williams dated January 21, 1716/17.

of Tears. ”3^

“She is now no longer mine, " wrote Sewall,

“but

Is Joyned to the Spirits of Just Men made p e r f e c t . 1,32

In a

letter to Gurdon Saltonstall expressing thanks for his

“oblig­

ing and Refreshing Sympathy, "
write for tears.

he found that he could

His wife was, he said,

“hardly

•teiy most Constant

Lover, my most laborious Nurse " ^ ( h e himself had been ill for
35
a fortnight in the month before her death),
% most tender
Mother.

Writing the sad news to Jeremiah Dumraer he ends

with the couplet earlier noted:
What signify these Locks, ana holts, and Bars?
My Treasures gone, and with it all my Fears*
On October 23 she was buried,

the Governor and the entire
33
General Court attending the funeral*
John Danforth had pre­
pared an elegy for the occasion in which he declared:
She was too Sparkling for Plebeian Syes,
Heaven Bless'd 5EM.LL with this Noble Prize;
Plac'd in the Chrystal Sphere of Chastest Love,
She Flow'r'd a Race,
^Letter-Book,
August 28, 1717.

Devote to Heav'n above.

II, 79, letter to Rev. Thomas Cotton dated

3 2 Ibid.
3 3 Ibid.. p* 82, letter dated January 15, 1717/18.
3 4 Ibld.. op* 73-74, letter to Cotton Mathrr dated October
29, 1717.
3 5 Ibld., p. 84, letter to Jeremiah Dumnsr dated January 25,
1717/T5T
3 ®-Ibid., p* 75, letter to Samuel Storke dated October 29, 1717.
57Ibid.. II, 84, letter dated January 25, 1717/13*
38Ibid.

Full of Contentment and Devoid of Strife,
In Golden Characters She wrote her life*

Wisdom, with an Inheritance,

She had:

Her Charities aid maie her Neighbours G-lad*
Addressing the bereaved husband,

he wrote:

Behold! Our Samuel to the Utmost Try'd:
CHHIST’s Alsufficlent G-race, Ne're yet Deny'd.

JESUS Remains: You cannot be Undone;
Excessive G-rief, Saints well may Blush to own*
Long may you Stay,

to Bless the Church & State!

Kind H e a v ’n, We Hope, will large Years longer wait*
Strong Consolations from the OMNIPOTENT,
Let Fill your Heart,

in your thus Emptied Tenti

39

II
Sewall gives us innumerable glimpses Into the life of
an upper class Puritan family for the period which he records
We get some Idea, for example, about servant life of the time
In a well-to-do household,

especially one where the children

were numerous and the mother was consequently Immobilized a
grent part of the time,

servants were very necessary.

might be girls from respectable families who were
out, M as, for example,

They

"working

Sewall's own sisters Anne and Jane

39This poem, entitled "Greatness & Goodness Elegized, " is
among the broadsides at the Boston Public Library*

had done.

40

The latter was,

John Hull and told

In fact, hired for a time by

"to stay . . .

till she should change

her condition if she so liked, * ^ t o say which was not primari­
ly an act of generosity,

for competent servants were hard to
42
c o m e by ( "hard to find a good one, ** says Sewall)
and harder

to hold.

Hannah Eastwlck, Hannah Hett,

Elizabeth Belchar,

Mary Kay, Mary Draper, Philadelphia Paybody, Joanna G-errl3h,
Elizabeth Thurston,

Sarah Boucher, all worked in the Sewall

establishment at one time or another, ana left generally, we
may assume, when, like Hannah Hett,
Ordinarily,

they were

"upon m a r r i a g e . "

these m a i d servants appear only as names.

first time in the diary that we hear of one of them,
to sinmly as

The
referred

"Susan, " is when she dies after having served

fifteen years.

"She haa serv'd me ana my family f aithfully,"

writes Sewall, " . . . a n d now I hope she is gon to Heavenly
44
Rest."
We hear somewhat more of the men servants, for it is
40Diary, I, 2, entry for M a r c h 24, 1673/4*
4 1 Ibid.. pp. 54-35, entry for January 31, 1676/7,
42 Ibld.
4 5 Ibld.. p* 77, entry for May 26, 1635*
According to an
entry in the "Diary and Commonplace Book, 1675— , ** fol. 2, she
would then have worked at the Sewall*s for six years, having
"come hether to Service " in April 1679.
See this same folio
page for other entries having to do with women servants.
The
pay was apparently about one pound a year %.ll found "i for in
April, 1683, Hannah Hett received two pounds tidvance for 2
years servi c e . " Similar entries for later years are in the
Ledger, fol, 19*
The pay by this time had gone up to from
four to six pounds a year.
See also the Diary. I, 199, entry
for January 15, 1697/8.
44 Plary. Ill, 295, 296, entries for November 19, 27, and 30
1721.
She appears in the Ledger, fol. 19, again simply as
Susan.
The cost of her funeral exceeded her wages by three

they who accompany their employer on his circuit travels, help
him set fut his fledgling nursery stocks, and work with him at
Jobs around the house*

Sometimes the men servants were Negroes;

other times they were boys hired out to service by their par­
ents.

The Negroes that we hear of are 0ne3iphorus, Phlladel45
phia, Bastian, Sappho, Scipio, and Boston,
for the latter two
of which, at least,
gard.

When,

Sewall

for example,

developed a most affectionate re­
•‘poor Boston, " who was, as he says,

"a considerable prop of my declining Cottage, M

died In Feb­

ruary, 1729, Sewall

"made a good Fire, set Chairs, and gave
47
Sack" after the funeral.
The procession to the grave was
made up of

"about 150 Blacks, and about 50 Whites,

Magistrates, Ministers,

G-entlemen &c. . . .

several

pthe deceased}

havin'- borne the Character of a sober virtuous liver, and
of a very trusty honest and faithful Servant to all that
employ'd him. • • •

One wonders,

did both black and white

gather to be warmed by Sewall's fire and sack?
Scipio1s period of service was from 1713 to 1724.
case was, as Sewall noted in his ledger,
one.

He died on January 6, 1727/8,

49

His

"a remarkably sad"

"having been sick about

pounds, ten shillings, and Sewall wrote this off to "profit
and loss regarding her 15 years faithful service." In her
last two years she had received seven pounds a year.
4 ^The single reference to Sappho is in the account book,
entry for January 20, 1690/1, where J. Scottow signs a receipt
for "fifty Shillings cash for half a y e a r 1s Service of Sappho
Negro. "
4 6Letter-Book. II, letter to Sam Junior dated March 6, 1729.
47P l ary. Ill, 594-395, entry for February 12, 1729.
48 Ibid.. editors' note, citing the New England Weekly Journal
for February 24, 1729.
4^It is in 1718 that the ledger account for Scipio begins j

ten days.

He purchased,

to marry her,

• • •

and espoused a wife; but lived not

It seems he Intended to be married on

New-Year's day, but died this day about a n hour past Noon,
50
He was a Loving falthfull Servant,"
Scipio*s account In
Sewall*s ledger Is Interesting,

He had been left twenty

pounds by his former master, which he left with Sewall at
51
five per cent Interest,
Advances from the principal were
made at various times until the account was finally settled
on November 2, 1724, w h e n he left Sewall* s service.
In the same month Sewall loaned him five pounds
the Redemption of Margaret,

Later

"to compleat

that she might be his Wife, "

One wonders what happened between then and the time of his
death three years later.

He apoarently died penniless, for
52
Sewall laid out fourteen shillings for his coffin.
Both his white man servants began service as boys.
whom he refers to simply as

One,

"David, " stayed on for at least

(fol, 157), and on November 2, 1724, Sewall notes:
"I now
dismiss him" (l o c .clt. ).See references In the D i a r y .
Ill,
183, entry for April
28,1718; Ibid. . p, 192, entry for Sep­
tember 4, 1718; Ibid. . p, 219, entry for April 25, 1719;
Ibid. , p, 260, entry
for September 10, 1720. These
all have
to do with travel on
the circuit,
5<^Ledger, l o c . cit,
^ “Thls Is mentioned also In the D i ary, III, 296, entry
for December 8, 1721,
®^The salary Sewall paid him (e,g., eleven pounds in 1723)
was several times that received by most of the maid servants.
It is Interesting to note also that on September 1, 1724,
Sewall gave him *ta. suit of black cloaths . • • for the sake
of my daughter Hannah, Coat, Jacket, B r e e c h e s " worth sixteen
pounds.
It was not, as one might suppose, given him to attend
her funeral.
That had occured two weeks earlier.
On November 25, 1723, Sewall paid a three shillings fine
against Scipio for "galloping, **

— v_'4G—

e^5

ten years

(1706-17).v

tive at Newbury,
Sevrall,

The other,

cane In 1725.

Ben Sweet,

son of a rela­

His father brought him,

says

Mto dv/ell with me, and serve me so lonr as I please.

Kis father telle me he was born April,

6. 1713.

. . .

I

hope he will prove a Staff to support me in my age now Scipio
is removed, who died January

last.

If he be small,

the fashion now to w ear small Staves.

tie

It is interesting

to imagine the boy of twelve a n d his mas t e r of seventy-three
setting out in a calash to travel the circuits to Ipswich and
Plymouth,

as the diary mentions their d o i n g . ^

On one notable occasion Ben Sweet was corrupted by Sam
Hirst, a relative staying with the Sev/all's (Betty Sewall
had married Grove Hirst), with whom he
to play at Wicket [i.e.,
up, left the door open;
was m u c h displeased. "
did the same thing,

cricket}*

“went into the Common

Went before any body was

Sam came not to prayer; at which I
When,

two days later,

this time without Ben,

"he could not lodge here practising thus.
where.

• • *

the Grandson

he was told that
So he lodg* d else­

A n d p l a y ' d fast a n d loose w i t h me

. • . procur-

err

Diary, II, 151, entry for January 10, 1705/6.
That he
began as a youth may be inferred from S e w a l l 's saying that he
"corrected David for his extravagant staying out, and for his
relaying when his Mistress sent him of Errands. " Like Scipio,
he slept in the garret (D i a r y . II, 258, entry for July 13,
1709)." Like him, too, he accompanied Sewall on the circuit
(Diary, III, 101, entry for September 6, 1716; ibid., p. 128,
entry for April 22, 1717).
54 I b i d . . Ill, 551-352,

entry for M a r c h 30, 1725.

55I b l d .. p. 355, entry for M a y 14, 1725;
entry for April 30, 1726.

i b i d .. p. 376,

-341'

ing me great Vexation,
was no good sign,

A n Inordinate love for cricket

but missing morning devotions thereby was

a great deal worse.
One of the duties of the Puritan father was to lead the
household each morning' and evening I n prayer,

singing of

psalms, and the reading of Scripture and other devotional
works.

"lYe read in course the defeat of Adonija; and the
57
Illustrious Coronation of King Solomon, M writes Sewall;
"...

in the even I read in course in the Family Mr. Norton* s

Sermon on John 8 . 20.

"Begun in Course to read the Nevj-Testa59
ment, having ended the Revelation the night before. "
“133
60
Ps. sung in morn in course. . . • **
Such entries form a
regular feature of the diary.

Doubtless some of the younger

members of the family circle, at least, welcomed such an un­
expected relief as came on a July morning in 1687, when the
"was startled . . .

as was at prayer in the Kitchen, at a

sudden u n u s u a l noise; which prov*d to be two Cows running
61
into [the3 little Porch. . . . "
Frequently the children
took part in the devotions,
results.

January 10, 1689:

sometimes with rather harrowing
"It falls to my Daughter Eliza­

beth' s Share to read the 24. of Isaiah,

which she doth with

56 Ibi d . . p. 372, entries for M a rch 15, 17, 1725/6.
57 lbid. . I, 99, entry for October 10, 1685.
58Ibld. , entry for October 31, 1685.
59 Ibld. . p. 113, entry
for December 18,

1685.

60 I b l d . . p. 130, entry

for M a r c h 28,1686.

61 Ibid., p. 183, entry

for July 18.

many Tears not beIns very well, and the Contents of the Chap£*O
ter, and Sympathy with her draw Tears from me also. "
Betty
was then eight years old.

May 3, 1696:

can hardly read her chapter for weeping;
she is gon bach,

"Betty [now fifteen}
tells me she Is afraid

does not taste that sweetness in reading the

Word which once shee did; fears that what was once upon her
Is worn off.

I said whflt I could to her, and In the evening
S3
p r a y 1d with her alone. "
As these entries suggest,
was not an enviable one.

the lot of the Puritan child

The first great question was one of

survival, a fact which the records of the time make abundantly clear.

Of Sewall'& fourteen children only six lived to

maturity, a rate of raortr.llty which,
unusual.

if high, was by no means

Of these six only three outlived the father.

(Cot­

ton Mather had sixteen children and survived all but one.)
The story as we find it told in the diary has a kind of appal­
ling fascination.

Hannah Sewall*s first

"groaning" as the

nrocess of childbirth was nicely termed (Sara had prepared a
65
batch of "groaning b e er" several weeks earlier)
was on the
first of April, 1677.

"About Two of the Clock at night, "

says Sewall,
6 2Ibld. . p. 308.
63Ibid. , p.. 425.
64 gee the discussion In Wertenbaker's The First A m e r i c a n s :
1607-1690 (New York, 1927), pp. 184-188.
65Diary, I, 36, entry for February 16, 1676/7.
Ibid., Ill,
328, entry for January 9, 1723/4:
'Mrs. Dorothy Henchman died
very suddenly; She came froin a G-roanlng . . . on Wednesday
night about ten a-clock. • . • "

I waked and perceived my wife 111:
Mother [Hullj.

asked her to call

She said I should goe to prayer, then

she would tell me.
Father's fire,

Then I rose, lighted a Canale at

thrt had been raked up from Saturday night,

kindled a Fire In the chamber, and after 5 when our folks
up, went

and gave mother warning.

the Midwife,

She came and bad me call

Goodwife Weeden, which I did. But

my Wives

Pains went away In a great measure after she was up;
toward night came on again, and about a quarter of an
hour after ten at night, April 2, Father and I sitting
in the great Hall, heard the child cry, whereas we were
afraid *twould have been 12 before she would have been
brought to Bed.

Wert

home with the Midwife about 2 o'clock

carrying

her Stool,

whoes parts were

Met with

the Watch at Mr. Rocks Brew house,

stand, enquired what we were.
tion,

included In a Bagg.
who had us

I tolc. the Woman* s occupa­

so they bad God bless our labours, and let us pass.

The first Woman the Child sucked was Bridget Davenport.
April 3.

Cousin Flint came to us.

She said we ought

to lay scarlet on the Child's head for that it had re­
ceived some harm.
cold weather.
day,

Nurse Hurd watches.

Goodwlfe Ellis watches.

April 4. Clear
April 7, Satur­

first laboureu to cause the child suck his mother,

which he scarce did at all.

In the afternoon my Wife set

up, and he sucked the right Breast bravely.

...

Next day he was baptized with the name of his grandfather Hull.
1

On the morning of June 17 the child had a convulsion.

"He wa

-344-

asleep In the Cradle, and suddenly started,

trembled, his

fingers contracted,

his eyes starting and being distorted. "
00
Two days later he had another.
Shortly after this the
diary breaks off with the beginning of the lost second
volume.

I n John Hull's alary,

however, the entry for Sep­

tember 10, 1678,

says that the child died after
67
teen sore f i t s . H

•febout seven-

Time after time essentially the same story Is repeated.
The next three children, born In rapid succession (Samuel,
June 11, 1678; Hannah, February 3, 1679; Elizabeth,
29, 1681),

survived,

December

though Sam suffered from convulsions

and was taken to his grandmother at Newbury "to see if change
00
of air would help him, " and Hannah quickly began to experi­
ence the Illnesses and disasters which were to fill her un­
happy life.
open,

She falls from the cupboard and breaks her head

"vomits and hath Qualms, " "droops" with the measles,

Is ridden over by a horse on her way to school,

"has the Small

Pocks very favourably" (as do her brothers Sam and Joseph),
falls down In a convulsion, breaks both her knee pans In two
successive tumbles in the stairs, and spends her last years
under a nurse's care with a
L e g g . T h e

"noxious Humour flowing from her

next three children all died in infancy:

little

66P l ary. I, 40-43.
67Ibid., p. 56, editors'

notes.

68Commonplace Book, entry for May 21, 1680.
See the Diary.
II, 13*.
69References in which her calamity-ridden life may be traoed
are as follows: D i a r y , I, 153, entry for September 27, 1686;
/

-545-

Hull Sewall ( "Hullie ") when not quite two, after more than
a year of convulsion fits, coming, as his father says, "7a ve
70
upon 77ave
Henry at a year (December 20, 1685, he falls ill;
two lays later:

"Child makes no noise save by a kind of snor­

ing as it breathed,

and as It were 3lept.

first Chron. In the family.
out of John:

Having read to my 77Ife and Nurse

the fourteenth Chapter fell now In course, which

I read and went to Prayer:

by that time had done,

little Breathing, and so about Sunrise,
fell asleep,

Read the 1 6?£ of the

I hope in Jesus,

could hear

or little after he

and that a Mansion was ready for

Ibid. , p. 166,
entry for January 29, 1636/7; Ibid., p* 231,
entry for October 16, 1636; Ibid., p. 320, entry'Tor May 10,
1690; Ibid. , p. 488, entry for December 20, 1698; Ibid., III,
13, entry for August 5, 1714; Ibid. , p. 43, entry ’
f or "July
2, 1715; Ibid., p. 79, entry for April 22, 1716; Ibid . , pp.
209, 210, entries for January 17, 23, 1718/19; Ibid. , pp.
539-342, entries for July 30 through August 16,~1V24.
On
this last date she died, unmarried, age fifty-four.
Sewall
came home from meeting a n d found her laid out.
^ e r pleasant
Countenance was very Refreshing to me.
I hope Ood has de­
livered her from all her Fearsl
She had desired not to be
embowelled. "
7<^The short a n d harrowing life of this child may be traced
in the following references:
D i a r y . I, 50. entry In an Inter­
leaved almanac for July 8, 1684 (his birth);
, p. 68,
entry for M a r c h 31, 1685 (the first convulsions); Ibid. f p. 76,
entry for May 19, 1685; Ibid. f p. 73, entry for May 28, 1685;
-Ibid., p. 85, entry for July 4, 1585; ibid., p. 101, entry for
October 31, 1685; .ibid*, p. 106, entry for November 16, 1685;
-ibid., p. 110, entry for December 6, 1685; ibid.. p. 112, entry
entry for December 17, 1685; JLbid., p. 114, entries for December
84, 25, 1685; ibid. f p. 118, entries for January 20, 22, 1635/6;
-Ibid., p. 122, entry b r February 14, 1685/6; ibid., p. 125,
entry for M a r c h 10, 1685/6; I b i d . f p. 127, entry for M a r c h 17,
1635/6; l b I d . f p. 131, entry for M a r c h 29, 1686; ibid. r p. 135,
entry for April 26, 1636; ibid. P p. 143, entries for June 5, 18,
1636.
He died on June 11 at Newbury, where he had been taken
In April for a change of air (see the L etter-Book. I, 27, let­
ters to Stephen Sewall and James Noyes written April 20 and 21
1686) .

him la the Father* s House.
Died in Nurse Hill's l a p " ) ; ^
72
Stephen at six months.
Coming home from Stephen's funeral
the other children
nuiet them.

"cryed m uch . . .

so that could hardly

It seems they look'd into Tomb, and Sam said

he saw a great Coffin there, his G-randfathers.
The next
74
child lived.
The next died when a little more than a month
old.75 The next lived,

though considerably troubled with con-

'^ D i a r y . I, 113, entries for December 20, 21, 22, 16S5.
And sea .ibid., p. 110, entry for December 7, 1685 (his birth);
ib i d ., p. ""113, entry for December 13 (the baptism); i b i d ., p.
114, entry for December 24 (the funeral).
See also t h e ’LetterBook, I, 22, letter to Stephen Dummer dated February 15," 1635/6:
r»*ft pleased God to give me a young son.born December 7, last
past; and to take him away upon the 22. of the same Moneth.
At his Baptism December 15, I named him Henry; but he never
liv'ci to see his Grandfather, or be seen by him, whose Name he
bore. "
a y y , I, 166, entry for January 30, 1686/7 (born); ibid.,
entry for February 6, 1686/7 (baptized: "Day was Louring after
the storm, but not freezing.
Child shrunk at the water but
cryed not.
His Brother Sam. [nine years old} shew'd the Mid­
wife who carried him, the way to the Pew, I held him up");
AbJLd., p. 181, entry for July 8, 1687 (cuts a tooth); .ibid.,
p. 184, entry for July 25, 1687 (falls ill); i b i d * , entry for
July 26, 1637:
" . . . died in his Grandmother's Bed-Chamber
in Nurse Hill's Arms").
7^ Diary, I, 184,

entry for July 27, 1637.

74 Joseph, born August 15, 1688, "between 8. 9. while the
Service-Bell was r i n g i n g " (ib i d . . p. 223).
75Judith, born August 13, 1690, the first of two children
given the name of their grandmother Hull.
See the D i a r y , I,
328, entry for August 13 (birth) and August 24 (baptism:
"3he
cried not at all, though a pretty deal of water was poured on
her by Mr. Willard • • . "); i b i d ., p. 331, entry for September
20, 1690 ( % ly little Judith languishes and moans, ready to
die"); i bid ., entry for September 21 (much praying and reading
of psalms; "Told Mr. Walter of her condition . . . desiring him
to give her a lift towards heaven"; died "between 7. and 8. in
the evening, a n d I hope sleeps in Jesus"); ibid. . p. 332, entry
for September 23 (burled in a coffin marked "1690. made with
little nails").

’Opfl! 76
month.

77

The next died at the age of* slightly more than a

The next died at two years,

"after a sickly painfull

life, 1,78 The next was stillborn.79 The last one lived.80 six
left out of fourteen:
daughters, Hannah,

two sons,

Sam and Joseph, and four

3etty, Mary, and Judith.

76

Mary, born Oct o b e r 23, 1691.
On August 6, 1703, she was
taken to see the Rev. Mr. Wigglesworth, whose heloful verdict
was that "her distemper was of a convulsive nature" (D i a r y , II,
33) .
77
Jane.
See the Dia r y . I, 381, entry for August 7, 1693
(born); baptism not mentioned, but on September 9 she Is "not
well" (ibid., p, 333) a n d on September lo she "exoires, much
as Henry did In neighbour Smith's lap, nurse Hill a n d I being
by " (Ibid.)•
7 0

Sarah.
D i a r y , I, 394, entry for November 21, 1694: 'My
v/ife is brought to b e d of a Daughter between 9. and 10. of the
Clock in the morn.
Mr. Torrey prayd with Mot h e r and me in the
Kitchen . . . M o t h e r [Hull] desiring Him, saying tliat my wife
was in great and more than ordinary Extremity, so that she was
not able to endure the Chamber:
I went also to acquaint Mr.
Willard, and as I came back, I met Mrs. Perce, who wish'd me
Joy of my Daughter, as came In at the Gate.
Mr. Torrey was
ore vail'd witn to go into Chamber and Return Thanks to God.
Women din'd with rost Beef a n d minc'd Pyes, good Cheese and
Tarts.
G r o w 8 to be a very great Storm. " Ibid., p. 395, entry
for November 25. 1694 (baotlzed): i bid. , p. 410, entry for
August 8, 1695 (three oonvulslona)T~Tr5ld. , p. 442, entry for
December 23, 1696: "About Break of Day . . . she gives up the
Ghost in Nurse Cowell's Arms.
. . . Thus this very fair day is
rendered fowl to us
by reason of the
general Sorrow a n d Tears i
the family." Ibid., entry for December 25, 1696: "We bury our
little daughter.
In the chamber, Joseph [eight years oldj • • •
reads Ecclesiastes 39* a time to be bftrn and a time to die—
Elizabeth, Rev. 22.
Hannah, the SQ*1*0 Psalm.
I speak to each
as God helped. . . . "
79
Diary, I, 426,
entry for May 13, 1696. The news came to
hire on the circuit.
See also i b i d ..p. 444, entry for January
1, 1696/7, and the Letter-B o o k , I, 170-171, letter to Bridget
Usher dated September 28, 1696.
The child was a boy.
S0The second Judith.
D i ary. II, 50, entry for January 6,
1701/2: "Judith Sewall was born upon Friday, January 2, at two
in the Afternoon.
Hannah Greenlef Midwife, Judd Nurse. . . .
Was baptised by the Reverend Mr. Ebenezer Pemberton.
It being
his Turn; because The Reverend Mr. Willard administered the
Lord's supper Just before.
So is a New Midwife [before It 1
been Mrs. i'/eedenj, and a New Baptiser. "

With such a fearsome winnowing in progress,

the reader

of the diary begins to experience something of Sewall's own
relief on those occasions when he returns home from a trip and
finds the family alive and well

( 'l a u s Deo I M) or when, after

a spell of si'hnes : in the family, he is able to write,
night, all H a n d s . T h e

diary Is a document edged in black,

illness and death on almost every page.
death,

So frequent was

iri fact, that for a m a n such as Sewall, who, because

of his character and position, was forever in demand as
er, "

"Good

funeral going became almost an occupation.

"bear­

In the

lart years particularly, a week did not often go by in which
he did not attend at least one funeral, and sometimes he got
tc two in the same day.
was ever present:

The admonition of m a n ’s mortality

"The Lord fit me,

that m y Grave may be a
B2
Sweetening place for my Sin-polluted Body 11;
"The Lord grant
that I may be kindly and effectually Warned and awakened • • •
Savingly awakenedl

"The Lord grant that I may be clothed
8^
,35
upon before uncloathed";
"The Lord fit me for my Change!

"Ohi

that I could shake off my Dllatorlness, and become

ready for my own Dissolution! I,S^

"The Lord help me aright

8 1 D i ary . I, 24, entry for October 21, 1676.
8 2 I b id. , p. 255,

entry for October 22, 1688.

8 3 Ibid., III, 240, entry for January 12, 1719/20.
84 I b id. , p. 249,

entry fox' April 8, 1720.

8 5Ibld. , p. 280, entry for February 15, 1720/1.
8 6L e t t e r - B o o k , II, 69, letter to John Winthrop dated April
8, 1717.

to Improve my Flesh, Bones and Spirits, which are so soon
to become useless, and it may be expos'd in one part or
another of G o d 1s Creation*
casions to

He had, indeed,

"look into • • • Llachpelah, ^ a s

so many oc­

he says,

that

tombs and processions to the grave came to have a morbid
fascination for him*
for example,

A f t e r the funeral of his little Sarah,

he notes that the tomb

was wholly dry, and I went at noon to see in what order
things were set; and there I was entertain'd with a view
of, and converse with,
Mother Hull,

the Coffins of my dear Father Hull,

Cousin Quinsey, and. my Six Children:

for

the little posthumous was now took up and set in upon
that that stands on John's:
twice,

so are three, one upon another

on the bench at the end.

My Mother ly's on a

lower bench, at the end, with head to her Husband's head;
and I order'd little Sarah to be set on her Grandmother's
feet,

'Twas an awfull yet pleasing Treat; Having saidfr

The Lord knows- who shall be brought hether next,
_
89
away.

I came

The seme ghoulish state of mind is indicated in the declara­
tion of his friend, Mr. Joseph Eliot, that

"the two days

wherein he burled his Wife and Son, were the best that ever
Diary, I, 264-265, entry for July 9, 1689.
^ Letter-Book, II, 7, letter to Mary Dummer dated August
20, 1712,
Machpelah was a burial cave in Hebron, possessed
by Abraham (Genesis 23),
®9 Diary,

I, 443-444,

entry for December 25, 1696.

-350-

he had In the world*

Sewall enjoyed stopping at the bury°1
Ins place to read the epitaphs,
and when he was too old to

follow a corpse on foot he ordered his coach to a point of
high ground where he could view its propress to the grave.

92

His manner is almost professional as he notes the condition
°3
of the burial grour. u at Rowley ( "Barly-ea rish, pure S a n d "), “
the arrangements at the Jews' burying place in London ("Bodies
. . • now all . . .

\

to be laid North and South"),

°4

the struc­

ture of the Earl of Suffolk's vault (which he also saw on his
95
trip to England) a n d the fittings of hie coffin,
the need In
Major Richard's tomb for

Ha Board across the Coffins and then

a Board standing right up from that, bearing* against the top
96
of the Tomb, to prevent their floating up and down, ”
the
need for repairs in his own (going to
things

"view the order of

In it" he buries some

"scattering bones, and . . .
\ °7
pieces of Coffins" and adds a step),~ and so on*
Not only he but the community in general became so pre­
occupied with the trappings of funerals that regulatory legis^ Ibid., p* 215, entry for May 30, 1683.
9 1 Ibid. , II, 94, entry for February 1, 1703/4*
9 ^Ibid, , III, 386, entry for September 14, 1727.
Q^ Ibld . t j j 9 62, entry for August 11, 1702.
9 -Ibid., I, 301, almanac entry for M a r c h 17, 1688/9,
9 5I bld. . p. 261, entry
9 6ibi d •, p. 390, entry

for June 28,
for April 6,

1639.
1694.

97Ibid. . II, 359, entry for July 31, 1712*

—351—

lntlon was repeatedly passed against excessive expenditure
for them*

In 1721 the presentation of scarfs was outlawed,

and in 1742 it was declared that

"no scarves, gloves

(except

six pair to the bearers, and one pair to each minister of
the church congregation where any deceased person belongs)
wine,

98
rum, or rings shall be allowed and given at any f u n e r a l . "

Dr* Samuel Buxton of Salem left his heirs a quart tankard of
rings which he had received at funerals, and the Reverend
Andrev; Eliot received in thirty-two years of funeral going
2,940 pairs of gloves, which he resold through Boston milliners
for from six to seven hundred dollars*

9 9

Sewall, likewise,

received hundreds of these various mournful tokens and kept
long,

careful lists of donors, w ith dates and kinds of gifts

r e c e i v e d * ^ ^ O n at least one occasion his own outlays for
such things was very large.

F o r his daughter Hannah's funeral

in 1724 the cost of gloves alone

(more than twenty dozen pairs)

was well over fifty pounds, and the cost for the entire affair
reached the astonishing total of around five hundred p o u n d s . ^
98

Dl ary. II, 356, editors* note.
On September 16, 1721,
Sewall noted of the funeral of Mrs. Francis Webb that it was
"the first public Funeral without Scarvs " (Ibid., Ill, 292).
99M ary A. Ward,

Old Colony Days (Boston, 1896), p. 156.

^ ° S e e the D i a r y , II, 10*-11*.
For individual entries see,
for example, ibid., p. 20, entry for July 25, 1700; ibid., p.
27, entry for December 5, 1700; ibid., p. 175, entry for
December 21, 1707; Ibid. , I, 195, entry for November 12,
1687; ibid. , p. 110, entry for December 12, 1685.
10-LAc count Book, last page but one; Ledger, fol* 177.
This
included, among other things, new outfits of clothes for
various of the relatives.
One wonders if Sewall might have
been making up to Hannah in this way for the marriage portion
whJch she hed not received*

Solemn a nd pious as the occasion may have been,

such osten­

tation wag a long way from the austere simplicity of the first
Boston funerals.

The Puritans of the first generation had

no church service at the burial of the dead (nothing,

that

is, that might suggest the popi s h error of praying for departed
souls), only prayers at the bedside, a m a r c h to the grave,
and a silent lowering into the earth.
1642:

"At Burials,

As Lechford wrote in

nothing is read, nor any Funeral Sermon

made, but all the neighbourhood,

or a good company of them,

come together by tolling of the bell, and carry tlie dead
solemnly

to his grave, and there stand by him while he is

buried.

The Ministers are most commonly present. ,r~

102

On the

Sabbath following there might be a funeral sermon, but this
became common only in the eighteenth century, as did the words
103
at the side of the grave.
In these ana other ways did the
institution gradually assume a character at variance with the
earlier forms.

The earlier

"bearersu now became

as the coffin was moved into the hearse.

"pall-bearers"

The simple march of

102piaine Dealing, p. 74.
See Dexter, Congregat1onal1s m .
p. 458^ and Morison, The Puritan P r o n a o s , p. 219.
There
was no minister present at the burial of Joshua Scottow on
January 22, 1697/8 (D i a r y . I, 467).
A f ter the fall of the Charter government, the Church of
England began holo.lng services, and Sewall notes with distaste
an early funeral held, under its auspices in which the corpse
"first was had to the Town-House Cwhere services were temporari­
ly being held] and set before the Pulpit . . . " (D i a r y , I, 156,
entry for November 1, 1686).
^•03^n early example is Sewall's speech at the grave of his
mother on January 14, 1700/1, during which he expressed the
hope that "none will be offended that I have now ventured to
speak one word in her behalf; w h e n shee her self is become
speechless" (D i a r y . II, 30-31).

friends to the grave became a formal procession through the
streets, with fine coaches and,

if the deceased were a soldier

or a person of importance in the community, a company or two
104
of militia.
A f t e r the corpse was put away, a receotion
mi;:ht be held at which the grieving guests could revive their
spirits w it h comfortable servings of wine,

rum, and sack#

Sewall's own pleasure in all tnls, he realized,
resulted in a frame of mind w h i c h was
30

sometimes

"apt to be too light, M

that whe n he fell down when coming through his gate after

the funeral of Hr. Thacher of Milton, razing the skin off
his right leg, he was grateful for a reminder which might
bring him

"into a frame more suitable . . .

of some . . .

Skin, and blood . . .

a n d by the loss

be awakened to prepare

for [his] own Dissolution.
Illness and death among his children were out the fir3t
of many problems with which Sewall the father had to deal.
The six remaining to him were part of a numerous household
which had, of course,
educated,

to be fed and clothed;

settled in their callings, and,

they had to be

if possible, m a r ­

ried— all according to their capacities a n d proper position
in the community; most important,
a knowledge of God*s saving grace.

they had to be brought to
The energy and devotion

with which Sewall devoted himself to all of these tasks is
partly explained in a letter he wrote to hl3 friend Bridget
104T’
ne
time Sewall mentions seeing coaches at a
funeral was on August 3, 1685:
"I saw one or two . . . "
(D i a r y , I, 91).
1 05Ibid., Ill, 333, entry for December 22, 1727.

Usher.

**The Fruit of the Womb, " he said,

Reward of the LORD,

"is a Reward,

the

And therefore when Parents lay up for,

and lay out upon their Children,

it is a most convenient

Expression of their Gratitude to GOD the Giver of them,
Even if they turned out badly,
privilege.

the rearing of them was a

When the Reverend Nathaniel Stone wrote saying,

"Children are Blessings:

but are they so, as depraved?"

Sewall replied that parents should be grateful even so,
because even 3uch children represent the
of God. "

"A good man is happy,

"Good Providence

if but in the Tenth Genera­

tion, any of his descendants become the Children of God,
With such an attitude it never occurred to him to look upon
the arrival of his fourteenth child with any less enthusiasm
than he had upon the arrival of the first.
teenth appeared still-born,

When the thir­

he prayed that God

"would make

up our Loss • • • pleading with Him as the Institutor of
Marriage, " a n d the fourteenth was greeted with expressions
108
of Joy.
Sewall was a kindly father, whose parental attitude was
expressed more frequently by gifts and family outings than
by the traditionally popular rod of birch ( "Birch breaketh
no bones "),^^^but his affection did not blind him to such
•^^Letter-Book, II, 94, letter dated April 1, 1713.
^ O ^ Ibid. , p. 42, letter dated February 25, 1714/15.
l O Q piary, I, 444-445, entry for January 11, 1696/7; LetterBook, I, 267-268, letter to Jeremiah Dummer dated M a r ch 12,
3/701/2.
lO^For outings with tie children, see the Diary, I, 254,

obvious symptoms of* unro^eneracy as young S a m ’s (age ten)
playing hooky from his writing school,

or Joseph’s (age

four) hitting his sister Betty, playing during family prayers,
and eating while thanks were returned at table*

’W h e n I first

went i n , ” says Sewall, who had been called by Mother Hull
when the boy hit his sister,

"he sought to shadow and hide

himself from me behixid the head of the Cradle:

which gave me

the sorrowfull remembrance of A d a m ’s carriage,
tive examples of original sin in a child,

Such instruc­

combined with a live­

ly sense of the possibility of death and consequent damnation
for its unsaved soul, made it urgent,

first,

that the child

be set at some useful eraployment: if someone didn’t find work
for his hands, the devil would*

Thus, little Joseph at the

at the age of two years and eight months was sent off

Mto

Capt. Townsend’s M o t h e r ’s freading school}* his Cousin Jane
[Tappan] accompanying him,

112

carried his Horn-Book* ,r^

Simllar-

entry for October 29, 1688; ibid* , p* 492, entry for January
25, 1698/9; ibid., p* 346, entry for June 29, 1691*
For
gifts sent from England, see the Diary, I, 283, 297, entries
ifor August 13, 1689,and M a rch 4, 1688/9.
A list of gifts
bought for his ”J o n n y w is in the "Diary and Commonplace Book,
1675--, " fol. 24*
There are various gifts to the children
listed in the account of looneys paid out, " Ledger, foil* 186200
See the discussions of the Puritan child in Knappen,
p. 462, and Calhoun, I, 40*
■*•3-9Diary. I, 225, entry for September 15, 1638.

.

•^-^Ibld* . p. 369, entry for November 6, 1692.
H S i b i d .. p. 344, entry for April 27, 1691.
A n Interesting
study using many facts from Sewall's diary is Robert F. Seyb o l t ’s ’’Private Schools of Seventeenth Century Boston, " New
England Quarterly, VIII (September, 1935), 418-424, where we
learn that Mrs. Townsend lived on the opposite side of the

ly, when Hannah a n d Betty were five ana seven respectively,
Sewall sent to England for curtains and counterpanes which
they might

“work and keep • • • out of Idleness.

Second,

the earliest possible steps must be taken to assure the
child*s conversion, and an eager watch was kept for what
Cotton Math e r termed

"examples of children in whom the fear

of God was remarkably budding before they died.

v/e have

already seen Sewall*s eight year old daughter Betty weeping
under trie pressure of this dismal preoccupation.
when this same child was fifteen she
ing cry" one night after dinner,

One day

"burst out into an amaz­

because,

says Sewall,

High Street from Sewall*s, a short distance toward the center
of town, near Mr3* Thayer's where, as we learn from Sewall*s
diary entry for November 10, 1696, five y e a r old Mary went
to learn "to Read and Knit" (D ie.ry, I, 436). Almost direct­
ly across the street from S e w a l l *s lived Dame Walker, to whom
Hannah a n d Betty (ages five and six) were unable to go on
January 6, 1635/7, because of the teacher* s illness (lb id. ,
p. 164).
Sam Junior first went to Ezekiel Cheever*s Latin
School at the age of nine, where the famous old teacher "re­
ceived him gladly" (ib i d . , p. 15, entry for September 13,
1686), and on M a y 14, 1638, he was "put to Elieser Moody to
learn to write" (ibid., p. 213).
His aptitude was apparently
not considered suitable for college, for, as we shall see
later, at the age when he should otherwise have been at Harvard,
his father was trying w ith considerable difficulty to find an
apprenticeship for him in which he might be satisfied.
After
Joseph* s precocious beginning, we do not hear of him again in
an academic way except once (i b i d ., p. 411, entry for August
27, 1695), until his father takes him to Cambridge to see
about entering* Harvard (ibid., II, 80-81, entry for June 23,
1703).
^ ^Letter-Book, I» 44, letters to Edward Hull and Daniel
Allen dated March 28, 1637.
In a poorer family, of course,
the children might have been put out to work, the idea of
child labor being quite unapalling to the Puritan (see the
comment in Adams, Provincial Society, p. 11).
^l^ H a g na l l a . II, appendix to chap. 7, bk. 6.
Jonathan Edward*■
account of four year old Phoebe Bartlett is well known.
She

-357-

she was afraid she should goe to Hell, her Sins were not
pardon'd.

She was first wounded by m y reading a Sermon

of Mr* Norton's*

• • •

A n d those words in the S e r m o n

*

Ye shall seek rae a n d shall die in your sins, ran in her
mind, and terrified her greatly.
[one day, a week later]

A n d staying at home

• • • she real out of Mr.

Cotton

Mather— Why hath Satan filled thy heart, which increas’d
her* Fear.

Her M o t h e r ask'd her whether she pray'd.

She

answer'd, Yes; but feared her prayers were not heard
because her Sin3 not pardon'd.
for] . . .

[Mr. Willard being sent

he discoursed w ith Betty who could not give

a distinct account, but was confused as his phrase was.
• • •

Mr. Willard pray' a excellently.

Light and

The Lord bring

Comfort out of this dark and dreadful Cloud,

a nd Grant that Christ's being formed in my dear child,
115
may be the issue of these painfull pangs.
There are sever: 1 other such entries concerning the unhappy
Betty.Nor

was she alone:

Richard Dumer, a flourishing youth of 9 years old, dies
of the Small tocks.

I tell Sam. [age ten] of it and

what need he had to prepare for Death, and therefore to
was affected by the talk of her newly-converted eleven year
old brother.
See the discussion in Calhoun, I, 108.
1 1 5 P l a r y . I, 419-420,

entry for January 13, 1695/6.

1 1 6 See ibid., pp. 422-423, entry for February 22, 1695/6;
ibid. . p. 423, entry for May 3, 1696; Ibid., p. 423, entry
for August 24, 1696.

. «

endeavour really to pray when he said over the Lord's
Prayer:

He seem'd not much to mind,

but when he came to say, Our father,

eating an Apple;
he burst out Into

a bitter Cry, a n d when I askt what was the matter and
he could speak,

he burst out into a bitter Cry a n d said

he was afraid he should die*

I pray'd w i t h him, and

read Scriptures comforting against death, as, 0 death
where

Is thy sting,&c*

All things yours*

Immortality brought to light by Christ, &c*
noon* 117

Life a n d
1twns at

It was Sewall*s oft-expressed desire that his children might
learn to
dod*

"apeak the Jews Language and to forget that of AshThe schooling process was not a n easy one*

There were other aspects of the Pur i t a n child's upbring­
ing v/hlch were scarcely less trying.
avoiding too m u c h

A common means of

"cockering" (pampering)

was to take children

out of the home a n d leave them for long periods with friends
and r e l a t i v e s * ^ 9 Thus, o n October 12, 1693, thirteen year old

117rbld. , p* 309, entry foi-* January 12, 1689.
l l s I b l d .. p* 328, entry for Augu s t 24, 1690*
See similarly
the Letter-Book, I, 268, letter to Jeremiah Duminer dated March
12, 1701/2.
Nehem l & h 13:25-24:
"In those days also • • • Jews • • •
married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab; and the chil­
dre n spake half In the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak
in the Jews' language* • • •"
^ 9 Edmund S. Morgan, The Pur i t a n Family (Boston, 1944), pp.
37-38, discusses this custom and notes that ". • • almost every
surviving correspondence of seventeenth-century New England
gives evidence that • . •
existed. " It was common in
England as well*

359'

Hanr&h was left w i t h Sewall's sister Longfellow at Rowley,
a no.

when he came a way the next day he had,

he says,

'touch

adoe to pacify ray deer daughter,

she weeping and pleading

to go wit h me.

Sam and Joseph (ages fifteen

The two boys,

and five), were at New t o n that same f a l l , S a m
tv.’o years before.

had been

Sewall then coming to visit him found that

"he coxild hardly speak to me, his affections were so mov'd,
hnvlnr* not seen me for above a fortnight.
Puritan child was early made to realize that the disposition
of his life was in his father's hands,

from what he read at

family devotions to whom he chose as a mate#
Marria.ge, as Betty Sewall painfully learned when she
reached the mature age of seventeen, did not necessarily mean
falling in love;

In most cases,

enter the married state

rather,

(sometiiues, a s

rather sharp parental prodding)

it meant a decision to
In her ca.se, with some

follower by the choice of a

suitable person (a

"good Hatch, " as Sewall prayerfully hoped,
JlS5
in w h ich she might be "equally y o k e d "), a choice w h ich might
1 2 0 p i a r y . I, 335#
1 2 1 Ibid.,

entry for October 30#

1 2 2 jfo3.3 ^ , p p # 351, 353, entries for November 2, 19, 1691.
He had teen left w i t h Nehemiah Hobart on the earlier date.
This may have been the first of the several attempts to find
a suitable apprenticeship for him, because he is still there
in the fall a n d winter of the next year (see ibid., pp. 362,
377, 370, 572, entries for August 10, October 1, November
24, 1692, a n d December 31, 1692/3).
When he returned home
we are not told, but he is back in 1694 (ibid., 391, entry
for October 5)•
^ S5L e tter-Book, I, 380, letter to
dated Februai^y 4, 1708/9.

"Cousin Moodey of York

-360-

or might not be h e r o w n . 124 A Captain Tuthill having expressed
an interest

in her (to the rather, not to her), Sewall made

enquiries as to w h e t h e r he
be in-: found good, he was

"had any blot.

His reputation

invited to call:

[Ja n u ary 4, 1 6 9 8 / 9 . J

A b o u t 11 m.

LraornlngJ Daughter

Elizabeth reads to me the second of Genesis in coxirse.
In the evening bet w e e n s e v e n a n d eight Capt.

Zech*

Tuthill

speaks w i t h her.

[January 7 (?)J
speak w i t h Betty,

. . .

at night Capt. Tuthill conies to

who hid her self all alone in the coach

for several hours till he was gon,
several houses,

so that we sought at

till at last came in of her self,

and

lo o k 'd very \vil d •
January 9.

. . .

speaks with her in my presence.

• • •

January 10. at night sent Ur. Tuthill away, because
company was here,

a n d told him [I] was willing to kno w her

m i n d better.

Friday, J a n u a r y 20.
here:

Capt. Brown a n d Turner breakfast

Betty came in afterward, a n d serv'd Almonds a nd

Raisins,

and fil l ' d a Glass of Y/ine to us; and it fell to

h e r to drink to Capt. Turner.

She went out of the way at

■^■^See the comments on this subject by Calhoun,
p. 455; Morgan, chap. 1 -passim, esp. p. 22.
1 2 5D i a r y . I, 490, entry for January 2, 1698/9.

I, 54; Knappen

first,

after I had spoke to her to fill w i n e :

vhich

surpris1 d ms:

and I contrived tio t of the Raisins on ;'u>
126
■->0 3 3 to siena tne natter*
After such inc oiz? re hens 111 e "behavior ;oor Betty became
1-7
.e syecial object of :.er fatnar's prayers,
and when, a few
nths later,

she refused Grove Hirst as well, Sewall was

ally disturbed,
? hoye that

end in w his notice of it in the diary with

"the Lord [would] sanctify . . . Afflictions. f»loS

en Hirst proved persistent in his suit,

Sewall wrote his

ujhter, vis iticy at Braintree, as follows:
ZLI3A5ITH,--Llr. Hirst waits on you once .more to see if
you can bid him wel com.
sidered,

If ought to be seriously con­

that your draw ins* bach fro~. him after all that

has passed between you, will be to your Prejudice; and
will tend to discourage persons of worth from malting
their Court to you.

And you ha d need well t-*' consider

whether you be able to be; r his final Leavin - of you,
howsoever it may seem gratefull to you at present*

When

persons cone toward us, we are apt to look upon their
Undesirable Circumstances mostly; and thereupon to shun
them.

Rut when p.:rsons retire from us for good and all,

we are in danger of looking only' on that which is desir­
able in them, to our woful Discuiet.

Whereas tis the

^•'''°Ibid. , pp. 490— 492.
1 8 7 Ibid., p. 492,

entry for January 5.

1? s Ibid., p. 502, entry for September 28, 1699.

property of a :pod. Balance to turn whore the most weight
is, though there be some also in the other Scale*

I do

not see but the Hatch Is vrell liked by judicious persons,
and such as are your Cordial Friends, and mine also*
Yet notwithstanding,
immovable,

if* you find in yourself an

incurable Aversion from him, rnd cannot love,

and honour, and obey h i m , I shall say no more, nor give
you any further trouble in this matter*
be off than on*

It had better

3o praying God to pnrdon us, and pity

our Undeserving, ana to direct ana strengthen and settle
you in mailing a right Judgment, and riving
I take leave, who am,

a right Answer,

Dear Child,
your loving father*

set

129

While the parents got together at home, Betty*s suitor
130
out to woo her at Braintree*
Whether it was his wooing

or Bewail's letter that did the trick we do not

learn, but a

year later the couple were married in the parlor of Sewall*s
new house*

Cotton Mather presided, and Sewall led the company

in singing Psalm 128, accidentally setting it to a tune which
131
he did not intend.
The bride, sufferer in her youth of so
ninny embarassments and fears, now became a mother, both soon
and often*

At the age of thirty-four years she died, having

borne eight children, five of which were then living*

”1 am

^ ^ L e tter-B o o k , I, 215, letter dated October 26, 1699*
15QPlary, I, 503, entry for October 24, 1699.
Ibid., II, 24, entry for October 17, 1700.

— 363

Just a-going, 11 her father heard her say,
After this, says Sewall,

"Call Hr. Hirst. M

"She M o a n ’d lower ana lower till she

dyed, about Midnight. *^*^
The record of the courships and marriages of Sewall*s
c illdren, all of them carefully presided over by the consci­
entious and affectionate father,
several novels ready to hand*
of his daughter Mary.

contains the materials for

Take, for example,

As with tine other children, her

to Christ, M as Sewall termed it, had cost him
Agony and . . .

the story

many Tears,

’taarriage

"conslderable

a n d it was presumably with some

relief that he turned his attention to the more tangible prob­
lem of her espousal on earth*

When she was eighteen a suitor

presented himself in the person of Sam G-errlsh, a Boston book­
seller and son of a country clergyman,
G-errlsh*

the Reverend Joseph

That Mary should look favorably upon him was at first

not too agreeable to her parents.

There had been

"various and

uncertain reports " about attentions G-errish had paid to Sarah
Coney.

Finally Sewall wrote to the bo^s father asking for

"the naked Truth . . .

whether the way be now fairly open for

an Address of that kind, upon assurance of agreeable entertain­
ment.

Receiving a satisfactoiyy reply to this query, he

1 32Ib±d., III, 89-91, entry for July 10, 1716.
See the
Letter-Book, II, 56, letter to Jonathan Belcher dated July
28, 1716; ibid., p. 84, letter to Jeremiah Dummer dated Janu­
ary 25, 1717/18.
133 Diary, II, 249, entry for January 24, 1703/9; Letter-Book,
I, 331, letter to Edward Taylor dated April 21, 1709.
^34Letter-3ook, I, 379, letter dated February 1, 1703/9.
Diary, II,~£49, entries for February 4 and January 31, 1703/9.
Ibid,, entry for February 6.

left v;ord at G-errish1 s shop (February 18, 17G8/9)

that he

would see him that night after the mid-weak prayer nesting—
He came and I bid him wellcom to my house as to
what his father writt about*

So late hardly

fit then

to see my daughter, appointed him to come on Tuesday,
invited him to Supper;
the third place.

I observ'd he drunk to Mary in

Febr.

2b,

When I came frcm the Meeting

at Mr, Stephens's I found him In the Chamber, Mr. Hirst
and wife here*

It seems he ask'd to speak with Mary

below, whether it were

best to frequent my House before

his father came to Town:
introduction:

I said that were the best

but he was wellcom to come before, and

bid him come on Friday night,
me Mr. (Jerrish courted Mr.
I knew it, an., was uneasy*
Hirst came nether,
courted Mr.

24. Mr. Hirst tells

Conney's daughter:

I suppose to tell that Mr. G-errish had
and If she should have

she \73uld m end her market*

Madam Wlnthrop,

I told him

In the evening daughter [Bettyj

Coney's daughter:

Mr. Stoddard,

Febr.

Friday, Febr. 25.

Oliver, ana Mico visit my wife.

In the

evening S. Gerrish comes not; we expected him, Mary dress'd
her self:

It was a painfull dlsgracefull disappointment.

Febr.

Satterday,

26.

Sam Gerrish goes to Wenham unknown

to me, till Loras-day night Capt. Greenleaf told rae of it.
He was not seen by us till Wednesday M a rch 2, David saw
hlm.1 ^ 5
1 55Dlarv.

II, 250-251.

th
March, 11 •

S. G-errlsh calls here.

. . .

March,

14.

The Reverend Mr. Jos e p h G-errlsh comes to our house In the
evening.
Son comes,
Wednesday.

Dines with us M a r c h 15
a n d Mary goes to him.

*fcJlI

. . . .

Mr.

A t night his

Gerrish goes home on

His son comes and is e n t e r t a i n ’d then also.

Friday-night.

£March 18*3

S. Gerrish comes.

Tells

Mary except Satterday and Lord's-day nights Intends to
wait on her every night; unless some extraordinary thing
hamen.
Satterday, M a r c h 19.
he was not within:

I call at S. Gerishes shop;

but came in presently:

I desired him
1

to Bind me a Psalm-Book in C a l v 1s Leather.
In August they

137

were married,

and on November 3-0 of

follow in -■’* year the twenty year o l d wife gave birth to
153
ter.
Tnen—
Nove m b e r 15.

Came home

a nd not very Cold.

the

a daugh-

c o u r t 3 » fair Wether,

Enquired of Mr. Gerrish as I came

along concerning- his Wife:

He said she was something

disorder'd; but I appreh.ena.ed no danger, and . . .

went

not to see her that night.
November 16.

Thanksgiving.

M y wife sent ray daughter

Gerrish part of our Dinner, which as I understood she eat

15Qibld.a p# £51.
1 5 7 I b l d ., p. 263,

entry for August 24, 1709.

1 5 8 I b l a . , p. 289,

entry for November 10, 1710.

— 366—

of pleasantly.

But tw&s a Col cl Day and she was remov'd

off her Bed on to the Palat Bed in the morning.

After

the Eve 21 in (7 Exercise my wife and I rode up in the Coach:
I.Iy daughter ask'd me to pray with her, which I old;
pr*r!y 'd that God

touIo

call. Him Father.

give her the Spirit of Adoption to

Then I went away with Mr. Hirst to his

House, leaving my wife with my daughter Gerrish,
call'd to

70

home.

till she

After our com in .7 heme, the northern

Chimney of the Hew house fell a-fire and blazed out
extrermly;

v/hic-h made a. great Uproar,

as is usual.

An

hour or two after midnight Mr. Gerrish call'd ifae up
acquainting us of the extream illness of his wife;

All

the family were alarm'd, and gather'd into our Bed-Chamber.
7/hen I came there,
not apeak to me.

to my great Surprise my Daughter could
They had try'd to call up Mr. Wadsworth

[minister of the South Church]; but could not make the
family hear.

I sent for Mr. May hew, v/ho came and pray'd

very veil with her.^*5^
The reader of the diary learns to recognize the appearance of
ministers at such a time as fatal and therefore is not sur­
prised when, at

“four a clock after Midnight my dear child

expired, being but Nineteen years, and twenty days old.
Next day was the funeral,
^ ® I b i d . , pp. £69-290.
1 4 0

Ibid., p. 290.

for which Danforth prepared an elegy

In honor- of her who had thus suddenly
bration of Triumphant Hallelujahs*

"Enured on the Cele­
in the following

aorin'' the child followed its no the r to the grave,
to

p

close the short an>.

One thing, however,

bringing

sad chronicle of Sewall* s Mary.

1 'i2

had not. been t- hen care of before her

death, namely her marriage portion, an important,

standard,

ana completely unsentimentol part of the inter-family arrange
rents.

Three months after Mary's funeral, therefore, we find

Sewell meeting w i t h the Gerrishes to talk terms, he arguing
for five hundred ana fifty pounds anu they holding; out for
sir hundred.

Finally they decided tc split the difference,

v;ith Sewall throwing; in the unpaid rent of his Cotton Hill
house (where the young couple had been living;) to bring* the
143
figure to six hundred.
The last wry detail of the story is
that 3am Gerrish returned to the aims of Sarah Coney and
married her on Hay S, 1712.

Sewall was there,

set the tune

for a psalm (successfully this time), and enjoyed very much
Broadsides, Ballads, & c . P r i n ted In Massachusetts
1659-1800, in Mass. Hist. Soc., CoTTs. , ser. 7, V (Boston,
1922) , 4 (3 . Cotton M a t h e r dedicated his N e hemiah. A Brief
Essav on D i v ine Consolations (Boston, 1710) to nthe honour­
able*"Judge Sewall . . . because you have been Exercised
with some Funerals in your Family; and especially one of
p Daughter, falling Suddenly into the aims of Death, a few
Days after she had comforted you with the Birth of her First­
born Infant. "
l 4 SLetter-Book, II, 12-13, letter to Sarah Storke dated
January 10, 1712/13; D i ary, II, 307, entries for April 21, 2 2
23, 24, 1711.
1 4 3 Diary,
II, 336, entry for February 19, 1711/12.
See the
Ledger, fol. 136.
Sewall paid part in plate, part in cash,
and for part he gave a note.
See also the L etter-Book, I,
413, letter to the Reverend Joseph Oerrish dated January 7,
1711/12.
G-errish remained in the house at Cotton Hill until

*1
the refreshments (sack-posset and cake)

that were served.

Of the three children who survived Sewall,

two, Judith

ono. Joseph, apparently led prosperous and contented lives.
The third,

however,

Sam Junior,

interesting tribulations.

experienced, some extremely

Judith, at the age of nineteen,

after a short (five months) and pleasant (much slay riding,
"noble" coi'resoonaence, and giving of gifts) courtship,
145
married the Reverend William Cooper.
Her father presided
1724, when Sewall asked, him to make v.ny for the Reverend Mr.
Cooper, who had married his daughter Judith (Letter-Book, II,
17G, letter dated September 23, 1724).
D i a r y , II, 347.
1 4 5 Ibld., III,
235-238, entries for December 1, 4, 11, 1719,
and January 1, 171S/20; loin. , pp. 243-244, entries for Feb­
ruary 4 and 23, 171S/20.
A few months earlier Colonel William
Dudley had expressed an interest in her and had the support
of Governor Joseph Dudley, who spoke to Sewall in his behalf.
Sewall was not enthusiastic, however, and the affair came to
nothing. (Diary, III, 229, 231, entries for September 26 and
October 13” 1719.)
Judith had arrived in Sewall*s fiftieth year, making it,
as he says, a "year . . . of
. . . Jubilee" (Letter-Bo o k , I,
267-268, letter to Jeremiah Dumrner datea March 12, 170172) .
The delivery had been a hard one, and it had been difficult
to get a nurse.
The father of the one who had agreed to
come "huff'd and ding'd, ana. said he would lock her up . . •
she should not come " (D i a r y . II, 51, entry for January 1 2 ,
1701/2).
Aft e r that, however, everything went well.
The
child had been good from the first, giviny the parents "very
little Exercise after 3 or 4 nixhts" (ibid. , ■•>. 75, entry for
March 22, 1703).
Two weeks after she was born the mother was
sufficiently recovered to entertain her women attendants at
dinner:
'*Had a good Dinner, Boil'd Pork, Beef, Fowls; very
good Rost Beef, Turkey-Pye, Tarts, Madam Usher carv'd, Mrs.
Hannah G-reenlef; Ellis, Cowell, Wheeler, Johnson, and her
daughter Cole, Mrs. Hill our Nurses Mother, Nurse Johnson,
Hill, Hawkins, Mrs. Goose, Deming, Green, Smith, Hatch, Blin.
Comforable, moderat weather: and with a good fire in the Stove
warm'd the Room." (Diary, II, 50, entry for January 16, 1701/2.)
At the age of two Judith was "carried . . . unto the house of
Mr. Robert Avery of Dedham, for to be healed of her Rupture "
(Diary, II, 101, entry for April 27, 1704).
Here, where she
remained for at least five months, Sewall frequently visited
her, sometimes bringing her oresents of cake (ibid. . pp. 1 0 1 ,
112, 114, entries for April 27, May 13, J u l y 12 and 31, and
September 15, 1704).
1 4 4

-369-

at the wedding, which as a raagi s bra tie ho of course ha..,, the
146
v* ght to do,
a n d spoke these characteristic words:
Sir, Madam [ a d d r e s s l : ; Simeon Stoddard and his wife,
who was mot h e r of the grooin by a previous marring©J,

The

;reo t Honour you have conferred on the Bridegroom and the
Prlde, by being present at this Solemnity, does very
Conveniently supersede any further enouiry after your
Consent.
ding,

And

renders

pendious:

the

I

the way of

desired to take in this Wed­
my givin

my Consent very Com­

There*s no manner of room left for that pre­

vious Question,

tVho giveth this Woman to be married to

this Man?
Dear Child, you give me your Hand for one moment,
and the Bridegroom forever.

Spouse, You Accept and

receive this Woman now given you &c.
He adds that

"Mr. Sewall

£Joseph, who had now been a pastor

at the South Church for seven years]] p r a y ’d before the 7/edding,
and Mr.
Mr.

Colman £of the Brattle Street Church, whose assistant

Cooper was to bej after.

verse to the end,
set[.]

Sung the 115. Psalm from the 9.

in the New-Hall,

£to] St David's, which I
147

There we had our Cake, and Sach-posset• ^

As soon as it had become apparent that this, his last
daughter,

would soon be married,

ing seventy)

Sewall (who was now approach­

sent to his cousin Samuel Storke in England a

146A few other times in the diary he notes having performed
weddings, but not often and never before for one of his own
children.
1 4 7 D i ary, III, 253, entry for May If., 1720.

-570-

ist of things to buy.

This list,

•^proximate inventory of the
her housekeeping,

constituting as it does an

"movables" with which Judith

is of considerable interest.

"To

e Bought, " it begins,
Curtains and Vallens for a Bed, with Counterpane,
Head-Cloth and Tester,
camlet Cn°te added:

of good yellow water! worsted

"Send also of the same Camlet and

Trimming, as may be enough to make Cushions for the
Chamber Chairs "3. with Trimming, well made:

and Bases,

if it be the fashion.
A good fine large Chintz Quilt well made.
A True Looking: Glass of black Walnut: Frame of the
newest Fashion (if the Fashion be good), a3 good as can
be bought for five or six pounds.
A second L ooking Glass as good as can be bought for
four or five pounds,

same kind of frame

A Duzzen of good black Walnut Chairs, fine Cane,
with a Couch.

A Duzzen of Cane Chairs of a different

firure, and a great Chair,

for a Chamber; all black

Walnut•
One Bell-mettal Skillet of two Quarts:

one ditto

one Quart
One good large Y/arming Pan bottom and Cover fit for
an Iron handle.
Four pair of strong Iron Dogs with Brass heads, about
five or six shillings a pair.
A Brass Hearth for a Chamber, with Dogs, Shovel,

-071-

Tonr:s and Fender of the newest Fashion.

(the Fire

is to

ly upon I r o n ) •
A strong Brass I!ortar,

that vrlll hold about a Quart,

with a Pestle*
Two pair of large Brass sliding Candlesticks,

about

four shillings a pair*
Two pair of large Brass Candlesticks, not si lain -,
of the newest Fashion, about five or six shillings a pair
Four Brass Snuffers, with stands.
Six small strong Brass Chafing-dishes,

about four

Shillings a-piece.
One Brass basting Ladle; one larger Brass Ladle.
One pair of Chamber Bellows with Brass Uose3*
One small Hair Broom sutable to

the Bellows.

One Duzzen of large hard-mettal

Pewter Plates, new

Fashion weighing about fourteen pounus.
One Duzzen hard-mettal Pewter Porringers*
Four Duzzen of small Glass Salt-cellars,
glass,

Smooth,

not wrought,

of white

and without a foot.

An d if there be any Honey over,
Cambric1', ana a Ream of good Writing

send a piece of

fine

Paper*

A Duzzen of good Ivory-hafted Knives and Forks*

148

The last we hear of Judith she is the mother of five
children, living in her father* s house at Cotton Hill and
receiving money from him for a
l4aL e t t e r- 3 o o k , II, 105-107,
dated February 50, 1719/PO*

"help • • • in . . .

Dls—

list and accompanying letter

-578-

oursments.

t_49

Joseph Sewall seems to have been a pious bore,

150

one

whose character is suggested by the fact that his coolous
heading of tears during prayer gained for him the name of
,151
"the weeping Apostle. ,r^
The fact that he was long a popu­
lar minister of the South Church,

so well thought of that at

the age of thirty-six he was chosen to be President of Har­
vard (he

"gave them a aenyall "), is a sad indication of what
1up
had happened to the "right New England spirit. "
To Sewall,

I4 Q
"Ibid., p. 261, letter to Rev. V7ill lam Cooper dated
January 24, 1728/9.
One of the children had died, ". . . so
that now your Children make a File four deep; three Sons, and
one Daughter. "
^ &<^See "The Sins a n d Mercies of a Harvard Student, " More
B o o k s , XT (September, 1936), 277-235, for a discussion of
his college diary.
It may be noted that his The Orph a n1s
best Legacy,: o r , O O P 1 s Parental Care of Bereaved C h i l d r e n :
£ Discourse ^occasion1d by the Peat h ~of the Honotarablg Samuel
Sewa l l Y ~Esci. (3 o st o n , 1730) , though mentioned by James Truslow
Adams in the D.A.B. Sev/all bibliography, contains nothing” but
t h e emptiest of platitudes, the general purport of which Is
t o "look to God to take you up. " It tells us nothlnr; about
Sewall but a good deal about his minister son.
^■^Roberts, H i s t o ry of the Military Company, I, 259.
Once,
at the age of thirty-four', he was, says his father, "drench'd
in Tears " at the news of the los3 of Captain Thomas at sea,
"being distressed for his lovely and beloved David" (LetterBook. II, 63-64).
^•5^ D l a r y , III, 340-341, entry f o v August 12, 1724; LetterB o o k . II, 305, memoranda by Sam junior for August 11, 26, and
September 30, 1725.
Cotton Mather remarked bitterly at the
time of Joseph Sewall's appointment that he was rti modest
young man, of whose piety (and little else) every one gives
a laudable character.
I always foretold these two things of
the Corporation; first, if it were possible for them to steer
clear of me, they will do so; secondly, that If it were possi­
ble for them to act foolishly, they will do so. " (D i a r y , III,
341, editors' note.)
Hamilton a. Hill, History of the Old 3outh Church (Boston,
1890), I, 367, gives tills curious Judgment of Joseph Sewall's
pastorate: "Fie may not have been endowed with exceptional
ability, but he possessed that which Is worth more than tuis

however,

he was a continual source of satisfaction and Joy—

from the time when,
Heaven,

at the age of three,

he said,

'Hews from

the French [arej come" ("No body 1ms been tampering

with him as I could learn, " writes the startled father, who
nuite obviously was dealing w i t h a budding p r o p h e t ) t h e
day when at last he stood in the pulpit of the South Church
and oreached from Psalm 73:23:
draw near unto God. "

He

"But it is good for me to

"stood a little above an hour, "

Sewrll notes, and, "Before we went out of the seat, Major
General [WinthropJ conoratulated me on account of my son;

said

he had done Pie et Docte. ,r^ ^ T o all his children Sewall was
for permanent success in the pastoral work, — adaptation to
its reaulrements by natural taste, by careful training, and
by an experimental knowledge of the truth. "
1 53gpary t

543,

entry for August £8, 1691.

154I b i d . , II, 237, entry for August 20, 1710. He had got
his Master's degree a month before (ibid., p. 232, e n t r y for
July 5, 1710).
Three years went by, however, before he was
ordained and settled at the Old South.
In the meantime he
oreached occasionally in various of the Boston churches and
received a call from Salem, which he declined (ib i d . , p. 299,
entry for February 4, 1710/11; ibid. , p. 301, entry for Feb­
ruary 18, 1710/11; lold. , p. 30Q, entry for May 5, 1711; ibid.
o. 531, entry for January 4, 1711/12; ibid. , t>. 339, entry for
March 19, 1711/12; ibid., p. 345, entry for April 25, 1712).
In Hay, 1712, he became ill ana did not preach for several
months (ibid., p. 349, entry for M a y 28, 1712; L e t t e r - Book.
II, 12, letter to Sarah Storke dated January 10, 1712/13).
Sewall*s description of the ordination, which took place on
September 16, 1713, iias considerable Interest.
At a little
''.’ter ten in the morning.
Dr. Cotton Mather begun with Prayer, Excellently, con­
cluded about the Bell ringing for Eleven.
My son preached
from 1 Cor. 3.7.
So then neither is he that planteth any
thing, nor he that Watereth; but God th^t gives the In­
crease.
Was a very great Assembly; were Elders and Mes­
sengers from 9 Churches viz. North, Old rFirst], Oolman,
Cambridge, Charlestown, Roxbury, Dorchester, Milton,
Weymouth.
Twelve Ministers sat at the Table by the Pulpit.
Mr. Pemberton made an August Speech, Shewing the Validity

-374-

a kind,

Interested, end frequently o n e r o u s

ticularly was he so to Joseph.

father; but par­

He takes hlrn out to see the

military companies m r c h i n ' • on t].:e common,

^ f~SfS

delights

i.n his

childish boasting ( “If this Country stand when I am a man
[he was six], I'll drive . . .

[the French] all out

buys children's cakes especially for him, ''feels that his
1 *8
teachers a.rerft sufficiently sympathetic, ^ bujrs him gold
1 59
buttons when he enters the ministry,
refuses to eat when
Joseph falls ill ( "I refrain going to Dinner;
Son's incapacity to feed,

because of my

I refus'd to F e a s t ”),

X 00

gives him

an allowance of thirty pounds a year soon after hie m a r r i a g e , ^ ^
and Antiquity of New English Ordinations.
Then having
ma.de his way, went on, ask'd as Custom?- ry, if any had
to say against the ordaining the person.
Took the
Churches Handy vote; Church sat In the Gallery.
Then
declar'd the Elders and Messengers had desired the
Ministers of Boston to lay on Hands (Ur. Bridge was in­
dispos'd an,, not there).
Dr. Increase Mather, Dr. Cotton
Mather, Mr. Benjamin Wadsworth, Mr. Ebenezer Pemberton
and Mr. Benjamin Colman laic, on Hands.
Then Mr. Pember­
ton Pray'd, Ordain'd, and gave the Charge Excellently.
Then Dr. Increase Mather made a notable Speech, gave the
night Hand of Fellowship, and pray'd.
Mr. Pemberton
directed the three and Twentieth Psalm to be sung.
The
person now Ordain'd dismiss'd the Congregation with Bles­
sing.
The chief Entertainment was at Mr. Pemberton's;
but was considerable elsewhere.
Two Tables at our House,
whereat were Mr. Gerrlsh of Wenhnn, Mr. Green, Mr. Graves,
Mr. Holyoke, Mr. Roble, &c. d-c. [Diary, II, 397-398.]
I55pjn Vy t
329, entry for September 1, 1690.
1 5 6 j f o t p # 400, entry for April 1, 1695.
iS^Leager, fol. 197, entry for Jul;,. 14, 1705.
3-58^,6 1ter-Book, I, £55, letter to Peter Burr dated March 31, 1?0.
l ^ L e a g e r , fol. 1C9, entry for October 28, 1713.
160p i a r y t II, 349, entry for May 28, 1712.
^■^Ledger, fol. 109.
From 1715 on he got this
in the Land Entail'd by his Grandmother Hull. "

as "hisShare

4

-575-

’■nr. at the time of his entry

into the ministry reacts with

an almost abnormal sensitivity to the merest suggestion of
ind.ifferen oe on the part of other ministers of Boston ( r,I
could not perceive that

in either of his prayers he [[Cotton

I'ather] did. one Jot mention the Building the South— church,
hr s in Hand in Settling another Minister. "
particular in Mr.

Y/adsworth* s Prayer,

"Herr nothing

only for this F l o c k . "

"Could not p> rceive that Mr. Bridge pray* a for my Son. "
"• • • I could not discern that Mi*. Pemberton pray'd for
m) •16 P.
my son . • • "
Joseph's

courtship of Elizabeth VValley,

in the summer

of his ordination (1715), was carried on with a propriety
th: t v/r.s truly clerical.
diary,

So far as can be learned from the

the initiative lay with the father more thrn the son

and found expression in gifts such as
aga inst Antinomianism,
C H R IS T ,

"Dr. C. Mather's Treatise

Just come out '^^^and

very well b o u n d in Calvs Leather.

wedding night,

Sewall tells us,

"Mr. Walter of
O n the couple1 a

"Daughter Sev/all [the brldej

came in the Coach w i t h m y .Vife, who invited her to come in
and lodge here w ith her Husband; but she refus'd, and said she
JL65
had promis'd to go to her Sister W a i n w r i g h t ' s, and did so, ,r^
■^^Diary, II, 343, 360, 361, 388, and III, 17:
entries for
May 15, August 17, 21, 1712; June 7, 1713; August 29, 1714.
165I b l d . . II, 3 7 5 - 3 7 6 , entry for April 3, 1713.
-*-^-Ibid., p. 378, entry for April 25, 1713.
The day before
he had talked the m a t c h over with Mrs. Pemberton, who had
"commended Mrs. Betty. "
l£5ibid_., p. 405, entry for October 29, 1713.
Sewall had
tried to get her to marry before rather than after Joseph's or­
dination on September 16 but without success.
,

-376-

It 3s, rierhaps, not altogether surprising ths t the number of
children born to this union wes two,-*^®
The story of J o s e p h 1& older brother,
a different key.
and respectable,

Sam,

is set in cuite

Though for the most part sufficiently nioue
he seems to have suffered from

unregenerate

liking for taverns a n d serving maids.
His father warned him
167
against the first,
and as for the second—
. . .

spake to Sam [age seventeen] as to his Mistress'

Maid being with child, anu that 3he Laid it to him, and
told him if she were with child by him,

it concerned him

seriously to consider what were best to be done; and that
a Fattier was obliged to look after Mother and child.

Christ

would one day call him to an account and demand of b3jn what
was become of the child:

and if [hej married not the woman,

he would always keep at a distance from those whose temporal
and spiritual good he was bound to promote to the uttermost
of his oower.

Could not discern that any impression was

made on him.

I remark'd to him the unsuitaoleness of his
1G3
frame under a business of so great and solemn Concern.

What the outcome of this particular matter was we are not
told, but many years later his wife Rebecca (of whom more
shortly) angrily told his mother that

"if it were not for

her, no Mai d could be able to dwell at their house.
1 66Ibld . , I, xxx.
1 6 7 Ibid., III, 78, entry for April 17, 1716.
16sIbid. , I, 420, entry for February 1, 1695/6.
169Ibid.,

II, 571-572,

entry for February 21, 1712/15.

-377-

He ’t s , furthermore, greatly troubled
as tc his calling*

Since he possessed, as

by "unsettledness M
It would seem,

neither the desire nor the aptitude for attendance at Harvard,
It was necessary when he reached the age of sixteen (when he
had presumably finished grammar school,

that Is) to settle

him In some other respectable employment.

First he went to

live and work with a shopkeeper by the name of Michael Perry,
but after

about three months he came home one day with "sore

and sv/oln feet" causec. by the cold (It was
in January, and
170
Perry "had no coles")*
Not long after this he gave up this
employment for good and returned home, Bastian being sent to
171
fetch his chest of Delongings*
After six months of idleness,
the father devoting himself to special sessions of prayer for
,172
help in "Sam's being to be placed out,
he went to work at
*|
the shop of Sam Checkley*
Ai'ior a few months here, however,
he could not sleep one night (February 7, 1695/6) because
Sew&llk brother Stephen,

down from Salem, had been

speaking to him of removing to some other place, mention­
ing Mr. Usher's*

I put him to get up a little wood, and

he even fainted, at which Brother was much startle^ and
advis'd to remove him forthwith and place him soraevhere
else, or send him to Salem and he would doe the best he
^70I b i d . , I, 397, entries for October 11, 1694, and January
14, 16^475.
171Ibid.. entry for February 15.
172Ibid., p. 398, entry for February 19, 1694/5;
409, entry for July 12, 1695*

ibid., p.

173I b id., pu. 409, 410, entries for July 15 and August 13,
1695.

-378-

could for him,

. • •

He [SamJ m e n t i o n ’d to me Mr. Wadsworth's Sermon
against Idleness, which was an Affliction to him.

He

said his [work with. CheckleyJ was an idle Calling, and
that he did more at hone than there,
another.

take one day with

A n d he men t i o n ’d Mr. Stoddard's words to me,

that should, place him with a good Master, ana where had
fullness of Imployment.

It seems Sam. overheard him, and

now alledged these words against his being where he was
because of hie idleness.

Mention'd also the difficulty

of the imployment by reason of tue numerousness of Goods and
hr id to distinguish them, many not being marked; whereas
Books,

the price of them was set down, find so could sell

them readily.

I spoke to Capt.

Checkly again and a,:ain,

and he gave me no encouragement that his being there would
be to Sara's profit; and Mrs. Checkly always discouraging.
Mr. Willard's Sermon from those Words, What doest
thou here Elijah? was an Occasion to hasten the Removal.
Feb. 10. Secund-day*

I went to Mr. Willard to ask

whether haa best keen him at home tc day.
but tell Capt.

He said, No:

Checkly first; but when I came back, Sam

was weeping and m uch discompos'd, and loth to goe because
it was a little later than usual,

so I thought twas hardly

fit for him to go in that Case, and went to Capt.

Checkly

and told him how it was, and thank'd him for his kindness
to Sam.

Cant.

Checkly desired Sam. might come to their

house and not be strange there, for which I thank'd him

-379-

very klnnlv.

He presented his Service to my wife, and I

to his who was In her Chamcer.

Capt.

Checkly -:&ve me

Sam's Copy-3ook that lay in the drawer.
Just before I got the the r, I met Mr. Graf ford v;ho
told me that Uumford said I was a knave.

The gooa Lord

give me Truth in the inward parts, and finally ?:ive Rest
unto ray dear Son, and put him into some Callinp-; wherein
1 74
Ho will accept of him to Serve him.
The

patient father now found him a place with Mr. Wilkins, a

bookseller, and the last time that we hear of Sam in his ado­
lescent years he has been successful in selling

"some of the

Joy of Faith and some of Dr. Goodwin's 3d volum, " the prices
175
on which were doubtless plainly marked.
In the summer that Sara turned twenty-two (1702) he began
raying court to Rebecca- Dudley,
Governor Joseph Dudley.

daughter of the irascible

The m a tch was well liked by the

Parents on both sides, anu tir t fall the marriage took place
176
in the Sewall dining room.
After considerable bickering,
a pronerty settlement was reached by which Sam, who had now
decided that he wished tc be a farmer, received the Sewall
lands at Muddy River (Brookline), with the understanding that
^ 7,11Diary, I, 421-422.
The copy book here referred to may
be the one now at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
It
belonged to Sara Junior and contains mainly exercises in arith­
metic.
175I b i d . , p. 452, entries for April 8 and 1£, 1697.
1 76Ibia., II, 60, 61, 63, 65, entries for July 20, 30,
August 4, 19, and September 15, 1702.

-380-

Dv.hley would there bull a a house into Tti L:.. the couple might
17?
ortly move*
After several years Sam be •pan to suffer from
Melancholy,
,e by)

' and when finally (several more years hav inr

Sewall askeu the wife

"v/hr.t mi-pit be the cause of

my Son* s Indisposition, are you so kin'll y affectloned one
toward another as you should b e?" she replied,

"I do my duty* "1^9

Sam went home with his father, and a week passed before friends
managed to get the couple together again.
time (February £1, 1712/13)

It was fit this

ta-t Rebecca defended herself

to mother Sewall with the charge that no ran id \\n s safe around
her s o n . ^ ^

From this point on we cannot do better than let

the scatterea diary entries tell their ovm lively story.
Febr.

£7. [1712/13,

at Dudley's house,]

after a meeting of the Council

I slipt into [the] Kitchen • • • sat

with Madam Dudley alone a pretty while;

She said nothin;:

to me; I gave her my Sllk-Hnnd-kcrublef, which I bought
last Satterday for ray daughter [Rebecca], but was prevent­
ed giving it to her,
home.

she being Just gon before I got

Yet this occasion brought her not to speak.

Febr. £3.
137
is better.

...

131

Amos Gates comes to Town, and says my Son

^ 7 7 Letter-Bo_ok, I, 276-281, exchange of letter’s between
?!nd Du&Tey "in January-llarch, 1702/3.

3

e\vall

178p jary, II, 175, entry for December 24, 1706.
Ibld., p. 371, entry for February 13, 1712/13.
IBOlbid. , pp. 371-372, entries for February 19, 21, 1712/13.

1 7 9

1 8 1
1 8

Ibid., p. 372.

? Ioid.
4

April 83.
at Brooklin. ^

. .

I saw Samuel;

It Is yet dark wether

93

[October 5.]

I Roe to Brooklin, meet my daughter

Sewall going to Roxbur;/ with Hannah [an only child,
others having aled],

to dine with her Brother Y.’inthrop.

Sam. and I dined alone.
away.

I oro oundeo

might be desired t o
seem'd not t o

two

to

Daughter return’d before I came
her that Mr. 7/alter [t».elr minister]

ccrne to them ana -pvay with them.

like the motion,

said she knew not wherefore

she should be call'd before a Minister!
the fittest moderator;

She

I up;' d him as

the Governor or I might be thought

She pleaded her performance o f Duty, and how

partial.

much she haa born.

Mr. Hirst came in and smok'd a pipe

and we came away to^etner.

[Oct o’
o er 30.]

Sam. and his 7/ife dine here, go home

together in the Calash.
them.

M y son warn'd him not to lodge at his house;

Daughter
he.

William Ilsly rode ana pass'd by

3

a id she ha a. as much to doe with the house as

Ilsly lodg'd there.

that Instead of

Sam. grew so ill on Satterday,

to Roxbur;/ [for services on Sunday]

he was fain between Meetings to take his Horse, and corae
1 9

3 Ibid. . p. 380.

1 8 4

Ibld. , p. 400.

-332-

hither;

to the surprise of his Mother,
1.35
Lord save hin and usi

who was at home,

November 2. Sam. is somthinm better*, yet full, of
pain; He told me with Tears taat these sorrows (arising
from discord between him and his wife) would briny him to
his Grave.

I said he must endeavour to be able to say,

0 Death, where is try sting?
0136
tcry?

0 Grave, where is thy vis-

After this the diary lapses into a discreet silence,
Sewall mallnp; no mention even of the fact that on January 22,
1714/15,

Sam again came home, this time to stay for almost
137
three years*
Finally, however, on October 16, 3 716—
p.m. Went a foot to R o u r y

[where the Dudleys

Governor Dudley was yon to his Mill.
home.

livedj.

Staid till he came

I accua luted, him what my Business was; He and

Madam Dudley both,

reckon*a up the Offenses of my Son;

and He the Vertues of his Daughter*

And alone, mention’d

to me the hninous faults of my wife, who the very first
word ash'd my daughter why she married my Son except she
lov'd him?

I saw no possibility of my Son's return; and

therefore ashed,
so left it*

that he would make some Proposals, and

Madam Dudley had given me Peer as I chose;

G-: Dudley would have me drink a Glass of very good V/ine;
1 3 5

Ibid., p. 406.

1 8 6

Ibld.

1

B 7 Ibia., Ill, 137, editors'

note.

385-

and made a faint of having the Horses put in, to draw me;
but with all said ho?; many hundred times he had walked over
the Heck*
and.

go

I told him I should have a pleas-nt Journey;

it prov'd; for cominr; over with I.lrs. Plernoint,

whose maiden name was Gore,
the way*

had diverting discourse all

liet Mr. Walter in his Calash with his wife re­

turnin': home,

were very rind to see one another, he stop-

piny his Calash.

'T w a 3 o ite night oefore we rot to our

house. 1 3 3
A year elapses, and then on August £9, 1717, after a
Thursday lecture—
Note, As I came out of the Meetinghouse, Mr. Eliot's
youth told me Governor Dudley would speak with me.

...

I said, I think it will be best after Dinner; and went
accordi n g l y , after a little \7aitinr on some Probat busi­
ness, v/:.ic j I thought not of.

Governor Dudley mention'd

Christ's pardoning Mary Magdalen; ana God hates putting
away; but did not Insert sine c a usa. . . .

I e r id my

Son had all along insisted that Caution should be given,
that the Infant lately born should not be chargeable to
his Estate.

Governor Dudley no ways came into it; but
139
said 'tv/as best as 'twas, No body knew whose twas.

I b id., pp. 108-109.
1 8 9 I b i d . , p. 137.
Evidently some negotiation had preceded
this, for on the previous April 1 Sewall had written Dudley
saying: "There is" one thing to be Remembred; that convenient
Caution be given, that Mrs. Sewall do not run her Husband in
Debt, without his Order" (L etter-3ook, II, 69).
1 3 8

-o34'

Finally,

on February 23, 1717/18:

M y Son Sajnuel Sewall a n a his wife 3 Ian ana Seal the
’•/ritlngs in order to my Son's

;oin.-; home.

Governor

Dudley a n d I witnesses, Ur. Sam. Lrmde took
nowledgment.
Canary.

Glass of

Governor Dudley took, me into the Old Hall and

gave me ^fcLOO.
ones,

I drank to my Daughter in a

Lhe A c k ­

in Three— pound Bills of Credit,

for my Son; told me on Monday,

he would perform

all that he had -oromised to Mr. Walter.
go home next Monday,

new

Sam agreed to

his wife sendln ~ the Horse for him.

190

A f t e r tills we hear of no more domestic strife at the
Muddy River farm.

It is interesting to note t‘
nat divorce,

permissible in such a case,
ered,

had apparently never been consid­

the remedy employed for the couple's incompatibility

b e in;T rather that which Henry Smith, a Puritan preacher in
the time of Elizabeth,

described as

"holdringj their noses

together till weariness make them leave struggling; like two
spaniels which are coupled in a chain, at last they learn to
go together because they may not go asunder.

A final ob­

servation to be made on the affair is that it was quite ob­
viously deemed unmeet that a daughter of the Governor should
join her more common unchaste sisters at the town whipping post.
Of the fate of the illegitimate child there

is no suggestion.

190Diary. Ill, 173.
1 9 -*-Knapr>en, p.
455.
Three more children were born to the
m a r r i a g e a l l of whom quickly died.
Of the four that had been
born prior to the separation, two died in their first year,
one lived to the age of six a n d another to the age of nine.
(Pi- ry . I, xxvii-xxvlii. )

-£>35-

III
At fils point,

the reader must regard as somewhat super­

fluous the statement that Sewall's life was dominated by re­
ligious concerns.

The fact Is Illustrated in so many aspects

of his life that It becomes completely obvious even while ig­
noring for the most part that v;hich is most pertinent to it,
namely the actual character of nls religious activities,
perience,

and attitudes*

Not to consider these things, how­

ever, would be to Ignore m uch that,
of paramount importance*

to remark,

however,

to Sewall at least, was

To us, many of these same matters

seem either trivial or dull.
worst we are bored.

ex­

At best we are amused,

and rt

As we have more than once had occasion
such reactions are generally the result

either of an inability or a n unwillingness to establish for
ourselves the proper frame of reference.

This Is repeatedly

demonstrated in our attitude toward the P u r i t a n 1s preoccupa­
tion with various questions of behavior and personal dress.
Y'hy, we are Inclined to ask, did presumably intelligent men
so m uch concern themselves with things that are quite obvi­
ously removed from religion's central concern, namely the
relationship of man to his God?

The answer is that they w e ren11

at all obviously removed from that concern,
they were very lively symbols of it indeed.
wright,

that, rather,
As Thomas Cart­

sixteenth century Puritan leader in Sngland,

declared,

early

changes in the dress of ministers of the G-ospel \vere

desired because things such as the cap, tippet, and surplice

had become

**narks of popish abominr tione . - • hurtful monu­

ments of idolatry,

grieving: the godly who hold everything

connected with Antichrist in detestation,
real: brethren bach to Rome*

• • •

Vestiarlan controversy that the term

tending to draw

it was in this so-called
"Puritan" first came into

use, and in it, speaking loosely, the movement may be said to
193
have had its beginning*
In short, the Puritan first became
known as such in a controversy over clothes, and for someone
like Sewall to be Indifferent to such matters meant a loss
of identity as a religious being*
Such an approach to the matter, at any rate, enables one
to view Sewall1 3 life-long campaign against periwigs, for
194
example, with something' besides simple astonishment.
The
Puritans* aversion had originally been to the wearin
hnir,

of long

earnin'- for themselves thereby the derisive name of

Roundheads*

As late as 1675 the Massachusetts magistrates

had inveighed against

"this ill custome, *^^^ana the reverses

suffered in King Philip's

V/ar were regarded as a punish­

ment which God had laid upon the colony for this and other
l 9 2 A. P* Scott Pearson, Thomas Cartwright and Elizabethan
Puritanis m ; 1535-1605 (Cambridge, Engl *, 1925), p* §5, cited.
193See Knappen, p. 433 and app. 1; also, S. Lothrop Thorn­
dike, "The Psalmodies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, "
Col. Soc. of Mass., P r o c * . I (1392-94), 229.
■1'9 4 See Worthington C* Ford, "3 ewall and Noyes on 7,rigs, "
Col. Soc. of Mass., P u b s . , XX (January, 1913), 109-128, for
an exhaustive treatment of this subject.
Because the per­
tinent references in Sewall's diary are so very numerous, the
reader is referred to this article for such of them as are not
here given.
1 95Colonial L a w s , p. 239.
The courts were instructed to fin
admonish, or correct, according to their discretion.

-ZQ7-

such sins of pride*
duction of wigs
tl:;:e*
ly,

T 0£\

Even worse,

however, was the intro­

(from Restoration England) at about this same

This development caused the battlefrorifc :o shift apparent

for most of the portraits of the time show the men with

lochs of sinful length.

Even the scrupulous Sewall appears

wearing his hair down to the shoulders, though he did get it
197
trimmed several tines a year.
If he gave some ground here,
however,

he remained adamant on the score of wigs,

V/hen he

grew old and bald he wore, as our portrait of him shows, a
bl ack s’cull cap for a protection against drafts

(wigs were

frequently justified on grounds of medical necessity), and
when Colonel Townsend twitted him about it, saying he should
get a wig, Sewall was proud to reply that he regarded it as
his

"chief o r n a m e n t , M

As was often the case in such matters,

he found himself left standing more and more alone.

One can

Imagine his dismay when, on M a r c h 19, 1690/1, an apologist for
the new fashion appeared in the person of none other than
Cotton M a t h e r Said one sign of a hypocrit was for a man to strain at a
Gnat a n d swallow a Camel,
an innocent fashion,

. . .

to be zealous against

taken up and used by the best of

men; and yet make no Conscience of being guilty of great
Immoralities.
^^^Llass. Records,

Tls supposed means wearing of P e r r i w i g s :
V, 59,

•^-^See the numerous entries in the pages of tioneys paid
out " at the back of the Ledger,
For the equally numerous
diary entries, see Ford, p. 111,

said would deny themselves in any thing but parti;; ; with
a n opportunity to do God service; thr t so might not offend
"ood Christians.

Meaning,

Perriwig for his health.
cation of Perriwigs

I suppose, was fain to wear a
I expected not to hear a vindi­

in Boston Pulpit by Mr. Llather.

. . .^-98

One by one the other men of God surrendered to fashion, paid
their visits to the Boston

"peruke-king” a Mr. Farnham, and

appeared in their pulpits mcdishly adorned with great mops of
false hair— Pemberton,
own son-in-law,

Wadsworth, Charles Chnuncy, even his
199
V/ill lam Cooper.
In the face of such whole­

sale defection among the righteous,

Sewall made his diary

entry on the death of the ancient schoolmaster,
MA rare Instance of Piety,

Health,

Strength,

Szeklel Cheever:

Serviceableness.

The Wellfare of the Province was m uch upon his Spirit.
c>oo
abominated Perriwigs.
To Nehemlah Walter he wrote:

He
"I

thank you for be^ rin ; me company as far as you can in the
fashion of your Head-Dress.

The Truth is, a Great Person has

furnished me vrlth Perukes Gratis,

these Two and Fifty years,
201
a nd I tf&nt yet find in m y heart to goe to a n o t h e r . M
The
1 9 8 pjg r y , I, 342.
A n d see ibid., p. 102, entry for November
6, 1685, for another case of Justification arguing medical ne­
cessity.
■^^Ibid.,
II, 171, entry for October 24, 1706; ibid. . Ill, 54,
entry for August 18, 1715. See Wertenbaker, The Puritan Oli­
g a rchy. p. 176.
A n earlier wig-maker, William ClenGon, came to a Just and
miserable end on November 29, 1696, ". . • being almost eat up
with Lice and stupified with Drink and cold.
Sat in the
watch-house and was there gaz*a on a good part of the day,
having been
taken up the ni *ht before. " (D i a r y . I, 158.)
200Djr r y ,
II, 231, entry for August 21, 1708.
g01Letter-Book, I, 283, letter dated December 16, 1703.

current was so much against him, particularly among Cotton
Llather* s ,rbest " people,
a arievin;- silence.

that for the most part he maintained

Occasionally,

be knorn, as when Joslah V.’lllard,
'is hair,

nov/ever, he let his mind
son of his pastor,

"a very full head of h a i r . "

cut off

Sewall went to see him——

Told his Mother what I came about, and she call'd him.
I ennuired of him what Extremity had forced him to put off
hi 3 own hair, a n d put on a Wig; ;?

He answered, none at all.

But said that his H a i r was straight, and that it parted
behlnde.

Seem'd to argue that men ml^ht as well shave

their hair off their head, as off their face.

I answered

men were men before they had hair on their faces,
of mankind have never any).
our Hair as a Test,

(half

God seams to have ordain'd

to see whether we can bring; our minds

to be content to be at ills finding; or whether we would be
our own Carvers, Lords, and come no more to Him.

. ..

He seem'd to s a y would leave off his Wig;:; when his hair
was grown,

I spake to his Father of it a day or two after

He thank'd me that had discoursed his Son, and told me that
when his hair was ~rown to cover his ears, he promis'd to
leave off his 7/lgr;.
bidden him.

If he had known of it, would have for­

His Mother heard him talk of it; but was afrai

positively to forbid him; lest he sho 'Id do it, and no be
more faulty.202
202P l a r y . II, 36-37, entry for June 10, 1701.

Several months after this he made his protest felt by absenting
himself fron his customary place in Mr. Villard's audience and
went to hear Hr.

Coleman at the Brattle Street church Instead,

where he was pleased to perceive that

'Hr. Coleman* s people were

much gratified by my giving them my Company,
persons expres'd themselves so, "

Several considerable

Of his various old acquaint­

ances among the milita.ry leaders who had succumbed to the fash204
ion,
lie managed, it would seem, to surprise at least one into
some thoujhtfulness on the subject:

*'In t.ie morning’ [of Janu­

ary 16, 1703/4J walls* d v:lth M a jor V/alley,
Mr.

Calef,

constable Franklin,

at my house,

Capt, Timothy Clark,

to visit disorderly poor; Met

Capt Clark took up his Y/igg:

I said would have

him consider that one place; The Bricks tire fallen & c.
here men cut down the sycamores.

He seem'd startled.

But
PO *5

Another matter of intense preoccupation with Sewall con­
cerned the keepin , of holidays.

From the very beginning, a

cardinal point in the Puritan* s creed had been the abrogation
of all ecclesiastical festivals as smelling of Rome,

The

Sabbath alone was to be o b s e r v e d . ^ Thus we find Sewall,
^Q^ I b l d . , pp. 48-49,

entry for November 30, 1701,

2C4See the Diary, II, 33, entry for April 7, 1701; ibid. .
p. 152-153, entry for January 12, 1705/6; i b i d .. p. 406,
entry for November 5, 1713,
205ibiQ-> a pp. 92-93,
Isaiah 9:10: **The bricks are fallen
down, but we will build with hewn stones; the sycamores are
cut down, but we will change them into cedars. "
2°€>T7 illiam
Love, Fast and Thanks giving Days of New Eng­
land (Boston, 1895), p. 32,
The first two chapters of this
work are a well-documented description of the background of
the Puritan view of this subject.
At the end of the century,
Ned Vard, A Trip to New England, p. 5, could write: "Election,
Commencement, and Training-days, are their only Holy-days. . •

almost two centuries after the battle on this Issue had first
been Joined, writing in his diary:

"Yesterday [August 17, 1706 J

the G-overnor committed LIr. Holyoke's Almanack to me; and looking
it over this morning,
March,

I blotted against February 1 4 V 1 Valentine;

25* A n n unciation of the B. V i r g i n ;

September 29. M i c h a e l m a s ;

Apr. 24, E a s t e r ;
207
December 25 Christmas. . . . "

On /^pril 1 of the same yean* he had written to Boston's school­
masters,

Ezekiel Che ever and Nathaniel '.*’111 lams, as follows:
If men are accountable for every idle word; what

a Reckoning will they have,
promote L y ing a n d Folly!
Time; what a Profanation!
Bestower of it!

thrt keep up stated Times,

to

What an abuse is it of precious
7/hat an Affront to the Divine

I have heard a child of Six years old say

within these 2 or 3 days; That one must tell a nan his
Shoes were unbuckled (when they were indeed buckled) and
then he would stoop down to Buckle then; and. then he was
an April Fool.
Pray Oentlemen,
you will,

if you think it convenient, as I hope

Insinuat into your Scholars,

the defiling and

provoking* nature of such a Foolish practice; and take them
off from i t . 2 0 8
Similarly,

eleven years later:

In the morning I dehorted Sam. Hirst and G-rlndal
Rawson from playing Idle Tricks because 'twas the first
2 0 7

D i a r y . IX* 229-230,

203Ibid.,

Ill,

217.

entry for August 13, 1708.

of April;

They were the greatest foolc th- t did so.

M e n cane hither to avoid anniversary cays,
them.

. . .

IT.E.

the keeping of

How displeasing must it be to God, the giver

of our Time,

to keep anniversary days to play the fool with
P09
ourselves a m others.
The main attack, however,
Christmas.

centered on the observance of

In 1659 the General Court had passed a law whereby

whoever should be found keeping the day
labor,

,rby forbearing to

feasing or any other w a y ” was to be fined five shillings.*

One of the demands of Charles II's commissioners to New England
In 1665 was that this law be repealed as being obviously against
the laws of England.

Finally,

ning to be threatened,

in 1631, with the Charter begin­

it was

the Charter had been lost,

“left out, " and in 16S5, after
PH
the law was formally annulled.

ITot for someone like Sewall, however,
more

to whom nothing gave

satisfaction than trie opportunity to observe on each Christ­

ian,s day that business in the community was going on pretty much
Has formerly. "

In the same year (1635) that the lav; against

Christmas observance was annulled,

he wrote:

Carts cone to Town and Shops open as is usual.

"Dec. 25. . . .
Some somehow

observe the day; but are vexec I believe that the Body of the
People prophane it, and blessed be God no Authority yet to
212
compell then to keep it. " ' On the following Sunday he heard
Ib id. , p. 217, entry for April 1, 1719*
ill lam C. Fowler, Local Lav; in Massachusetts a n d Connec­
ticut (Albany, 1872), p. 27, citdd.
2 0 9

^ liass. Records, II,
tan A g e , p. 259.
2 1 2 Di ary . I, 114.

212, and V, 476.

See Ellis, The Puri­

-o9o-

Mr. Allen preach against observance of the day,
Anti-christian Heresie:

Spohe against the Name.

21 b

began in the Tongue. "

Canker

On Christinas day, 16S6, G-overnor

Andros, who had arrived

Just five days before, held special

cervices in the Townhouse,

'fe Red-Co^t going on

hand and Capt. G-eorge on his left. "
shops open . . .

"Called It

his right

Nevertheless,

". • •

generally and persons about their occasions.
PI A

Some, but few. Carts at

Town with wood. . . . "

A few other

of these annual entries

are worth recording for the glimpses

they give of the every day Boston scene:
[1694] Shops are open, men at work; Carts of Pork,
215
Coal, \’Iood come to Town as on other days.

Hay,

[1697] Snowy day:

Shops are open, and Carts and

sleds come to Town with V/ood and Fagots as formerly.

...

This morning we read in course the 14, 15, and 16"^ Psalms.
. . .

I took occasion to dehort mine from Christmas-

keeping, and charged them to forbear.
q
6

. and betty, Luke,

Hannah reads Daniel,

g

12."

* * * * * • # • # • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

[1705] Very cold Day but Serene Morning, Sleds, Slays,
and Horses pass as usually, and shops open.
213

Ibid.

2 1 4

Ibla., p. 163.

2 1 5

Ibld., p. 396.

2 1 6

Ibid., p. 466.

2 1 7

Ibid., II, 150.

[1711 j I took v.ith me J osegh, Han:.; h, on;l Judith; on
rent tc Brooklin In LIr. 5ims
[l:is grandcrild], 5, LConeths
last Lor-lt- da;^ niaht.

. . .

f:r f .e multitude of Sleds c
returning.

[1716j Shops are open,
other tines.

ano sleds come to Torn as at

I rent to Oa.nlrid/re to v*ish Hr. Brattle Joy

and found the Ferry-boat ere* "bed much rith pa ssenters
21Q
coning to Torn: ana so toi ng dp cl: at my Return.
On one occRslcn the price of 1:1s righteousness proved
infullv high:
[December id, 169=.]

It seen?

tl.e Lieutenant Governour

[Sou-phton] invites the Council to Dinner to morrow at his
house [Serall be in.; omitted because of his feelings about
anythin'" that would suggest s p e c i a l observance on that
dayj . . . .

The G-rievousness of t.is proetermission is,

that by this means I shall be taken up into the lips of
Talkers, and shall be obnoxious to the Gove m o ur [Bellonontj at his coming, as a person deserted an- fit to be
hunted down,

if occasion be; and in the mean time,

shall

goe feebly up and down my Business, as one who is oulte
gl 8 Ibi d ., p. 550.
219I b l d . .

Ill,

115.

out of the Lieutenant (Jovernour's favour.
my share in

The Lord pardon

the abounding of Iniquity by reason whereof

the Love of many waxes cold.
The question of publicly
the

General Court for the day

1722.

observing Christmas by adjourning
came up for the first tine

in

Governor Shute, an Episcopalian and therefore in favc:

of the idea, took Sewall aside in the Council chamber and asked
him what he thought.
it.

"

Uext day he

the

ma.tter should

Sewall replied that he

"would consider of

consulted with Cotton Mather, who felt that
be put to a vote of the Council and tieHouse

of Representatives.

On December 21,

The Governour took me to the window age.in . . .

and

spake tc me again about adjourning the Court to next Wed­
nesday.

I spake against it; and propounded that the

Governour would take a Vote for it. . • .
went to the

Board again, and said much for this adjourning;

All kept Christmas but we; I
. . .

His Excellency

suggested K. James the first

how he boasted what a pure church he had; and they

did not keep Yule nor Pasch.
Mr.

Dudley ask* a if the Scots kept Christmas.

Excellency protested, he believ'd they did not.

His

Governour

said they adjourn'd for the Commencement and Artillery
[training day].

But then 'tls by- Agreement.

spake so loud and boisterously for Adjourning,
hard for any to put in a word.
220Ibid., I, 439.

. . .

Col. Taylor
that 'twas

I said the Dissenters

came a great way for their Liberties and now the [Episco­
pal]) Church had theirs, yet they could not be contented,
except t h e y might Tread all others down.
The Governor went ahead and adjourned the Court; wherefore on
December 25 Sewall

"chose to stay at home ana not go to Rox-

bury Lecture, " which might seem to savor of observance.
stead, he visited his

"old friend and Carpenter, Peter 7/eare,

but found him gon to h[eavenj.
in the Horning.

In­

He expired about one a-clock

He was quiet, minded his own business,

eat

ills own Bread, was nntlquls morlbus, prlsca fide, about 73.
T ^ 1*221
years old.
Like his friend Peter Weare,

Sewall could be depended

on to stand for things as they were in the good old days,
whether the matter at hand concerned the wearing of wigs, the
observance of Christmas,

the manner of o.-th-taking (the hand

should be lifted up, not laid on the Bible: man "must Swear
222
by his Creator, not Creature"),
dancing around the Maypole
2 2 1 Ibid.. Ill,

314-316.

^ ^ I b i d . , I, 201, entry for January 31, 1687/3. At the first
meeting of the Superior Court under the Dudley government, after
the loss of the Charter, "the Foreman of the Grand-Jury, Capt.
Hollbrook, swore laying his hand on the Bible, and one or two
more. . • • Others swore lifting up their hands, as formerly."
(Ibid., p. 145, entry for July 27, 1686.)
In tne next year
several oersons were fined and Imprisoned for refusal to con­
form (lb'ld.. p. 212, entry for February 8 , 1697/3; ibid., pp.
203, 212, entries for March 30 and May 10, 1633).
The rather pathetic character of Sewall's position is
indicated in his experience on June 7, 1688:
U r . Dudley and
Stoughton call here*.
In comes Mr. West and hath one Mr. Newton,
a newcomer, sworn an Attorney.
Mr. Dudley ask'd for a Bible,
I ask'd if it might not better be done without.
He laugh'd
and seein a Bible by accident, rose up and took it. " (Ibid.,
o. 216.)

(In 1637 one was set up at Charlestown by sailors from the
English frigate K ln.gf Is h e r ;
one wag put In Its place with

when It was cut down

p.

bl^er

%. G-arland upon It M) , 2 2 3

naming of the days of the week (so that

the

"in stead of Tuesday,

Thursday, and 3atterday In every Week, it might be said,
Third, fifth and seventh, " a change for which Sewall strove hnr
but he

". . . could not prevail, liaruly one in the Council"
224
bein ; willing to second him),
or the "Inconvenient Innovation
of saying

"Saint Luke, and Salrt James &c. " ( ". . . not Scrip­

tural . . . absurd and partial to [say 3 Saint Llatthew &c. and
Hot to say Saint Hoses,

Saint Samuel &c*

And if we said Saint

we must goe thorough, and keep the Holydays appointed for them
t

•

•

if\ 225
/ •

To someone like Sewall,

such tilings as wigs, maypoles,

and a new manner of oath-taking appeared as signs of a dlsasrous change that had cone to the Bible Commonwealth*
ouite right*

As Professor Wertenbaker has remarked:

A n d he was
"One

wonders whether the ministers, as they looked out from beneath
their borrowed locks over the wig-adorned heads of their congre
gatlons,

stopped to think of their own warnings against 'pride

of hair,' or to admit to themselves that their own surrender
2 2 3

Ibid. , p. 173, entry f or Llav

£6

and £7.

2 2 4 Ibid., o. 423,
entry for June 11, 1696.
He "urg'd that
the V/eek only, of all parcels of time, was of Divine Insti­
tution, erected by God as a monumental pillar for a memorl'l
of the Creation. . . . "
See the comment in Dexter, p* 459*
2 2 5 Lett^r-Book,
I, 370-371, letter to Henry Flint dated
August 23, 17087 and Diary, II, 232, entry for August 27, 1708.

-o9S-

was a convincing evidence of the ’spiritual decay* wlich they
so deeply deplored* '*226

weakness Q f Sewall* s position lay

in the fact that in something like the dress of one's hair he
v/as dealing with an outward symbol of a cause v; ich, with the
passage of two centuries, had lost much of its force.
a symbol which,
personally,

for most of his generation,

It was

if not for him

time hid decayed, ana in his preoccupation with

it he comes to seem both pathetic and absurd.
The establishment of trie provincial government in Massa­
chusetts meant the arrival of numerous
governors,

"strangers"--Royal

soldiers of the King, minor government officials—

men whose ideas concerning the good life were frequently far
removed from those of m e n like Sewall.

Under their Influence,

the lighter side of life in the community underwent a compara­
tively rapid development.

Roisterers appeared in the streets

at night ( "singing as they come . . .
• • •

Inflamed with Drink.

Such high-handed wickedness has hardly been heard of
p 0*7

before in Boston");

celebrators of the Queen's birthday and

of Coronation day desecrated the Sabbath ( 'llade a great Fire
in the Evening [Saturday]], many Hussas. "

"Down Sabbath, Up

Saint George M) ;22^Pranksters marched in the streets on Shrove
Tuesday playing their outlandish tricks (a man appearing with
"a Cock at his back, with a Bell in's hand . . .

severall

226The Puritan Oligarchy, p. 176.
2 2 7 D i a r y , I, 150-151,
entry for September 3, 1686.
Ibid., p. 152, entry for September 25, 1686; ibid., II,
101, entry for April 23, 1704.
2 2 8

follow him blindfold, and under pretence of striking him or's
cock, with great cart-whlps strike passengers [of passing
£2Q

vehicles}

• • • M) J

array'd In white,
advanced, "

duellers paraded through the town ( "one

the other In red • • • v;lth naked Swords

the victor appearing later

Drumm and about 7. drawn Swords,

"accompanyed with a

Shouting . . .

In a kind

of Tryumph ") ?o9a room at the Castle Tavern was f '.::ed up

"for

a man to shew Tricks In" ( "It seems the Room is fitted with
S e a t s " ) — abomination after aboalnation.
of 1714 there was even talk of having

In the spring

*<a Play acted in the

Council-Chamber, " a thing which Sewall found ouite beyond
belief.

To Isaac Addington,

Secretary of State, he wrote:

"• • . a s much as in me lyes,

I do forbid it.

were very fond of their Plays:

The Romans

but I never heard they were

so far set upon them, as to turn their Senat-House into a
Play-House.

.. .

Let not Christian Boston goe beyond

Heathen Rome in the practice of shamefull Vanities.
Whether or not because of S e w a l l 1s protests,
mance apparently never came off.

the perfor­

Other things, however,

he was powerless to do anything about.

The organist of

K i n g ’s Chapel, Edward 2nstone, who became a dancing master
233
with the approval of his church, could not be touched, °
229Ibid., p. 167, entry for February 15, 1636/7.
250Ibid., pp. 173, 175-6, entries for April 22, 25, 28, 1637
251l b i d .. p. 196, entry for December 4, 1687.
25%jetter-3ook. II, 29-30, letter dated March 2, 1713/14.
253p i a r y . Ill, 111, entry for November 29, 1716, and editors
note.

-400-

and neither,

of course,

could u-overnor Shute, who patronized

horse racing and staged balls that lasted far Into the morning.

234

The opposition of men like Sewall to so many of the things
which their unregenerate brothers enjoyed has fostered the Idea
that the Puritan's existence was a barren and joyless one.
Idea is one that,
much truth.

from our point of view, certainly contains

The Puritan, however, would challenge It.

satisfactions,

The

Lien's

he might point out, are where they find them.

The founders of Massachusetts crossed the ocean sea in pursuit
of what they thought to be the good life, and, careless of
deprivations a n d hardships,

found it In their Wilderness Zion.

That they actually did find It there Is a fact for which Sewall
supplies ample illustration.

Though not of the first generation,

he was yet close enough to it (he had come from England in 1661
as a boy of nine to the frontier town of Newbury, which his
father had helped to found not many years before)
Its

"primitive glories

to remember

and though, as we have earlier noted,

his own career contained elements exemplifying the growing
secular interest of the colony,

it contained much more that

was faithful to the spirit of the fathers,

so much so, in fact,

that by the end of his life he had come to be a kind of vene­
rated anachronism,
fasting,

relic of an age that was pact.

reading of Scripture,

Prayer and

singing of psalms, attendance

at meeting, pious meditation, and a close and pleasant com­
munion with other Godly

*Wew English Christians "--these were,

254Ibld., p. 193, entry for September 8, 1718; ibid., p.
158, entry for January 7, 1717/ld.

-401-

for hln, pi\'me Ingredients of the good life,
^ood life.

If It had not been,

^ncl it was a

his diary would not continue

to be read a n d enjoyed well over two centuries after it was
rritten.

It remains alive because its author found pleasure

and excitement

in the N e w Eng l a n d world that he knew.

Consider the matter of the Puritan sermon.

Looking

through the pages of the numerous little books in which
Sewall kept careful notes of the many sermons that he heard
(in the long - e s t a b l i s h e d Puritan tradition of "writing after
>r—
tine preacher"),
the present-day reader is appalled by the
flat and commonplace

character of what apparently was his ordl
22 g
nary fare at meeting,
S e v / u l l was not appalled however; more
^ ^ I n the opening pages of S c o t t 1 s Woodstock there appears
a description of church-goers of 1652 carrying "their Bibles
and memorandum-books at their girdles, Instead of knife and
sword, " Scott gives as his authority an anonymous comedy
called "The Puritan, or the v.'idow of ‘Vatling Street, " which
was acted as early u s 1607.
A stage direction in this play
reads: "Enter Nicholas St, Antlings, ’.Vlmon St. Mary-Overies,
and Frailty, In blank Scurvy mourning-coats, with books at their
girdles, as coming from church. "
John Hull's serrnon note books for the years 1671-79 are
discussed and described by Edm u n d S. IIorgan, liight on the
Puritans from J o h n Hull's notebooks, " New England Quarterly,
X V (March, 1942), 95-141.
P3fi
See the D i a r y , III, 2 6 , editors' note, for a similar re­
action to these same sermon notes.
Their character may be
suggested by three or four brief random excerpts.
On M a r c h
29, 1691— H r . h’illard • • • Rev. 22. 17. vid. n. 22. — T.7ater
of Life; all the Benefits it has purchased. / Doct. Those
glorious Benefits of Christ whi c h are freely offered to all,
are fully suited to there wants; & compleatly sufficient to
make them happy for ever.
Water slakes thirst.
(1) Thirst
is natural to*sensitive living creatures.
Every one desires
happiness. Ps. 4.6.
(2) natural thirst is profitable & delightfull to the creature .• .," etc.
O n February 7, 1635/6, he heard James A l l e n
speak on
"Cant. 7.4.
Thy Nose is as the Tower of Lebanon
which looketh

often than not he
"Spake well, "

"was m u c h ref resh' d. M

Hade

good work of It, w

Expressions such as
'Preached excellently"

appear a thousand times In the diary, and when he was forced
by an occasi onal brief Illness to miss a service or two he
felt that providenae was using him rougiily Indeed.
that he might as well
to cry,

The Idea

"read a good booh at home M caused him

"Fy for Shamet

The presenting our selves before GOD
238
in the solemn Assembly cannot be dispensed with. "
When, in

1721, Hr. Prince announced but one service for Thanksgiving
Day,

Sewall was m u c h disturbed that

should. . . .

"so great an Alteration

have been made; v/ithout the Knowledge and Agree­

ment of the Counclllours and other Justices In Town, met
toward Damascus. / By the Nose meant the gift of God's Spirit
h e r e b y Believers Scent and discern evil Sc avoid it. / Doct.
•Tin a part of the Spiritual beauty of Christ's Churcn to be
watchfull against Enemies . . ., " etc., through six close-packed
pages of development.
C:i October 5, 1707, he heard ISr. Pemberton:
''Revel. 5. 12.
Saying with a loud Voice, '"orthy is the Lamb that was Slain.
Doct.
Our crucified J. is Justly accounted worthy of Supream
Homage Veneration & Praise.
1. Christ is worthy in Himself.
2. Our crucified S* is Justly accounted Worthy by o t h e r s . " The
topic is d e v e l o p e d under eight heads and concluded w ith five
suitable "inferences. **
, the D i a r y . Ill, 391-293, entry for June 2, 1728.
The kind of sermon that Sewall heard is what he termed "plain
but Orthodox" (k etter-Book. II, 174, letter to Governor Saltonstall dated September 5, 1724). The sinner-in-the-hands-of-anangry-God type*of thing did not become common until toward the
middle of the eighteenth century, in the years of the Great
Revival.
As Perry Miller, New England Mind, p. 68, says, "A
Puritan preacher never surrenders to feeling; he does not
celebrate the glories of religion in sustained paeans or bring
home its terrors by shouting, but argues his way step by step,
inexorably disposing of ^oint after point, quoting Biblical
verses, citing*authorities, watching for fallacies in logic,
drawing upon the sciences for analogies, utilizing any infor­
mation that seems pertinent. "
258L e 1 1 e r - B o o k , II, 182, letter to Rev. Timothy Woodbridge
dated February Js5, 1724/5.

— 405'

together for that purpose I M
lege we In Boston had,

He declared, that

that might have two.

"tv/as the prlvi -

...

On WednesdP.y evening of each week was the meeting of the
South Church Society at the home of one of Its members, a
group which he joined shortly after his arrival in the Hull
household (John Hull bein^ a charter member) and of which he
continued a faithful member throughout the more than half a
j?40
century of his life in boston*
The chara.cter of these
meetings is suggested by the following entry in Sewall's
dia r y :
Novem*

27, 1676.

. . .

This uay at even went to

a private meeting; held at Ur. ITath. Y/illlams*s.

Emaus

Smith spake well to Script. Philip 2.5. latter part.
Smith spake more to my satisfaction than before.

Note,

The first Conference meeting that ever I was at, was at
our House, Aug. 50,

'76

at which Anna Q u i n s e y was stand­

ing against the Closet door next the Entry.
spake to Ps. 119.9.
Olivers:

Mr. Smith

The next was Oct. 16, at Mrs.

Capt. Henchman spake well to Heb. 6.18.

The 7/ednesday following I was < t Sandwich.
The 3d at Mr. Hill's.
£Hull] spake
259p iar.v. Ill,

Goodm. Heedan and ray Father

to Heb* 3.12. Nov. 1.
293,

294, entries for October

15, 20, and 26.

240See Dexter, p. 456; Hull's Diary,pp. 254-255, ed. note;
Hill. History of the Old South Church, p. 120.
A n Interesting
suggestion of the place of Hull in Sewall's life is in his
saying, less than two years before he died, of a woman recently
dead:
"She was of my Father Hull's privat Meeting [i.e., the
V/ednesday night group] . . . " (D i a r y . Ill, 391, entry for March
26, 1723).

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I

Tvro Pa^es from Sewall* s Old South Society Notebook

I

-404-

^

1.

The 4

, Nov. 15, at Ur. Wings where Hr. Willard

spake well to that proper piece, Halach,

3, 16.

The 5^^, at LIrs. Tapp ins, where Ur. Sanford and
Ur. Noyes spake to 1 later,
after.

G^,

5.7.

Nov.

22. Ur. Fox prayed

jjov. 29, at LIrs. Aldens, where Ur. Williams

and Wing spake to Heb.
of the ensuing Fast.
^
^ 241
first.

5.7.

Dec. 6. no meeting because

The 7 * . at Ur. Williams's mentioned

From entries in the notebook which he carried with him to
these Wednesday night meetings we find that some of the ques­
tions discussed were as f o l l o w s :
Wlmt is

this love of the world which is so perilous?

How may

we know whether our eyes be

turned away from

vanity . . .?
How may we knov; w hen God's providentlall stroakes are
his Love chastisements?
What is the good that a Christian should learn by
affliction?
How a Christian may know that Christ hath Loved him
in particular.
'That is

to walk worthy of God • . .?

What is

it to be rooted and built up in Christ • . •?

What is

it to be filled with Joy and

Abound in hope?
24lPl->ry, I, 28-30.

peace and to

-405—

It Is Interesting to note that when,

in the Inter years,

Josiah Franklin was the Wednesday night host, a youthful
member of the audience was probably his boy Benjamin,

en­

joying the Puritan child's privilege of sitting ouite still
.
£42
at meeting*
Thursday afternoon brou ht the weekly lecture, which was
essentially a repetition of one of the Sabbath hay services*
From the first years of the colony Lecture day had been an
extremely popular institution, and though its hold on the
people was weakening at the beginning of the eighteenth centu­
ry,

dam Knight found on her visit to Boston in 1704 that

the people still found their diversions in "Lecture days and
Training days mostly, " on the first of which, as she says,
245
there was "Riding from town to town* "
This last mentioned
custom is illustrated innumerable times in the pages of Sewall's
diary, as witness the following series of entries:
? -^See, for example, the D i ary, II, 530-331, entry for April
29, 1713, when Benjamin was in his eighth year.
The editors
comment on the possibility of his being present*
243Knar>pen, pp* 221-222, remarks of the English beginnings
of this institution that, since a long and difficult prepara­
tion for the Sunday sermon was assumed,
. that age t^he
Tudorl saw nothing incongruous in having an extra clergyman
attached to a parish for preaching duties alone. • • •
The
result was that lectureships sprang up on all sides, salaried
posts which did not involve pastoral duties or the use of the
Prayer Book. "
The best sources for details of the Puritan service are
Byington, The Puritan in England and New England, pp. 139-153,
and Dexter, Congregationalism, p'p* 452-453.
See Dexter, p.
457, on the Thursday lecture*
£44 p j a r y , I, 452, entry for April 3, 1697.
Cotton Mather
reproves the people for not attending better.
Journal, p* 52.

-406-

Friday [[December 23, 1687} goe to Charlestown Lecture.
•

•

•

Sabbath,
Church.

25.

Have the Lord's Supper at the South

. . •

V’eanesaay, Jan. 4.

Rode to Camcridje-Lecture, Hr.

John Bayly preached from Ephes. 2.1.
Visited Aunt Mitchell and Cousin Fissenden, where I
dined In Company of him,

his wife ano. father Chany.

Very

cold day, yet got hone comfortably.
x,p

Tuesday,

Jan. 10..A 1687/8.

Carried Mother Hull on

m y Horse to Roxbury-Lecture, where Mr. Moodey preached
from John 15.6.

shewing,

tizing from Christ,
the President,

that not abiding in, or aposta­

is a ruinating evil.

a n d Unkle Quinsey there.

comfortable day.

Mr. Stoughton,
A very pleasant

. . .

Thorsday, Jan. 12.

. . .

Mr. Allen preaches the

r
4246
Lecture.
The Lecture days were thus staggered among towns in the Boston
vicinity so that an enthusiast like Sewall could have the
pleasure of attending one almost at his desire.

On his many

travels through the outlying districts he often stayed over
at a place (as, of course, he invariably did if it were Sunday)

especially to hear a lecture.

Thus, on a visit to New­

bury in 1686 he stopped at Salem,where he
246D i a r y . I, 198-199.

"lodged 2 nights

for the sake of Mr. Noyes's Lecture, who preached excellently
of Humility,

from the woman's washing Christ's feet. 1,247

A final type of church service was that which accompanied
the day of public fasting and prayer, a thing of frequent
occurrence In the Puritan community.

The following declaration

made by the General Court on Hay 27, 1635,

sufficiently sug­

gests the object a n d occasion of this particular type of re­
ligious observance:
This Court having taken into their serious considera­
tion, that in respect of afflictive Sicknesses in many
Places, and some Threateniigs of Scarcity

as to our neces­

sary food, and upon other Accounts also, we are

under

solemn Frowns of the Divine Providence; being likewise
sensible,

that

World are In a

the People of God

in other parts

of the

low Estate,

Do therefore appoint the Sixteenth day of July next,
to be set apart as a Day of puolick H u m 1 1 latlon by Fasting
and Prayer throughout the Colony,
the Lord's Remembrancers,
62.7.

exhorting all who are

to give Him no rest,

till Isai.

He establish and make Jerusalem a Praise in the

Earth:

A n d do hereby prohibit the Inhabitants of this
248
Jurisdiction all servile Labour upon the said Day.

Five years before tills, the Dutch traveller, Jaspar Danckaerts,
247I b id., p. 143, entry for June 5.
248Cooied into the D i ary. I, 84, under date of June 25.
July
16 was a Thursday, the usual day for fasts in New England.
In
England the favored day was Friday, or, if there were two in
a week, then Friday and Wednesday, both of which days the Puri­
tans wished to avoid.
(See Love, Fast and Thanksgiving Days,
o. 43.)

408'

visited Boston and attended a fast-day service at one of its
churches*

"We went into the c h u r c h , M he says,

"where, in the

first place, a minister made a prayer in the pulpit,

of full

two hours in length; after which an old minister delivered a
sermon an hour long, and after that a prayer was made, and
s o .,2 verses sun^ out of the Psalms.

In the afternoon three

or four hours were consumed with nothing except Prayers,

three

ministers relieving each other alternately; when one was tired
249
another went up into the pulpit. M
Sewall, after a spiritual
marathon such as this, would note in his diary that

"twas a

good day.
Sewall*s power of endurance, or, better perhaps,
measure of his content,

the

In this type of exercise is wonder­

fully Illustrated by an entry in which he sets down a netltion which he sent up

0:1

one of his own frequent,

days of fasting and prayer.
24 9

Journa l , p. 261,

self-imposed,

It reads as follows 5

entry for June 28, 1680.

^50F.g*, D i ary. Ill, 140, entry for September 25, 1717.
How
far Danchaerts is from exaggerating the facts is Indicated in
the following entries in the Diary. I, 76:
— Thorsday May 14th [16853 • • • Have agreed to have
a Fast here at cur house next Friday. . . .
I invited all
the Magistrates:
to most writ the following words—
• • •
wSir--The Ministers of this Town are desired to Pray and
Preach at my House next Friday, to begin about half an hour
past Nine; which. I acquaint you with that so yourself and
Wife may have the opportunity of being present. . . . “
— Friday May 22d* 1685, had a private Fast: the Mag­
istrates of this town with their Wives here. Mr. Eliot
prayed, Mr. Willard preached.
I am afraid of Thy Judgments
— Text Mother [Hull] gave.
Mr. Allen prayed; cessation
half an hour*
Mr. Cotton prayed;
Mr. [Increase] Mather
preached Ps. 79, 9. Mr. Moodey prayed about an hour and
half; Sung the 79th Psalm from the 8th to the End: distri­
buted some Blshets, and Beer, Cider, Wine. . . .

The appointment: of a Judge for the Super.

Court being to

be made upon next Fifth day, Febr. 12, I pray*d G-od to
Accept me in keeping a prlvat day of Prayer with Fasting
for That and other Important Matters?

I kept it upon the

Third day Febr. 10. 1707/3 in the upper Chamber at the
North-East end of the House,

fastening the Shutters next

the S t r e e t . ----- — Perfect what is lacking in my Faith,
and in the faith of my dear Yokefellow.

Convert my chil­

dren; especially Samuel and Hannah; Provide Rest and Set­
tlement for Hanah:

Recover Mary,

Save Judith, Elisabeth

and Joseph;

Requite the Labour of Love of my Kinswoman

Jane Tappin,

Give her health,

find out Rest for her.

Make

David a man after thy ovm heart, Let Susan live and be bap­
tised with the Holy Ghost, a n d with fire.

Relations.

Steer

the Government in this difficult time, when the Governour
and many others are at so m uch V a r i a n c e ;
overrule on the Councll-day fifth-day,

Direct,

incline,

Febr. 12. as to the

special V/ork of it in filling the Super.

Court with Justices;

or any other thing of like nature; as Plimouth lnfer[ior}
Court.

Bless the Company for propagation of the Gospel,

e s p e c i a l l y } Governour Ashurst &c.

Revive the Business of

Religion at Natick and accept and bless John Neesnumin who
went thither last week for that end.
tucket.

Mr. Rawson at Nan­

Bless the South Church in preserving and spiriting

our Pastor;

in directing unto suitable Supply, and making the

Church unanimous;

Save the Town, College; Province from

Invasion of Enemies, open,

Secret, and from false Brethren;

-410'

Defend the Purity of v/orship.
their New Governour:
Government.
ca;

Save Connecticut, bless

Save the Keformation under N. Yorh

Reform all the European Plantations In Ameri­

Spanish, Portuguese, English,

this New World,
Superabound;

French,

Dutch;

Save

that where Sin hath abounded, Grace may

that CHRIST who is stronger, would bind the

strong man and spoil his house; anu order the T.7ord to be
given, Babylon is fallen.-----out her Life a n a Reign.
stoop £Job 9:133,

Save our Gueen, lengthen

Save France, make the P r oud helper

Save all Europe; Save Asia, Africa,

Europe and America.
Ha ends by saying that

"these were general heads of my Medi­

tation and prayer; a n d through the bounteous Grace of GOD,
251
had a very Comfortable day of it.

I

Sewall fo’und such private sessions very satisfying, or,
252
to use his own word, “sweet. "
In addition to the pleasures
which prayer afforded,

however,

it served the eminently practi­

cal end of obtaining God's help in innumerable causes •
ously he could,

if he wished,

heal the sich,

Obvi­

end a drouth, or

251D i a r y . II, 216-217.
25J~E.g., ibid., p. 6, entry for February 13, 1699/1700.
It is interestin': to note that, because of its association
with the earliest days of New England, the meetinghouse at
Plymouth was for him a special shrine, a n d he never stopped
over in the town without goin_; into it for a secret session
of urayer. See, for example, i bid. , p. 75, entry for April 1,
1703; ibid., o. 97, entry for M a r c h 29, 1704; ibid. , p. 182,
entry Tor' "March 27, 1707; ibid. . pp. 27S-277, entry for March
23, 1710; ibid. . p. 575, entry for April 1, 1713; ^blo,., III,
128, entry for April 26, 1717; iklii.» P* 1S4, entry for April
30, 1718.

-4:11

rout the Indian foe.

P r o o f of this was

w ich he a i d these very things.

In the frequency wit h

The fact thit on m a n y occa­

sions he a i d not was no Indication of the Inefficacy of
prayer;

it simply d e m o n s t r a t e d the unworthiness of the sup­

plicants*

A n o t h e r p r o o f of prayer's effectiveness was

disastrous results of Its toeing neglected.
emmple,

in the

One morning,

for

w h e n Sewall

"went • • • out w i t h o u t private p r a y e r "
253
his horse r a n a way a n d he "took great c o l d In rhlsJ ear. "
A n o t h e r time,

while

stopping o v e r at P l y m o u t h —

not w i t h m y Servant b e i n g weary;
for one:

"I p r a y ' d

seeing no Chamber-pot calld

A little b e f o r e day I usa it in the Bed, a n d the

b o t t o m came out, a n d all the w a t e r run u p o n me.

I was amazed,

not k n o w i n g the b o t t o m was out till I felt it in the bed.
Trouble & Disgrace of it d i d afflict me.
Light,

As

The

soon as it was

I calld up m y m a n & he m a d e a fire & w a nnd me a clean

sheet & I put it on, & was comfortable.

How unexpectedly man

may be Exposdi

There is no S e c u r i t y but in God, who is to be
, . ,
_
.|254
sought by Prayer. "
This is but one of Innumerable

incidents in w h i c h he was

able to dis c e r n e i t h e r a potent moral l e s s o n or the portentous
w o r k i n g of God's b u s y hand.
2 5 3 Ibid.,

I# 42,

Thus, on J a n u a r y 15, 1676/7:

entry follows that for April 30, 1677.

^®^Entry for M a r c h 27, 1706.
These lines have been omitted
from the p u b l i s h e d Diary as "unsuitable for p u b l i c a t i o n " (see
Vol. II, 157, editors' note).
Since, however, the editors
describe the o m i s s i o n as involving “a m o r t i f y i n g accident which
befel him in the night, " the reader is m o v e d to speculations
which, if anything, exceed the a m u s i n g fact.

J

-412-

Glving m y chickens meat,

It came to my mind that I

gave them nothing save Indian corn and water, a n d yet they
eat it and thrived very v/ell, and that that food was neces­
sary for then, how mean soever, which m uch affected me and
convinced what need I stood in of s piritual food, and that
255
I should not nauseat dally duties of Prayer, &c.

June 15.

[1689*3

Belli; at LIrs. Calvin* s alone

Chamber, while they were gettin ; ready dinner,
walked about,

in a

I, as I

began to crave a Blessing, and when went

about It remembered my Cloaths I had bought Just before#
a nd it came into my mind that it was most material to
ask a blessing on my Person:
to bless my Flesh,
a n d Apparel.

so I mentally pray'd God

Bones, Blood and Spirits, Meat,

Drink,

A n d at Dinner, paring the Crust of my Bread,

I cut my Thumb, and spilt some of my Blood, which word I
very unusually,

or never before, have used in prayer to

m y present r e m e m b r a n c e . ^

Tuesday, Jan* 12, 1691/2*

• • •

Hamlen, formerly Plater, before that,
woman,

This night [blankj
Crabtree, a middle-aged

through some displeasure at her Son whom she befit,

sat not down to Supper with her Husband and a Stranger at
Table:

when they had done,

c^5
D i ary , I, 44.
256I b i d . , pp.

258-259.

she took away, and in the Room

where she set it, took a piece of grisly raer t of a Shoulder
of Mutton into her mouth which got into the top of the
Larynx and stopt it fast,

so she was p r e s e n t l y choak'd.

Ti:.o. Pemberton and others found it so when they opened her
Throat.

She gave a stamp with her foot and put her finger

in her mouth:
diately.

but Pemberton not at home, and di'd imme­

What need have all to Acknowledge God in whose

Hand their bre. th is, &c.

Satterday,

Feb. 27. £1691/2.1

Between 4. and 5.

mane, we are startled at the roaring of a Eeast, which I
conjectur*d to be an Ox broken loose from a Butcher,
ning a l o n g the street,

run­

'ut proved to be our own Gov/ bitten

by a dog,

so that were fore' a to kill her; though calved
■fcY\
but Jan. 4.. and gives plenty of 1.111k. Happy are they,
25S
who have God for their Spring- and Brest of Supplies.

January 1. 6.

day 1696/7

One with a Trumpet sounds

a Levet [blastj at our window Just about break of day, bids
me good morrow and wishes health and h: piness to attend me.
I was awake before, and my wife,

so we liesrcL him:

but

went not to the window, nor spake a word.

The Lera fit
pRQ
me for his coming in whatsoever way it be. ^

• • • * « » # • • • • • • • • • • • • • # • • • • • • • • •
[February 10, 1696/7.]
257I b l d . . pp. 354-356.
259Ibid., p. 444.

Goodv;. buen putting on a Rugs
258Ibid., p. 357.

and going Into our house much scares the chilaren;

so

that come running to me throw the old Hall, with a v-.-ry
amazing Cry*

I was sawing wood; and much surpris'd*

Wife came and. all.
from astonishin

The L ord save me and his people
suddain,

desolatin ■ Judgments; pardon

all my folly and perverting my way, e.nd help me to walk
with a right f o o t . ^ ^

[October 1, 1 6 9 7 . j
to go to [HogJ Island.
could not g o e :

Jar. Balchar's sons came for us
M y Wife,

through Indisposition,

But I carried Sam. Hannah,

M ary a n d Ja.ne Tap a n :
He carried Simon,

Elisa, Joseph,

I prevail'd with Mr. Willard to goe

Elisabeth, William, Margaret, and Elisa

Tyng:

Had a very comfortable Passage thither and home

again;

though against Tide:

Curds ana Cream.
Fowls, Applepy.

Had first Butter, Honey,

For Dinner, very good Rost Lamb,
A f ter Dinner sun; the 121 Psalm.

Turkey
Note.

A G-lass of spirits m y ’
Wife sent stood upon a Joint-Stool
which,

Simon './. jogging,

si lvers:

it fell down and broke all to

I said twas a lively Emblem of our Fragility

and Mortal i t y . 261

Third-Day, July,

25. 1699.

. . .

When I came home

Sam, Hannah and Joanna being gon to Dorchester with Madam
260I b i d . , p. 450.
261I b i d . , p. 460.

Usher to the Lecture,

I found the House empty and Lock'd.

Taking the key I came in and made a shift to find a soli­
tary Dinner of bak'd Pigeons and a piece of Cake*

How

ha >py I were,

if I could once become v;ise as a Serpent and
262
harmless as a DoveI~

[October 1, 1709.3
Belcher's,

Bait at Dedham.

I g o t to Mr.

where I drink warm chockelat, and no Beer;

find m y self much refresh'd by it after great Sweating to
day, and yesterday.
Deo.

Got home to Dinner about One.

Laus

LIy Horse went very hard, which made me strain hard

on my Stirrup, and contract a Lameness on my Left Hip.

• • •

If I night with Jacob prevail with G-OD for his Blessing;
a n d be surnamed Israel, how happy sho Id I bei
,,
,
263
sn o ■.go 1 Imp Ing •

Satterday, June, 6. [1713.3

t’
n ough I

Rain-water grievously

runs into m y son Joseph's Chamber from the Window above.
As went out to the marker's I observ'd the water to run
trickling down a great pace from the Coving.

I went on

the Roof, and found the Spout next Salter's stop'd, but
could not free it with my Stick.

Boston went up, ana found

his pole too big, which I warn'd him of Before;

came down

a Spit, and clear'd the Leaden-throat, by thrusting out a
262Ibid., p. 500.
^®®Ibid., II, 265.

The reference is to G-enesis 32: 24— 31.

—416

Trap-Ball that stuck there.

Thus a small matter greatly

Incommodes us; end v/lien bod pleases,

October 25. £1713.J

tls easily remov’d.

In the Night after 12. Susan

comes, a n d knocks at our chamber door,

said she could

not sleep, was afraid she sho; Id dye.

Which amaz'd my

wife and me.
warm,

We let her In, blew up the Fire, wrapt her

and went to bed again.

She sat there till near day,

and then return'd; anu was well In the morning.
Deo.

264

Laus

I was the more startled because I had spilt a whole

Vlnyard C©nr. of water Just before we went to Bed: and
ma.de that Reflection that our Lives would shortly be
„!■,
+ . 265
sp
111
Citations have been ma.de purposely numerous because of the
constancy of the mental habit which they illustrate.

One can

almost say that for Sewall everythin:: was a sign of something.
Events with unerrolained natural causes were particularly omi­
nous,

sometimes good,

were good omens,

sometimes bad.

Rainbows,

of course,

'te. . . • Token that CHRIST remembers his

Covenant for his beloved Jews, " and repeatedly he noted their
appearance In the sky.

He felt that in them God was trying to

264 I b i d .. p. 383.
265I b ld., p. 404.
266Letter-Book, II, 248, memoranda for August 11, 1728.
See references In the Diary, II, 189, entry for July 1, 1707;
ibid.. d o . 314, 318, 319, entries for June 12, July 12, 30,
1711: Ibid.. p p . 352-353, entry for June 18, 1712; Ibid.,
Ill, 14, entry for August 7, 1714; ibid., p. 50, entry for
July 30, 1715*; ibid., P* 386, entry for September 17, 1727.

-417-

"speak • • • to N e w - E n g l a n d " and lamented that New England
267
had not "ears to hear. "
When an Inverted rainbow appeared,
however,

that was a different matter, and he soberly recorded

the speculation of his friend Mr. Lee that God was "shooting
268
at sombody. "
A gentle shower from heaven was a 2>ropltious
sign.

Thunder ana lightning,

on the other hand, were a

pretty good indication that God was in one of his blacker
moods, and they sent Sewall onto his knees ( "I humbly and
Thankfully bless God that we saw the quick and powerfull
270
fire; heard the Terrible Voice, and yet we llvel ").
Though
speculations of portent do not attend the appearance of comets,
eclipses, and sun dogs,

the a wed noting of them strongly sug271
gests that they were felt to bode no good*
So one might go

on— small pox,

the severity of a winter, loss of cattle are
272
"Tokens of [God's] Anger";
when two ministers die in the same

week Sewall hopes tldit it "be not portentous . . . Deus avertat
273
omen";
worms in the barley m e a n that God is trying to awaken
274
New England by "his stroaks. "
257Letter - B o o k , II, 257, letter to Samuel Partridge dated
November 25, 1728*
g68p i a r y . I, 165,

entry for January 20, 1686/7.

g6^Letter-Book, II, 78, letter to Rev. Thomas Cotton dated
August 28, 1717.
*
Diary. Ill* 215, entry for March 13, 1718/19; ibid. . p.
187, entry for June 23, 1718.
271ibid., I, 486, entry for October 29, 1693;ibid., II, 88,
entry for August 23, 1703; ibid., Ill, 512, entry for November
27, 1722.
272Ibld. . I, 127-128, entry for March 17, 1685/6.
273Ibld., Ill, 120, entry for February 15, 1716/17.
274Lette r-Book, I, 52, letter to John Storke dated August
8, 1687;

This way of regaruln." events we.s by no means a personal
idiosyncracy of Sewall* s.
father,

Cotton Mather,

In Samuel Mather's life of his

the author declares that

"when he

washed his hands, he must think of clean hands, as well as
pure heart,

that belong to the citizens of Zion.

...

And

when he did so mean an action as par in;; his nails, he thought
275
how he ml -;ht lay aside all superfluity of naughtiness."
The habit of drawing moral lessons from every da.y experiences
and searching for portents in natural phenomena was,
well nigh universal.

It was also , from the Puritan's point

of view, a highly appropriate one.
all of nature is

in fact,

John Cotton declared that

'ta. mappe and shaddow, " in which there are

'Numberless Lessons of Morality, which by the Help of the
Ana lorry between the Natural and Spiritual World . . .
learn.

we may

. . . ,r27® At the Synod meeting in 1648 from which came

the famous Cambridge Platform, a snake entered at tne door and
was crushed by an elder from the town of Braintree.
V/lnthroo felt th-r t this Incident

G-overnor

"being so remarkable, and

nothing falling out but by bivlne providence,

it is out of

doubt the Lord discovered somethin;; of his mind in it.

The

serpent is the devil; the synod,

the representatives of the
277
Churches of Christ in New Eng l a n d . "
We are likely to think
275Tyler, History. II, 77, cited.
^ ® M i l l e r , New England M i n d , 213-214, cited.
See his chapter
on "Nature. " passim, and also his introduction to Jonathan
Edwards' Images or Shadows of Divine Things (New Haven, 1943).
^77H1story,

II, 330.

of this wav of regarding nu wUj.nl events as being extinct as
the 1chthy osaurus ana just about as strange.

It is rcrta noting,

hov;ever, that ‘.'lnthrop’s remark suite obvlousl;: finds artistic
expression in the work of Hawthorne, and that Emerson’s doctrine
of

"correspondence" is somethin ; for which he need not have pone

to Swedenborg.

073

The Hew England renaissance had strong roots

in the spiritual traditions of two hundred years.
In examining, as we have been doing, the character of the
Puritnn's religious life it is difficult,

even thru ;h v.re reco

ni.oe that certain aspects of it were to him somehov; satisfying
and even

"sweet, " to avoid the thought tor t his was a grim

existence.

The wrath, of a too-deraandlu g dod, the menace of

an ever-scheming Satan and all his wily imps, children crying
out for fear of being damned, a brutal scheme of election and
reprobation,

strange portents on every side, witches ridjug the

midnight air— these, we feel, are scarcely the elements of a
happy experience of life.

V/e should remember, however,

that

every one of these sane things had been present in "nerric"
Old England Just as definitely,
as they were in her

if somev/hnt less abundantly,

"sad" New England offspring.

The Puritan

was quite unoriginal in his beliefs; what he desired was simp­
ly a more rigorous application of beliefs already established
and widely held.

Being the person that he typically was, this

meant, of course, a good deal.

It did not mean, however, that

he ceased to be human; and, being human, he cannot be understood.
^ ^ S e e the discussion in Miller, New England Mind, loc. clt.

-420-

In terms of what might be called the theological fallacy, which
Is the fallacy of interpreting a man's experience of life in
terras merely of his stated belief, however sincere that belief
may be.

Consider the case of Timothy Dwight, one of John Hull's

a op rentices, who ,
Just as prayer ended . . .

sank down in a Swoun, and for

a good space was as if he perceived not what was done to
him:

after, kicked and sprawled, knocking his hands and

feet upon the floor like a distracted man.
plckpack by John Alcock [to his roomj,
pulled off.
master,

has carried

there his cloaths

In the night It seems he talked of ships, his

father, and unckle Sliot.

Father [HullJ went to him,

The Sabbath following

spake to him to know what ailed

him, asked if he would be prayed for, and for what he wo Id
desire his friends to pray.

He answered,

of sin, ana dod's h e a l i n g r a c e .

for more sight

I asked him, being alone

with him, whether his troubles were from some outward cause
or spiritual.

He answered,

spiritual.

I asked him why

then he could not tell it his master, as well as any other,
since It is the honour of any man to see sin and be sorry
for it.

He gave no answer, as I remember.

he would goe to meeting.
his day was out.

He said,

Asked him if

'twas in vain for him;

I asked, what day; he answered, of Grace.

I told him 'twas sin for any one to conclude themselves
Reprobate, that this was all one.
more, but could not, &c.

He said he would speak

Notwithstanding all this semblance

A

-421-

(and mu c h more than Is written) of compunction for Sin,
•tin to "be feared that his trouble arose from a maid whom
he passionately loved:

for that when Hr. Dwight and his

master had agreed to let him {joe to her, he eftsoons grew
279
well.
At least two observations may be made concerning this homely
little incident.

One Is that the emotlone.l upsets of the

Puritan child a n d youth may reasona.bly be interpreted as
havin • been symptoms of puberty and adolescence quite as much
as the results of any theological doctrine,

however depressing.

Certainly such symptoms are not peculiar to Puritan New England.
The other is that the terrors of Timothy Dwight1s religious
beliefs,

real as they may have been, were doubtless forgotten

in his

in.; to the

to

"maid whom he passionately loved. "

A

man* s beliefs are ordinarily less important in determining his
experience of life than are such mundane things as the state
of his health,

the food that he eats, and the woman he loves.

If, like Sewall, one is blessed with a good digestion, a good
wife, plenty of good food a nd drink, and a respected status
among one*s fellow men,

the doctrine of reprobation will hold

few terrors, a clrcumst: nee which
in part,

ndouotedly account , at least

for the fact that the record of his spiritual experience

as we find it revealed in the pages of his diary is remarkably
free of the harrowing self-doubt ana gnawing introspection that,
logically, would seem to be the necessary result of submission
to Puritan doctrine.
279 D i a r y . I, 15-16,

entry for August 12, 167S.

Another contributing circumstance is the fact that Puritan
doctrine, though certainly formidable enough, had become, under
the so-called

"covenant theology, " considerably less harrowing

in its implications than the doctrine of John Calvin with which
it is popularly equated.

Under the covenant idea, God was

absolute but not arbitrary.
honest belief,

A m a n who submitted himself in

earnestly acknowledging and repenting of his

sine, would not be turned away.

God had voluntarily placed

himself under a covenant, and the man who performed his necesO g Q

sary part under that same covenant had little to fear*
The nearest thing to a spiritual crisis in Sewall'a life
came, appropriately, at the time of his Joining the South
Church, when he was for several months suitably distressed
by thoughts of his unworthiness ( "Troubled that I could love
Xt. no more • • • "); but the elders encouraged him, a n d when
he communicated his fears to the minister, Ur. Thatcher, he
was told that this
to come ahead.

"stirring up to it . . . was of God" and

So, on M a rch 30, 167?, he stood up,

with Gilbert Cole,

CandJ was admitted . . .

"together

making a Solemn

covenant to take the L. Jehovah for our God, and to walk in
Brotherly Love a n d watchfulness of Edification.

Goodm. Cole

first spake, then I, then the Relations of the Women were
read:

as we spake so were we admitted; then all together
QQT
covenanted.
Prayed before, and a f t e r . "
A f ter this his
^ S e e the statement by Morlson, Puritan Pronaos, p. 156.
^^•Thls time of stress may be traced in the Diary. I, 32-37,
entries for January 10, 1676/7, to the end of the first manu­
script volume, the last pages of which are somewhat confused.
The process of becoming a member has been variously
described. A n early statement is in Lechford, Plalne Dealln

religious experience Is best described by his own favorite
word

"comfortable* "

Not that he did not have his times of

spiritual trial a n d stress, times when he felt himself
less as to Spiritual Good, "

"List­

less 'constantly and effectually

inquisitive about Chis} Way to Heaven" than he should have
282
283
been;
even one of the elect was not Immediately made perfect.
His position,

however, was secure, and if, having sinned, he

earnestly prayed for help a n d forgiveness, he had done his
needful part.

Now it was up to God to do his.

he means when he says:

This is what

"I pray'd this morn that God would

give me a pardon of my Sins under the Broad Seal of Heaven;
and through God's goodness have receiv'd some Refreshment and
Light;

I hope I doe thirst after Christ; a n d sensible of my

own folly . . .

that I value Him no more, and am so backward

to be married by Him.

The God addressed in such a prayer

was not an arbitrary being but one, rather, who could be de­
pended upon to act in a responsible manner.

As such, it was

quite unthinkable that he would deal hardly with a busy and
conscientious servant, one whose place was in the "fore-seat"
CQC
in the churches of his New England Israel.
If Sewall ever
pp. 65-67.
See also, Ellis, Puritan A g e , p. 207; Dexter,
Congregationalism, pp. 449-450; Wertenbaker, Puritan Oligarchy,
pp. 66— 67.
282See, for example, the D i ary. I, 319-320, entry for M ay 9,
1690; ibid., II, 189, entry for June 15, 1707; ibid.. p. 74,
entry for February 22, 1702/3.
^ ^ S e e Knappen, Tudor P uritanism, pp. 395-396, and Miller,
New England M i n d , p. 54.
^ ^ l a r y . I. 351, entry for October 25, 1691. Morlson, loc*
cit.. cites this passage and comments on it as I have done.
t
285q»j^0 place where one sat in church was, of course, a flrs^.

brooded, on the subject of hell he did not record the fact;
what he did at various times record was his anticipation
of heaven, a line of thought which was very pleasant indeed.
For example, on January 26, 1696/7:
I lodged at Charlestown,

at Mrs. Shepards, who tells me

Mr. Harvard built that house.
the street.
tion,

I lay in the chamber next

As I lay awake past midnight,

In my Medita­

I was affected to consider how long agoe God had

made provision for m y comfortable Lodging that night;
seeing that was Mr. Harvards house:

A n d that led me to

think of Heaven the House not made with hands, which God
for many Thousands of years has been storing w i t h the
richest furniture

(saints that are from time to time

placed ther e ) , a n a that I had some hopes of being enter­
t a i n 1d in that Magnificent Convenient Palace,
fitted a n d furnished.

every way

These thoughts were very refresh­

er. ^
lng
to me* 286
The pleasures w h i c h a saint might enjoy did not, however,
lie exclusively o n the other side of the Jordan.

The Puritan,

for all his deprecating of the pleasures of the flesh, was not
an ascetic who fled to his Wilderness Zion as a refuge from the
mark of one's position in the community.
Especially in his
later years, Sewall often notes the fact that at one or another
of the churches he attended he was honored by a place in the
"fore-seat. ■ See, for example, the D i a r y . Ill, 116, entry for
January 8, 1716/17; i b i d ., p* 142, entry for October 2, 1717;
ibid. . p. 290, entry for July 13, 1721.
Sewall was himself a mem b e r of the seating committee at
the South Church for m a n y years*
See Hill, I, 253-254; Diary,
II, 379, entry for A p r i l 28, 1713; ibid., p. 389, entry for
June 10, 1713; L e t t e r - B o o k . II, 21-22, letter to Rev. Ebenezer
Pemberton*
See the discussion of seating in Dexter, p. 454.
286P l a r y . I, 446-447, entry for January 26, 1696/7.

world.

A s P r o f e s s o r M i l l e r has remarked,

the only wilderness
28 *7
Into w h i c h the P u r i t a n ever f l e d was New England;
a n d once
poo
there, as we have e a r l i e r noted,
he q u i c k l y set himself up

as comfortably as possible*

B y the b e g i n n i n g of the eighteenth

century, as a w r i t e r of the time declared,

*%i Gentleman from

London w o u l d a l m o s t t h i n k himself at home at Boston w h e n he
observes the Num b e r s of People,
their Tables,

their Houses,

t h e i r Dress a n d Conversation,

as splendid a n d showy,

their Furniture,

w h i c h p erhaps Is

as that of the most considerable Trades­

man in London* **^9 There Is little reason to doubt that one of
the houses here r e f e r r e d to was Sewall*s n e w place on H i g h
Street.

We are not t o l d m u c h a b out how It was furnished, but

are numerous Indications that Its Inhabitants did not dress
In accordance w i t h the idea that a n y color was all right so
long as It was black,

a n idea that school room lithographs of

“The L a n d i n g of the P i l g r i m s " a n d

"The First Thanks g i v i ng"

have so firmly f i x e d In the p o p u l a r mind*

A m o n g the m any

N ew E n g l a n d M i n d , p. 35.
"When, " he says, "critics accuse
P u r itan society o f g l o p s i n g its avarice w i t h sanctimoniousness,
or of taking s o l i d s a t isfaction In the things of this w o r l d
while p r e t e n d i n g to despise them, they presuppose that the piety
was a gloomy, otherworldly,
a n d tragic conception of life, w h ich
ought to have f o r b i d d e n such relaxations. . . .
Y e t In every­
day life P u r i t a n i s m d i d not m e a n that because Puritans were
virtuous there should be no m ore cakes a n d ale* " F o r similar
statements, see Knappen, p. 428; Morgan, "The Puritans a n d Sex, "
p. 594; E. D* Bebb, N o n c o n f o r m i t y a n d Social a n d Economic L i f e :
1660-1300 (London, 1935), pp. 98-99*
The m a t t e r Is a p p l i e d
to Sewall in Crawford, O l d B o s t o n , p. 255, a n d Laurence, "3amuel
Sewall; R e v e a l e r of N e w E n g l a n d Puritanism, " pp. 29-30.
288Chap. 3*
^®^Neal, H i s t o r y (London, 1720),

II, 590.

items of clothes that Sewall ordered from England we find,
is time, many that are required to be
a

“of a grave color" or of

“sad colour" (by which he meant brown, not black).

items, however, are

Other

"Silk Stockings, pink c o l o r e d , " “Service­

able Silk for our Daughter,
or Red and White, "

it

colourd with two kinds of Red;

"Three yards of Silver Net, "

'Red and

White Flowerd silk enough to make a Woman S u i t , " flowered
damask (some

"Green and White" and some

"Blue and White" with

"Silk laces for trimming the petit coats to be made of CltJ"),
silk in

"Orange, blew,

red, white colours, " and

Galoora “ (trimming tape)#
women folk.
for

“cheoquered

These things obviously were for the

For himself there was

"good black Broad-Cloth"

"Coat[,] Jacket a n d Breeches with Trimming Buttons of

Hair &c. to make it up, " % n end of colourd Broadcloth to
make my self a suit, " "Holland for shirting, " a nd "good black
290
Silk Mens Stockings. “
For a baby there was "a red Coat CwithJ
291
• • • blew facing for the s l e e v e s . "
The interestingly unSee the following references: D i ary. I, 34, entry for
January 30, 1676/7; Letter-Book. I, 44, letter to Daniel Allen
dated March 28, 1687; ibid. , pp. 136-13?, letter to Edward
Hull dated October 24, 1653; ibid., p. 152, letter to Edward Hull
dated January 14, 1694/5; ibid., pp. 152— 153, letter to Edward
Hull dated January 22, 1694/5; Ibid., pp. 191-192, letter to
Edward Hull dated November 1, 1697; ibid., p. 199, memorandum
of an order sent by Capt. Thomas Carter dated April 25, 1698;
ibid..
p. 274, letter to John Love dated November 16, 1702;
ibid..
p. 299. letter to John Love dated March 6, 1703/4; ibid.,
p. &L1, memorandum of letter to John Love dated M a rch 20, 1704/5;
ibid..
p. 331. letter to John Love dated October 16, 1706; ibid.,
p. 384, letter to John Love dated October 24, 1709; ibid. . II,
36-37, letter to John Storke dated December 10, 1714; ibid.. p.
53, letter to John Love dated M a rch 20, 1715/16*
g91 P i a r y . Ill, 11-12, entry for July 28, 1714.

-427-

doctrlnal motivation for s o m e of these purchases Is indicated
In his writing to Edw a r d Hull to

"intreat Cousin Brattle to

bye me a pattern of good silk to make my Wife a Gown.

She

has great Credit by that she bougt In pater noster row. "292
The Puritan* s attitude toward alcoholic beverages was
well expressed in Increase Mather* s statement that "the Wine
293
Is from God, but the Drunkard is from the D e v i l . "
Thus,
Sewall was

"grieved" to see that his friend Nathaniel Salton-

stall had Imbibed so freely that his

"head a n d hand were ren­

dered less usefull than at other times, " and wrote h i m a letter
gently begging him to w a t c h his step ( "Don* t furnish your Ene294
mies with Arms ") •
It never occurred to him to object to
drink itself (a development of the later evangelicalism),

so

obviously one of God's better tokens of his love for the human
creature.

The sin lay not in its use but in Its abuse, and

Sewall*s U 3 e was constant,
a wedding without its
matter.
Island he

grateful, a n d life-long.

Rarely

"Sack-Posset" or funeral either for that

When he went to a b a m

raising on his farm at Hog
295
"carried over a J u g g of Madera of Ten Quarts, "

and at a church raising at Charlestown he sat watching in
296
a nearby shop w i t h "a Cool T a n k a r d " for company.
A "noble
Treat, "

of w h i c h he enjoyed m a n y score, was not really com-

292L e t t e r - B o o k , I, 153, let t e r dated January 22, 1694/5.
29'‘5MIller, N e w England M i n d , p. 41, cited.
294 p j a r y . I, 373, entry for M a r c h 3, 1692/3.
295Ibid.,

II, 355,

entry for July 15, 1712.

296I b i d . , III, 06-87,

entry f o r June 20, 1716.

plete without

"good Drinks, ^ ^ a n d when there were none he

particularly not e d the fact:

*tar* Bedford Invited Mr* Brattle

and me to dinner to Mr* Dracot's.
Bacon with Livers:

H a d a dish of Fowls and

A Dish of Salt Fish, a n d a Piece of Mutton

reaching from the neck a pretty way of the back, the Ribs
reaching equally from the b a c k bone,

Cheese and fruit: no

Wine."29S
As the description of this dinner at Dracot*s suggests,
Sewall* s attitude toward food can scarcely be described as
austere*

Excessive drinking meant drunkenness, a thing to

be deplored; but excessive eating,

short of foundering

oneself, was attended by no such phenomenon to serve as a
yardstick.

For Sewall at least,

gradual increase in girth*

it meant no more

A short man,

“han

a

he weighed in at

193 pounds at the age of fifty; nineteen years later the
299
figure had risen to a comfortable 223.
A "sumtuous f e a s t w
was something one could enjoy w ith a n undisturbed conscience*
A man's weight was in the hanas of the Lord, who, he prayed
(at the same time that he records the facts of his weight),
would

*ta.dd, or take away from this our corporeal weight,

as shall be most advantagious for our Spiritual G r o w t h . “

so
So

it is with unalloyed satisfaction that he notes the occasions
on which he sat down to
297 D i a r y , II,

*%t good fat tender Goose, M

298, entry for January 31, 1710/11.

298Ibid., I, entry for September 30, 1689.
288I b i d . , II, 71, entry for December 30, 1702.

"a very

good M i n c ' d Py, " ^ p p l e p y , w "3trawberries and Cream, " "Veni s o n
Pasty,

Cake and cheese, " "Green pease, " "Fry'd Lamb a n d Part­

ridge, "

•%*. good Frigusee of Fowls, " and,

ever-present cake a n d w l n e . ^

of course,

the

Because his sweet tooth was a

very lively one, the roomy pockets of his outer garments were,
as we have already seen,
pleasant dainties.

continually filled with various

The favorite Item was

"Balls of Chocka-

lett, " but at various times there were also such things as
figs,

currants,

"Bantury Cakes" (Banbury being a town In

England famous for Its cakes a n d Puritanism, a place where,
as the verse went, a cat was hung on Monday "for killing of
301
■ riouse on Sunday"),
‘•Marmalet " (marmalade; carried to the
302
dying Ezekiel Cheever In a d i s h ) , and oranges*
We learn of these things that he carried with him through
their presentation as gifts to little nieces and nephews,

grandr-

chlldren, ailing friends, or simply persons on whom he had come
References w h i c h might be sighted are innumerable*
For the
Items given, see the D i a r y . I, 537, entry for November 4, 1690;
Ibid* . p* 143, entry for June 5, 1686; I b i d , . II, 43, entry for
October 10, 1701; I b i d * , p* 246, entry for December 15, 1708;
Ibid,, p* 257, entry for June 17, 1709; I b i d ,, p* 347, entry
T or M a y 8. 1712; Ibid., Ill, 57, entry for September 19, 1715;
Ibid,, p. 196, entry for September 17, 1718; Ibid., p. 323, entry
T or M a r c h 2, 1722/23.
5Q1I b l d ., II, 176, editors' note.
^ ^ A g a i n the possible citations are very numerous.
The Items
named m ay be seen In the D i a r y . II, 67, entry for October 26,
1702; Ibi d .. p. 151, entry f o r January 11, 1703/4; Ibid., p.
157, entrv for April 5, 1706; I bid. . p. 183, entries for March
27 an d 31^ 1707; :ibid., p* 193, entry for July 8, 1707; Ibid.,
p* 192, entry for July 29, 1707; I b i d * . p. 223, entry for April
16, 1708; Ibid., p. 231, entry for August 20, 1708; ibid., p*
319, entry for July 17, 1711; ibid., pp. 11-12, entry for July
28, 1714.

to call.

Sometimes his gifts took the form of money— usually

only a shilling or so but sometimes more In case of need— *
and often, as we have earlier noted, of sermons and religious
tracts.

Because of his own fondness for them, It gave him

particular pleasure to make presents of the psalms.
at the wedding of a niece at Salem:
&c.

Thus,

"After the Sack-Posset,

Sung the 45th. Psalm from the 8th verse to the end, five

stave s.

I set It to V/indsor Tune,

I had a very good Turky-

Leather Psalm-Book which I look*d in while Mr. Noyes Read: and
then I gave it to the Bridegroom saying,

'I give you this

Psalm-Book In order to your perpetuating this Song:

and I

would have you pray that It may be an Introduction to our
Singing with the Choir above.*
The Puritan*s opposition to music (by which word he meant
Instrumental music;

"singing" being the word otherwise u s e d ) ^

has been over-emphasized and misunderstood.

What he was op­

posed to was instrumental music in church, because he found
such a thing nowhere mentioned in what the Bible had to say
of the early Church, a n d because, like part singing and anti^O^Diary. II. 403-404, entry for October 22, 1*713. For other
gifts of the psalms, see ibid. . pp. 15-16, entry for August 21,
1714, and ibid., p. 29, entry for April 27, 1719.
For gifts of money, see, for example, ibid. , I, 298, entry
for March 6, 1688/9; ibid., II, 192, entry for July 29, 1707;
Ibid. . Ill, 66, entry for November 16, 1715.
Generally they
were sent by letter.
See the Letter-Book. I, 376, letter to
Hannah Moodey dated November 17, 1708; ibid. . II, 128, letter
to Rowland Cotton dated January 30, 1720/1; ibid. . p. 138,
letter to his nephew namesake at Salem dated May 26, 1722;
ibid., p. 211, letter to Nehemiah Walter dated September 9,
1726; ibid. . p. 260, letter to Rev. Williams at Deerfield
dated December 10, 1728; JLkifl* » P* 269, letter to Ashbell
Woodbridge dated June 12, 1729.
304Percy A. Scholes, The Puritan and Music in England and
New England (London, 1934), p. 42.

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phonal pinging,

It was a distraction from the business at hand,
305
which was to voice the praises of God.
When Sewall went to

a service at St. Mary* e

luring his visit to England he was much

displeased w ith the booming of the organ and felt that

"the

Justling out [of3 the Institution of Singing Psalms by the
organ,

is [a thing] that can nev e r be answered to the great

master of Religious ceremonies. "

Yet in the same letter

in which he thus expressed himself he also declared that he
306
was "a lover of M u s t e k to a f a u l t ,L— outside of the church; and
there is sufficient evidence to show that he was telling the
truth.

On this same trip to England he enjoyed a

M u s t e k M at Covent Garden, "
Oxford Inn by

"Consort of

was privately played to at

"Three Musicians . . .

two Harps and a Violin, 1,308
309
heard the work of some bell ringers and proclaimed it good.
At home he bought his wife a set of virginals,31°went to his
"Cousin Porter's" at Salem to

SUL

"See and H e a r the Dulcimer, "

^ 5See the discussion in Wertenbaker, Puritan O l i garchy, p.
128, and Knappen, Tudor Puritanism, pp. 432-433.
The first
pipe organ in N e w England was installed in King* s Chapel in
1713, a present of Mr. Brattle that had been refused by his
own church (Adams, Provincial S o c i e t y , p. 146). A t the marriage
of Cromwell's daughters there was music by a great orchestra,
and mixed dancing went o n far into the mor n i n g (Henry W. Foote,
Three Centuries of A m e r i can Hymnody [Cambridge, 1940], pp.
75-76; Scholes, p. 144)•
One thinks, of course, of Milton.
306Letter-Book, I, 149, letter to Mr. Burbank dated June 6,
1694.
507P i a r y . I,
248, entry for February 11, 1689.
3 0 8 I b l d . , p.
260, entry for June 27, 1689.
309I b id., p.
272, entry for August 15, 1689; and
p. 305, entry for April 10, 1689.
5 10ibi d . . p. 506, entry for December 1, 1699.
311Ibld., III, 131, entry for M a y 23, 1717.

see Ibid.,

-43 2-

and enjoyed being played to on various occasions by local
musicians.
died.

One of these occurred a few months before he

June 12, 1 7 2 9 :

"His Excellency ^Lieutenant Governor

William DummerJ sent A n d r e w to me with his Violin.

I was

refreshd by many of his Times; he plays well, yet his Tunes
are too gaudy and Luscious,
plainly as it should.

that the Tune doth not appear so

I was stricken with Horror at the • • .

Relation of the M u r d e r of Glencove by Soldiers In their
Quarters at Midnight In their Beds, who treated their Guests
312
kindly. . . .
Gave Andr ew an Angel Qan English coin}. ■
There was one painful defect In the idea of congregation­
al singing without instrumental accompaniment and even, as
in the Bay Psalm Book, without musical notations
were generally pretty bad.

the results

A s a n anonymous versifier at Salem

declared (in lines written on the back of a church pew),
Could p oor David but for once
To Salem church repair,
A n d hear his Psalms thus warbled out,
313
Good L o r d how he would swear.
^ ^Letter- B o o k . II, 270, memorandum under date of June 12, 1729.
'3^3William A. Fisher, Notes on Music In Old Boston (Boston,
1918), p. 17.
B a d congregational singing was not peculiar to
New England.
A wri t e r In seventeenth century England said:
"* Tis sad to hear what whining, tooting, yelling, or screeking
there is in many congregations" (Foote, p. 95), and Lord
Rochester wrote these lines for Charles XI:
Sternhold a n d Hopkins had great qualms,
When they translated David1s psalms,
To make the heart right glad;
But had it been K ing David* s fate
To hear thee sing and them translate,
B y God, *twould set him mad. — Foote, p. 96.
It m ay be noted that psalm singing was not an exclusively
P uritan practice, though it was Protestant.
The Church of
J|^|

Sewall*s experience at the South Church suggests that conditions
were about the same In Boston,

With his liking for music and,

as It would seem, a better-than-average voice (an admiring
contemporary called him

"our Israel* e Judge and Singer Sweet")?14

he was a logical candidate for the office of precentor, whose
Job It was to

•Q.lne out" the psalms.

This meant singing the

first line of the selection chosen to establish the pitch and
tune;

then a pause, a n d the congregation would Join In, after
315
which he must exert himself to keep It in the chosen path.
Sewall made his first attempt at this on the Sabbath of Oc­
tober 25, 1691,

"Capt. Frary* s voice failing him in his own

Essay, by reason of his Palsle.

Proving successful,

he

thereafter held the post for no less than twenty-four years.
At public and private gatherings outside the church as well,
he was regularly called upon to

"set the tune. "

more often as the years went by, however,
culties.

More an d

he had his diffi­

At Capt. Belchar's private thanksgiving for the

preservation of his son,
and fell into Hlgh-Dutch,

for example,

he

"Intended Windsor,

end then essaying to set another

England retained the emphasis, in fact, long after the non­
conformist congregations had taken to Watts. (See Foote, pp.
1, 26.)
^ ^Le t t e r - B o o k . I, 314— 316, editors' note.
The line is
from ”a translation by Sewall*s friend, Richard Henchman, of
some L a tin verses addressed to Sewall by the Rev. Nehemiah
Hobart.
315wertenbaker, Pur i t a n O l i g a r c h y , p. 129.
Foote, p. 96,
remarks of the Job that It was one "which many a modern,
trained singer would hesitate to a c c e p t . " The holder of
it needed "a. good ear a n d a strong voice. "
516 P l a r y . I, 351.

-^34-

Tune, went into a Key m u c h too high.

So I pray'd Mr. White

to set it; which he did well, Lltchf.

Tune.

me a nd Instruct me,

that I should be occasion of any Inter­

ruption in the Worship of God.
three Tables.

The L o r d humble

H a d a very good Dinner at

On other occasions, generally in church

where the task of dominating the singing was greater, the
selection would sometimes begin in one tune and end up in
another.

February 6, 1714/15:

"This day I set Windsor

Tune, a nd the people at the 2^ going over run into Oxford,
318
do what I could."
February 2, 1717/18:
"Lora1s Day.
In
the Morning I set York Tune, and in the 2d going over,
Gallery carried it irresistibly to
couraged me very much.

si?

David's, which dis­

I spake earnestly to Mr. White to

set it in the Afternoon, but he declines it.
went well.

the

p.m.

The Tune

Three weeks later:

Lord's Day, Feb. 23.

Mr. Foxcroft preaches.

I set York

Tune, and the Congregation went out of it into St. David'
in the very 2d going over.
fore.

They did the same 3 weeks be­

This is the 2d Sign.

I think they began in the

last Line of the first going over.

This seems to me an

intimation a n d call for me to resign the Praecentor*a
Place to a better Voice.

I have through the divine

Longsuffaring a n d Favour done it for 24. years, a n d now
317I b l d ., II, 151, entry for December 23, 1705.
For a
similar experience at church, see ibid. , p. 391, entry for
July 5, 1713.
318I b i d . , III, 39.
3 l 9 I b id., p. 164,

entry for February 2, 1717/13.

God by his Providence seems to call me off; my voice being
enfeebled.

I spake to Mr. White earnestly to set it in

the Afternoon; but he declin'd it.
went to Mr.

Aft e r the Exercise, I

[Joseph} Sewall's, Thank'd Mr. Prince for his

very good D i s c o u r s e :

and laid this matter before them,

told them how long I had set the Tune; Mr. Prince said,
Do it Six yeara longer.

I persisted and said that Mr.

White or Franklin [Sen* s father} might do it very well.
The Return of the Gallery where Mr. Franklin sat was a
320
place very Convenient for it.
During the week he consulted with the elders, who agreed that
the time had apparently come for him to step down, and warned
321
Mr. White that the Job was now his.
Next Sabbath-day morn­
ing Mr. White
says Sewall,

“disabled himself,

as if he had a Cold, " but,

“. . . when the Psalm was appointed,

I forbore

to do it, and rose up and turn'd to him, a n d he set York Tune
to a very good Key.

I thank'd him for restoring York Tune

to its Station with so much Authority and Honor*

I was Glad;

I saw twas Convenient that I had resign'd, being for the
benefit of the Congregation. k322
Sewall's oxvn singing days were now for the most part
behind him, but when the
to be introduced,

*taew way" of singing from notes began

he gave the movement his interested support,

32Q Ibld.. Ill, 171.
S21 Ibid. . pp. 172-173, entries for February 27 and 28.
322Ibid., p. 173, entry for M a rch 2.

-436-

attending the so-called

"Singing Lectures" instituted for

instruction in the new method (where he was happy to find
the singing

"extraordinarily Excellent, such as has hardly
323
been heard before in Boston"),
and on at least one occasion
holding such a meeting at his own house, where he
one a Booke,

"gave every

so the singing was continued without reading

between whiles*

Gave 15 or 16. New Hall,

It must by now be fairly clear that Sewall1s experience
of life was far from being unrellevedly lugubrious and grim,
though certainly it was both of these things often enough*
If the point seems to have been dwelt upon at great length,
^ ^ I b i d . , III, 285, entry for March 16, 1720/1*
The meeting
was held in the school house. Cotton Mather preaching to the
"young Musicians, from Rev* 14*3. — no man could learn that
Song. — House was full. . . . "
The night before there had
been a "Great Singing . . . In the Court-Chamber" (ibid. . p*
284) *
See the discussion of the subject in Foote, pp* 97-100.
The work was begun about 1712 by Rev* J o h n Tufts of Newbury*
On July 27, 1726, Sewall notes that he "Went to Mr. Toft's
Lecture" (D i ary. Ill, 378).
^ ^ D l a r y . Ill, 325, entry for February 26, 1722/3.
In taking
leave of the subject of the Puritan* s attitude toward music,
the following statement, though certainly not from a disinte­
rested source, is worth noting:
" . . . it was in Puritan
Boston, " says Foote, pp* 122-123,
• * * that there appeared the first music printed In the
English Colonies in North America; the first book of instruc­
tion in singing; the first book printed with modern musical
notation; the first discourses advocating better singing in
the churches— a dozen of them between 1720 and 1727, all by
Puritan divines.
During the same period the earliest Ameri­
can singing schools were established in New England*
In all
this movement for better singing the ministers took the lead*
Furthermore, the first organ imported into the Englishspeaking colonies came to Boston before 1711; and the first
organ made in the colonies by a native-born American was
built in Boston before 1746.
The earliest concert of instru­
mental music recorded in any of the colonies was held in
Boston in 1731* • • •

the reason lies rather In the abundance of materials to Illus­
trate it than in a desire on the writer's part to paint out
the shadows a n d put sunlight in their place.
materials,

in fact,

have been little u sed and deal w i t h things

which deserve at least passing mention.
Joy with which,

e ach year,

"sad face of W i n t e r
April,

One such thing is the

Sewall noted the passing of the

-32Snd the

appearance,

of the first robins a n d swallows:

the Spring";

Some of these

generally in mid"Swallows proclame

"I saw Six Swallows together flying a n d chlp-

perlng very rapturously";

"Singing of Birds is come";

"...

the Robbins cheerfully utter their Notes this morn.
Now once more he

could begin to graft, a n d plant, a n d prune

as he so loved to do*
His recreations a n d social life also deserve an added
word of comment.

W hen a writer holds forth on the social

lifej of the time, as Y/eeden has done,

calling it

"bare and

spiritless b e y o n d description" a n d uses Sewall as his chief
witness,
unfair*

he is b e i n g either unpercipient or deliberately
For few m e n anywhere or at any time have enjoyed a

^ 5P l a r y . II, 89, entry for September 29, 1703.
*^ 6Such entries are very numerous.
Those cited are: D i a r y .
II, 223, entries for April 11, 12, a n d 13, 1708; ibid., p.
343, entries for A pr i l 11 a n d 12, 1712; ibid., p. 124, entry
for February 24, 1704/5; ibid., pp. 74-75, entry for M a r c h
16, 1702/3.
The New E n g l a n d wint e r often proved very grim.
Sewall
notes occasions on w h i c h it became so cold that clocks stopped
ink froze by the fire, a n d communion b r e a d "rattleC<l3 sadly
as broken into the Plates. " (See the D i a r y , I, 467-468, 471,
entries for January 23 a n d February 20, 2 l, 1697/8; ibid. , p.
118, entry for January 24, 1685/6; ibid., Ill, 71, entries for
January 15 and 16, 1715/16.)
327gc o nom^c a n d Social H i s t o r y , I, 295.

social life more full or more satisfying than did Samuel Sewall.
The reader must by this time realize that he was a highly social
creature, a n d that the pleasures which he enjoyed were by no
means exclusively religious.

A s we have already noted, he

loved to be in the company of his friends at dinner (once, being
in a somber mood,

he refused a n Invitation "because," as he said
328
•fe feast is made for Laughter"),
organized picnic expeditions

with his family a n d friends, participated In shooting compe­
titions, a nd went to

"raisings. "

We have not had occasion to

mention that he also enjoyed fishing (among the things that
329
he brought from England was "One Angling Hod")
and swimming
v 330
(very "healthfull a n d refreshing").
He went nutting and
331
visited travelling shows.
O n his way to England he even
entered a shipboard wager as to the day on which land would
first be sighted, a surprising departure from the Puritan dis­
like for lotteries as frivolous trials of providence
which, also,

(from

derived the antagonism toward games of cards and

dice),332and once there, besides attending musical concerts,
he and some friends one night

"went to a Garden at Mile End

and drunk Currant a n d Rasberry Wine,
3 2 Q Plary,

III, 257,

entry for June

then to the Dog and
6

, 1720.

5 2 9 I b l d . , I, 283, entry for August 13, 1683/9.
A n d see ibid.,
p. 18'2, entry for July 12, 1687, where he describes a fishing
trip on which he lost his hat.

I b i d . , p. 264, entry for July 8 , 1689. A n d see ibid.,
p. 186, entry for August 15, 1687, and Ibid. ,1 1 . 260, entry
for July 22, 1709.
S ^ r b i d . , I, 93, entry for October 2, 1685; ibid., P* 257,
e n t r y “for June 3, 1689; ibid., II, 355, entry for July 2, 1712.
3 3 2 j b j ^ . I, 240, entry for December 21, 1638.
See the
discussion in Miller, N e w England M ind, p. 16.
330

— i±oQ—

Partrige's, and plaid Nine Pins, "333a pastime which at home
was punishable by a fine of five shillings*

Such items,

dredged up from the voluminous records of half a century,
are admittedly of limited individual significance, but in
their totality they are a legitimate dispeller of at least
a part of the gloom that tends to settle over the Puritan
335
scene*
Concluding this part of our discussion, -we can scarcely
do better than to note a diary entry which Sewall made during
his year in England*

3rlef as it is, it says much both of

the nature of the man and of his work-a-day experience of re­
ligion:

tlonday M a r c h 18, [1688/9*3

burying Place at Mlle-End:

Went and saw the Jews

Some Bodies were laid East and

West; but now all are orderd to be laid North and South*
Many Tombs*

Engravings are Hebrew, Latin, Spanish, English,

sometimes on the same stone.
as a Garden.

* * *

might meet in Heaven:

----

Part of the Ground is i m p r o v e

I told the keeper afterwards wlslit

He answerd, and drink a Glass of Beer

together, which we were then doing.

1,336

3 3 3 P l a r y , I, 255, entry for M a y 14, 1639.
Many years later,
back in Boston, he went out with a company to Inspect the town
and "dissipated the players at Nine Pins at Mount-Whoredom
[a name which later Boston modesty changed to •Hoardara’ J"
(Ibid., Ill, 52, entry for August 8 , 1715).
3 3 4 palfrey,

III, 4 6 .
336For a discussion of many of these same materials, see John
L. Ewell, "Judge Samuel Sewall (1652-1730), a Typical Massa­
chusetts Puritan, " in Papers of the American Society of Church
History. VI (New York, 1895), 25-54, and William Everett, "Six
Provincial Worthies M (unpublished MS. at the Boston Athenaeum),
p. 49.
33 6P l a ry . I, 301.

-440-

IV
On the afternoon of October 19, 1717, Hannah Sewall
breathed her last,

"whereby," wrote the stricken husband,

"the Chamber was fill'd with a Flood of Tears,

G-od is

teaching me a new Lesson; to live a Widower's Life.
help me to Learn.

. . . h3 3 7 Feeling, perhaps,

Lord

that for one

sixty-five years of age such a lesson would not prove par­
ticularly difficult,

the L o r d withheld his assisting hand.

The result was that before four months were past Sewall
found himself

"wandering In fhisj mind whether to live a
358
Single or a Married Life. . . . "
One of the things which
he found particularly disturbing was the absence from meeting
of Madam Winthrcp, until recently the wife of his late col­
league on the Superior Court, Wait Still Wlnthrop.^3® It did
not help matters when,

immediately that he paid her a visit

or two, people began to busy themselves about his intentions.
Cotton Mather sent him his tract entitled

"An Essay to do

Good Unto the Widow" with a note appended saying that he
340
had not yet done his full duty.
Mrs. Willoughby "seem'd
to hint persons had need be ware how they married again. "
The Rev. Mr. Walter at Roxbury had heard that people were
saying that Governor Dudley had
5 5 7 Ibld. .
339

"laid out" Madam Wlnthrop

Ill, 143.

Ibl d . . p. 165, entry for February

6

, 1717/18.

, p.

3 3 ®Ibld.
151, entries for December 1 and 2; ibid., P«
164, entry for February 3, 1717/18.
540

Ibld. , p. 177, entry for March 17, 1717/18.

for him, and. when Sewall objected that he
but thrice, and twice upon Business:

"had been there

He said, Cave ter tlum.

Mr. Walter*s personal recommendation was the Widow Ruggles.
Mr. Leverett told him that he and his wife had decided that
Madam Brown was Sewall*s best bet,

though he had to admit
3-42
that there was m u c h to recommend Madam Wlnthrop as well.

Mr. Henchman
• • •"

"took occasion highly to Commend Madam Wlnthrop.

Deacon Marl o n came to seem him, and

"...

after a

great deal of Discourse about his [own] Courtship--He told
[me], " says Sewall,

"the Olivers said they wish*d I would

Court their Aunt [Madam Wlnthrop],

I said little, but said

twas not five Moneths since I buried my dear Wife. Had said
before

‘twas hard to know whether best to marry again or no;

whom to marry.

1,344

Before proceeding farther with this favorite among Sewall
345
topics,
the courtships of his later years, a word or two of
comment Is in order.

The material may be considered simply

for the amusement it affords,
comment on Sewall,
3 4 ^*I b l d . .
34

p. 172,

^Ibld., p. 177,

3 4 3 Ibld.,
344

p. 175,

u sed as a source of invidious

o r explored for its elements of the curious
entry for February 25, 1717/18.
entry for M a rch 19, 1717/16.
entry for M a rch 10, 1717/18.

I b id., pp. 176-177,

entry for March 14, 1717/18.

3 4 5 See, for example, Calhoun, A Social H i s t o r y . I, 56 f f •;
Crawford, Ol d B o s t o n , p. 279 f f .; Alice M. Earle, Customs
and Fashions in Old New England (New York, 1916), pp. 43-56;
eXTisTT-kn A d d r e s s , p. Is ff.; Wlnthrop, A Difference of
Ooinlon. oasslm; Wllbertlne Worden, "Love Currents that
C r o s s , " park-Avenue Social Review (November, 1927), p. 28 ff.

and quaint.

A n y one of these approaches Is at least partially

legitimate:

the material is often funny, much of It Is un­

flattering to Sewall, and m u c h of it, too,
quaint.

There is a fourth approach,

likely to be neglected:

is curious and

however, which is too

the material may be understood.

facts presented in the preceding paragraph,

The

for example, all

of which bear dates w h i c h fall within six months after Hannah* a
death, make it quite plain that Sewall*s early remarriage was
not only regarded as a respectable possibility,
anticipated.

it was actively

The relatives of Madam Wlnthrop were not shocked

by the idea of Sewall*s commencing a courtship any more than
they were by the possibility that the object of it should be
one whose husband had died even more recently (November 7, 1717)
that Sewall*s wife.

The institution of marriage, as we have

seen amply illustrated in the arrangements which Sewall made
for his children,
Sentiment,

was regarded in a most matter-of-fact light.

though it might be present, was not presupposed, and

the absence of it was not felt to reflect unfavorably on the
parties concerned,

We know,

too, that Sewall at this time was

an o ld man, living in a house from which all the children had
gone but one a n d that this one, his eldest daughter, Hannah,
was a bed-ridden invalid.

The idea of having simply a house347
keeper was disagreeable to him;
furitan tradition called
for a wife.

A s John Cotton had declared,

"Women are Creatures

without which there is no comfortable Living for man:
3 4 6 Plary.

Ill, 262, editors*

3 4 7 Lettei*-Book,

June T T T T S n ---

it is

note.

II, 133, letter to Timothy Woodbridge dated

true of them what is wont to be said of Governments, That
348
baa ones are better than none. . . •**
For one in Sewall*s
position a widow was to be preferred to a

"thorriback, " the

name borne by the Puritan woman who remained a spinster.
widows there was a plentiful supply.
on the reluctant M a d a m Wlnthrop,

Of

During one of his calls

for example,

the two of them

"had a pleasant discourse about 7 Single persons sitting in
the Fore-seat [[on the women* s side of the aisle at the South
Church] • • • viz. M a d a m Rebekah Dudley, Catharine Wlnthrop,
Erldget Usher,

Deliverance Legg, Rebekah Loyd, Lydia Colman,

Elizabeth Bellingham.
but none would do,

She propounded one and another for me;

said Mrs. L oyd was about her Age [fifty-

six]. **34^ The idea of making a convenient marital bargain
with one of these gentlewomen of the foreseat constituted no
slur on the memory of his dead wife, of whom he continued to
3 50
think and speak in the most affectionate t e r m s T h e s e are
the sympathetic facts in the case.

It is unfair to ignore

them in dealing w ith a record in which Sewall left himself
exposed to the enquiring eyes of posterity as few m e n have
ever done.

Recognizing such facts need not,

indeed cannot,

spoil our enjoyment of it.
Sewall*s first approaches to Madam Wlnthrop were broken
off by the appearance of another prospect in the person of
3 4 8 Morgan,

"The Puritans and Sex, M p. 592, citing Cotton* s
A Meet Help (Boston, 1699).
5 4 9 P l a r y . Ill, 262, entry for September 30, 1720.
350See ibid., p. 292, entry for September 16, 1721, and ibid
p. 392, entry for October 19, 1728.

-444-

Widow Denison,

the funeral of whose husband he attended on

M a rch 26, 1718.

Next day:

Iflr. Danforth gives the widow

Denison a hig h Commendation for her Piety, Prudence, D i n ­
ars51
gence, Humility*
A few days later she brought her hus­
band' s will to Sewall to be probated, a n d again he was re­
minded,

this time by Mr* Dorr,

that she was

"one of the most

autlfull Wives in the w o r l d . “

Mr. Boydell,

"smiling," re­

marked that the will looked as if it had been written by
Sewall*

Sewall told him

"yes, but there was not a tittle

of it mine but the form*
beside the point,
April 17,

Mr* Boydell's smiling was not

however,

for w hen the widow came a g ain on

Sewall p r e s e n t e d her with

having writ her Name in it* "
a typical opening gesture*
half months a f t e r Mr*
neyed to Roxbury,

**a. Widow's Book Bound,

This, as we shall see, was

O n June 3, a seemly two a n d a

Denison had been l a i d away, Sewall

where the widow lived,

sel w i t h Mr* Walter,

and. there took coun­

her minister*

Talk w i t h him about Mrs.
to see her then,

Jour­

D______ n.

He advises me not

lest should surprise her undress'd.

Told

him I came on purpose; yet finally submitted to his AdviceC.J

• • • spake of her Coming to Town on Thorsday.

June,

5 1* 1

June,

9*

No body came,
* . •

Mrs.

I writ to Mr. Walter.

D_____ n came in the mor n i ng about

9 aclock, and I took her up into m y Chamber a n d discoursed
351

I b l d * . pp. 178-179,

entries for M a r c h 26 a n d 27.

352

I b l d * . p* 180, entries for A p r i l 7 and

353

Ibld., p. 182.

8

, 1718*

thorowly w ith her; She desired me to provide ano t h er an d
b e tter Nurse,

I gave her the two last News-Letters— told

her I Intended to visit her at her own house next Lectureday.

She said,

'twould be talked of.

Cases, persons must run the Gantlet.
Oration for A b i j a h Walter,
Town.

I answer* d, In such
Gave her Mr. Whiting* s

who brought her on horseback to

I think little or no Notice was taken of it.

June,
. . .

17.

Went to Rox b u r y Lecture,

Visited Governour Dudley, Mrs.

554

visited Mr. Walter.

Denison,

gave her

Dr. M a t h e r 1s Sermons very well bound;
it invited to a Wedding.

July,

7. . . .

told her we were in
355
She gave me very good Curds.

I give Mrs.

Denison her O a t h to the

Inventory £of her late h u s b a n d ’s e s t a t e 3; gave her a Cata­
logue superscrib* a to her.
A t night,

H e r Brother brought her.

w hen all were gone to bed;

with me into the new Hall,

• • •

Cousin M o o d e y went

read the history of Rebekah* s

Courtship, a n d p r a y * d w ith me respecting my Wid o w e d Con-

July, 15.

. . .

Governour Warns a Council,

hinders my going to Roxbury Lecture,

which

though had bespoke

b efore.3 5 7
554

I b l d . . p. 136.

355

Ibld., p. 187.

556

I b l d .. p. 188.

357

Ibid. , p. 189.

— 44 6”

16.
Meers's,

• • •

Went to Woodell* s a n d rode in his Coach to

from thence went a n d visited Mrs.

her K. George* s effigies
K. Charles 2^- 1677.

in Copper; a n d a n Engl.

Eat Curds with her;

sing, a n d R e t u r n e d Thanks;

25.

6

came home.

. [Friday, July 25. J

to Roxbury.

Denison;

Gave

Crown of

I craved a Bles­

. . .3 3 8

I go in the Hackny Coach

Call at Mr. W a l t e r ’s who is not at home; nor

Governour Dudley, n o r his Lady.
invites me to eat.
fork in each;

Visit Mrs.

I give her two C a s e 3 with a knife and

one Turtle shell tackling;

w i t h Ivory handles,

Denison: she

S q u a r ’d, cost 4 s

w i t h p roportionable Almonds.

. . .

6 ^-;

the other long,
Pound of Raisins

Came home by Day-light

in the Coach, w h i c h staid for me at the Gray-Hound.

August,

1.

6

. . . . visit M r 3 . Denison.

M a d a m Rogers

a n d Leverett m u c h congratulated me upon my Courting her.
August
Sister Weld,

6

. 4.

Visited Mrs.

Denison,

Carried her, her

the Widow, a n d Mrs. Weld to her Brother Mr.

Samuel Weld, where we were Courteously entertained.
Gave Mrs.

. . .

Denison a Psalm-Book neatly b o und in E n g l a n d with

,
T
360
Turkey-Leather.
During the next three months, many visits, many little
presents, m u c h dining out w ith relatives a n d friends . 5 6 1 Finally,
358

I b l d . . p. 189.

359

I b i d . , p. 190.

I b i d . , p. 191.
361Ibld#> p- 1 9 2 , entries for August 15,

360

22, 27, 28, a nd

•*

-447-

on the first of November:
M y Son from Brooklln being here I took his Horse, and
visited Mrs. Denison.

Sat in the Chamber next Major Bowls#

I told her 'twas time now to finish our Business:
her what I should allow her;

she not speaking;

Ask'd

I told her

I was willing to give her Two and Fifty pounds per annum
during her life,

if it shoxild please God to take me out of

the world before her.
she was,

She answer'd she had better keep as

than give a Certainty for an uncertainty;

should pay dear for dwelling at Boston.
make proposals, but she made none.
lishment next Thorsday the
from it.

6

th.

She

I desired her to

I had Thoughts of Pub­

But I now seem to be far

May God, who has the pity of a Father,

Direct and

, , _ .362
help me;

Friday, 9? QNovemberJ 23. 1718.
Mr. Y/alter a f t e r Lecture,
wit h Mrs. Denison.

Having consulted with

he advised me to goe and speak

I went this day in the Coach;

had a

fire made in the Chamber where I spake with her before,
9V the f i r s t :

I enquired how she had done these 3 or 4

weeks; Afterwards I told her our Conversation had been such
when I was with her last,

that it seem'd to be a direction

in Providence, not to p roceed a ny further; She said, It
must be what I pleas'd,

or to that purpose.

Afterward

September 4; i bid. , p. 197, entry for September 26 (Interrup­
tion caused by weeks on the circuit); ibid. . pp.199-200, entries
for October 11, 15, 24, and 29#
362

I b ld., p.

202.

-443-

she seem'd to blame Cm©3 that I had not told her so 9«* 1*
. . .

I repeated her w o r d 3 of 9F 1.

She seem'd at first

to start at the words of her paying dear, as If she had
not spoken them.

But she said she thought twas Hard to

part with A l l , a n d have nothing to bestow on her Kindred.
I said,

I did not Intend any thing of the Movables,

Intended all the personal Estate to be to her.

I

She said

I seem'd to be In a hurry on Satterday, 9F 1., which was
the reason she gave me no proposals.

Whereas I had ask'd

her long before to give me proposals In Writing; and she
upbraided me, That I who had never written her a Letter,
should ask her to write.
I told her Yes.
Wine:

She asked me if I would drink,

She gave me Cider, Apples and a Glass of

gathered together the little things I had given

her, and offer'd them to me; but I would take none of them.
Told her I wish'd her well,
welfare.

should be glad to hear of her

She seem'd to say she should not again take In

hand a thing of this nature.

Thank'd me for what I had

given her ana Desired my Prayers.

. . .

Mr. Stoddard and

his wife came In their Coach to see their Sister which
broke off my Visit.

Upon their asking me,

Coach, and went with them to see Mr.
home by Moon-shine.

I dismiss'd my

Danforth, a n d came

G-ot home about 9. at night.

La us

Deo.
M y bowels yern towards Mrs. Denison; but I think God
directs me in his Providence to desist. °
3 6 3I bld., pp. 204-205.

Two days later,

however--

In the e v e n i n g • • . about 7 a-clock Mrs.
comes In, h e r Cousin Weld coming first,
to speak w i t h me in privat,
a nd was at prayer;

Dorothy Denison

saying she desired,

I had a fire in the new Hall,

was very m u c h startled that she should

come so far a - f o o t in that exceeding Cold Season;

She

e n t er*d into discourse of whrt pass* d between us at Roxbury last Friday;

I seem*d to be a l t e r ' d in m y affection;

a s k ' d p a r d o n if she had af f r o n t e d me.
the M a t c h should not b r e a k off,
p a n y so long.

since I h a d kept her Com­

S a i d Mr, Denison spake to her a f t e r his

Signing the Will,

that he w o u l d not [have^ her put all out

out of her H a n d a n d power,

but reserve

on his Friends that might want,
all.

Seem'd to incline

She excus'd,

somwhat to bestow

I told her She might keep

a n d said 'twas not such a n all,

m e n d e d the estate,

I com­

I could not observe that she m ade me

a n y o f fe r of a n y p art all this while.
Glass Bottles she had,

She m e n t i o n 'd two

X told her they were hers, a nd the

o t her small things I had given her, o nly now they h ad not
the same s i g n lfication as before,

I was m u c h concern'd for

her being in the Cold, w o u l d fetch her in a plate of somthlng warm:

(for I had not sup'd),

she refus'd.

I F e t che d a Tan k a r d of Cider a n d drank to her.
sired that no body might k n o w of her b e i n g here,
h e r they should not,

• • ,

Cold, no M o o n b e i n g up,

206-207,

She de­
I told

She went a w a y in the bitter

to m y great pain,

at parting,*"*®^
56 4 I b l d , , pp,

H o w ever

entry for N o v em be r 30,

I Saluted her

Finally, on December 22—
Mrs.

Dorothy Denison brings a n additional Inventory.

I

give her her Oath; ask ' d her Brother Brewer and her to
dine w it h me:

She said she needed not to eat; Caus'd her

to sit by the fire, and went w i t h her to the door, at her
g o ing away.

She said nothing to me, n o r her Brother

Brewer.'^®®
Three months a f t e r this,

God's providence, w h i c h he felt

had directed him to desist in his courting of Mrs.
once a g ain took a hand.

Denison,

On the first day of April a messenger

brought him a package bearing his name.

In it he found

'ta. pair

of very good white Kid's Leather Gloves, a n d a Gold Ring, "
The ring bore the motto "Lex et Llbertas
"A, T.

1,333

11

a n d the initials

This was obviously from his old friend Abigail

Tilley, whom he had long known as a memb e r of his Wednesday
night prayer-meeting.

Twice married,

she was now again widowed

and alone; apparently she was also willing, w
quite as willing as she,
third visit to her house.

made a proposal of marriage on his
"She e x p r e s s e d } her Unworthiness

of such a thing w ith m u c h Respect*
365

I b i d . , p, 208,

366

I b i d . , p, 217.

Sewall, who was

1,333

This was a good start,

3 6 7 ibid.,

p, 8 6 , entry for June 5, 1716; i bid. . p. 158,
entry for January 1, 1717/18; ibid., p. 255, editors' note.
She had been a m e m b e r of the South Church since 1704,
When
Sewall m a rrie d her she was fifty-four years old (L e t t e r - B o o k .
II, 109, letter to J e remiah Dummer dated February 23, 1719/20)•
3 3 8 I b i d . , p. 226, entry f o r September 2, 1719.
entry for the p r e ceding August 29,

See also the

-451-

and after several pleasant weeks of the usual visits,

congra­

tulations from friends, a na gifts (no talk about a property
369
settlement this t i m e ) ,
they were married on Thanksgiving
Day, 1719*
• • . between

6

and 7.

Brother Moodey and I went to Mrs.

Tilley's; a n d about 7, or
Sewall,

8

, were married by Mr. J[oseph}

in the best room below stairs.

the 2^ time.

Mr. Prince pray'd

Mr. A d ams the Minister of Newington was there*

Mr. Oliver a n d Mr.

Timothy Clark

Justices, and many more.

Sung the 12, 13, 14,

15, a n d 16. verses of the 9 0 ^ Psalm.

Cous. S. Sewall [his

nephew} set Lo w - d u t c h Tune in a very

good Key, w h i c h made

the Singing w i t h a good number of

Voices very agreeable.

Distributed Cake.

Mrs. Armltage

introduced me into m y Bride's Chamber after she was a-bed.
I thank'd her that she had left her room in that Chamber
to make way for

me, a n d pra.y*d God to provide for her a

better Lodging:

So

not unusual for

the bridal chamber to be the scene of the

drinking of her 1 the

none saw us after I went to b e d [it was

and the saying of prayers}.0'

Quickly

after our b e i n g a - b e d m y Bride grew so very b a d she was
fain to sit up in her bed;
about her.

I rose to get her Petit Coats

I was exceedingly amaz'd,

should have dy'd.

fearing lest she

Through the favour of God she recover'd

3 6 9 l b i d . , p. 226, entries for September 16, 18, 21, 23, 24,
a n d 25; i b i d . . p. 232, entry f o r October 15 and 26 or 27.

370caihoun, I, 64,

comments thus on this passage.

in some considerable time of her Fit of the Tissick,
ting, partly blood*

spit­

She her self was under great Conster—

nation.'571.
The marriage had not got off to a very promising start,
but for as l ong as it lasted Sewall at least was quite satisfied,

finding his n e w wife

U n f c r t u n a t e l y , however,

"very help full, "

"very kina.

she was wracked by fits of the ague

and suffered from extreme shortness of b r e ? t h . 3 7 3
seven months a f t e r they were married,

she was

One night,

"oppress*d

with a rising of Flegm that obstructed her E r e a t h i n g . "
hurried out of bed,

"lighted a Candle, made Scipio give me

a Eason of Water (he was asleep by the fire)
Ur.

Sewall

Cooper, M a y h e w Cmlnisters3*

Call'd . . .

About midnight my dear wife

exnired to our great astonishment,

especially mine.

May the

Sovereign L o r d par d o n m y Sin, a n d Sanctify to me this very
374
Extra-ordinary, awfull Dispensation. "
Next day (May 27, 1720)
there were numerous sympathetic callers,
3

^ D i a r y , III*

one of whom, Mr.

235, entry for October 29, 1719.

3 7 B e t t e r - B o o k . II, 104, lett e r to Timothy Woodbridge dated
February 1, 1719/20; ibid., p. 108, letter to John Storke
dated February 20, 1719/20.
She was given a favorable character
by Jeremiah Dimmer, who wrote to Sewall, May 13, 1720: "I heart!
ly congratulate you upon your second marriage, w ith Mrs. Tilley.
I have had a n esteem for her character ever since my being at
Cambridge, where I was a witness of her great goodness in plead­
ing w i t h her Father for an unfortunate brother, getting him re­
stored to favour, though by that means she knew how m uch she
must lose in h e r own fortune." (L e t t e r - B o o k . II, 147.)
3>
73

D l a r y . Ill* 233, entry f o r October 30, 1719;
entry for December 29, 1719.
574

I b l d . . pp. 254-255,

entry for May 26, 1720.

i bid., p. 238,

Williams of* Hatfield,
Sev;all

remarked that what had happened to

"was *7hat befell the Prophet Ezekiel* "375 On the fol­

lowing Sunday afternoon Hr. Prince spoke from the twenty-fifth
chapter of Matthew,

sixth verse:

"At midnight behold a Cry

was made. "373 Two days later she was laid in the tomb, and
„
_
37?
Sewall was once more alone.
A f t e r three months had p a s s e d Sewall began paying hie
attentions to M a d a m Wlnthrop again,

this time in full earnest.

He was now in his sixty-ninth year, she in h e r fifty-sixth.
378
Both had now been twice married.
The story of their rela­
tionship during the two months that followed Sewall's sending
her a sermon in September, 1720,

is completely contained in

the diary entries and deserves to be so presented.

On Sep­

tember 5 he sent h e r the s e r m o n . ^ 8 n September 30:
Daughter Sewall [Joseph's wife3 acquaints M a dam
Wlnthrop that if she ple a s ' d to be within at 3. p.m. I
would wait on her*
8 ? [O c t o b e r 3 1.

She ans w e r ' d she w o u l d be at home.
Satterday,

I dine at Mr. Stoddard's:

from thence I went to M a d a m Wlnthrop's Just at 3.

Spake to

375 Ibl d .
378I b i d . • entry for M a y 29.
Cotton M a t h e r preached a funeral
sermon which was p u b l i s h e d u n d e r the title: "Undoubted Certain­
ties.
Of Piety E n l ivened from the Vlev; of what the L i ving do
certainly know of Death approaching.
In a Sermon p reached on
t h e Death of Mrs. Abi g a i l Sewall, who expired 26d. 3m. 1720,
Aetatis 54.
By Cotton Mather, D.D. and F.R.S." (Boston, 1720).
She left an estate of approximately one hundred pounds
(L e t t e r - B o o k , II, 115, letter to Jonathan Dickinson dated
August 1, 3L720) •
5 7 7 D i a r y , l o c . c l t . , entry for May 31.
378I b i d . , p. 262,
3 7 9 Ibid., p. 260.

editors'

note.

-454-

her,

saying, ray loving wife died so soon and suddenly,

*twas hardly convenient for me to think of Marrying again;
however I came to this Resolution,

that I would not make

m y Court to a n y person without first Consulting w i t h her,
[At this point they have the exchange,

earlier noted, about

the numerous widows sitting in the fore-seat at the South.
Church.]
October 3,2.

Waited on M a d a m Wlnthrop again;

little while before

she came in.

there alone with me,

I said,

’tv7a a a

H e r daughter Noyes being

I hoped my Waiting on her

Mother w o uld not be disagreeable to her.

She answer* d she

sho ;ld not be against that that might be for her Comfort,
I Saluted her, a n d told her I p e r c e l v ’d I must shortly wish
her a good Time;

(her m other had told me,

a nd within a M o n e t h or two of her Time),
Mr, Airs,

she was with Child
By a n d by In came

Chaplain of the Castle [the military installation

at Castle Island in the bay], and hang*d up his Hat, which
I was a little startled at,
lodge there.

it seeming as If he was to

A t last Madam Wlnthrop came too.

considerable time,

I went up to her a n d said,

After a
if it might

not be inconvenient I desired to speak w ith her.

She as­

sented, and spake of going Into another ^oom; but Mr, Airs
a nd Mrs. Noyes presently rose up, a n d went out, leaving
us there alone.

Then I usher* d in Discourse from the names

in the Fore-seat; at last I pray*d that Katharine [Mrs,
Wlnthrop] might be the pers o n a s signed f o r me.

She instant­

ly took It up in the way of Denyal, as if she had catch'd

-455-

at a n Opportunity to do It,
b e f o r e she was asked.

saying she could not do It

Said, that was her m i n d unless she

should Change It, which she believed she should not;
c o uld not leave her Children.

I express'd m y Sorrow thf-.t

she should do it so Speedily, pray'd her Consideration,
a n d a s k ' d her w h e n I should wait on her agen.
no time,

She setting

I m e n t i o n ' d that day Sennight,

uave her Mr.

W i l l a r d 1s Fountain open ' d • . . saying,

I hop'd if we

did well read that book, we should meet together hereafter,
if we did not now.
Pocket.

She took the Book,

and put It in her

Took Leave.

8T 5.

• . •

A l t h o u g h I had a p p ointed to wait upon

h er , Madam Wlnthrop,
C o u s i n Sewall's

next Monday,

yet I went from my

thither about 3. p.m.

The Nurse told

me M a d a m d i ned a b r o a d at her daughter Noyes's,
to go out together.
Grave Katee
away.

they were

I a s k ' d for the Maid, who was within.

[the grandchildJ & penny a n d a Kiss, a n d came

. . .
q: 6 V 1 . . .

A little a f ter 6. p.m. I went to

M a d a m Wlnthrop's.

She was not within.

I gave Sarah

Chickering the tlald 2f, Juno, who brought In wood, 1?
A f t e r w a r d the Nurse came In,
o t h e r small Bill.

I gave her 18^, having no

A f t e r awhile Dr. Noyes came in wit h

his Mother; a n d quickly a f t e r his wife came in:
talking,

I think,

till eight a-clock.

They sat

I said I fear'd I

m i ght be some Interruption to their Business: Dr. Noyes
reply*d pleasantly:

He fear'd they might be an Interrupt!^

-*56-

to me, a n a went away.
string.

Madam seem'd to harp upon the same

Must take care of her Children;

could not leave

that House a n d N e i g hbourhood where she had dwelt so long.
I told her she might doe her children as m u c h or more good
by bestowing what she laid out In Hous-keeping, upon them.
Said her Son w o u l d be of Age the

of August.

I said It

might be Inconvenient for her to dwell w ith her Daughterin-L*aw, who must be Mistress of the House.

I gave her a

piece of Mr. Eelcher' s Cake and Ginger— Bread wrapped up
In a clean sheet of Paper;

told her of her Father's kind­

ness to me when Treasurer, a n d I Constable.

M y Daughter

Judi t h was gon from me a n d I was more Lonesom— might help
to forward one a n o t h e r in our Journey to Canaan.

Mr. Eyre

QMadam Wlnthrop's twenty y e a r old son by her first hus­
band} came within the door;
went away.

I saluted him . . .

I took leave about 9 aclock.

and he

I told [her} I

came now to refresh her Memory as to Monday-night;
she had not forgot it.

In discourse with her,

to speak w i t h her Sist e r [Madam Mlco};

said

I a sk'd leave

I meant to gain

M a d a m Mlco's favour to persuade her Sister pMadam Wlnthrop}.
She seem'd surpris'd and displeas'd, and said she was in the
.380
same condition!

8? 1 0 \ h . . .

In the Evening I visited M a d a m Wlnthrop,

who treated me with a great deal of Curtesy; Wine, Marmalade.
380 D i a r y , III,

262-265.

M

-457-

I gave her a News-Letter . . . Proposals phis Proposals
Touching the Acconrpllshment of Prophecies 1. . . .
8? 1 1 V 1
purpose:

1 writ a few Lines to Madam Wlnthrop to this

'Madam, These wait on you w i t h Mr. llayhew* s

3eraon, and Acco\int of the state of the Indians on M a r ­
tha* s Vlnyard.

I thank you for your Unmerited Favours

of yesterday; a n d hope to have the Happiness of Waiting
on you to-morrow before

Sight aclock after Noon.

I pray

G-OD to keep you, and give you a Joyfull entrance upon the
Two Hundred and twenty n i n t h year of Christopher Columbus
his Discovery; a n d take Leave, who am, Madam, your humble
Servant.
S. S.
Sent this by Deacon Green,
Chickerlng,
8? 12.

who deliver*d It to Sarah

her Mistress not being at home.
• - .

A t M a d a m Wlnthrop* s . • • Mrs. Anne

Cotton came to door (twas before 8.)
was within,

d i rected me Into the little Room, where she was

full of work b e h i n d a Stand;
stood.

said Madam Wlnthrop

Mrs.

Cotton came in and

M a d a m Wlnthrop p ointed to her to set me a Chair.

Madam Wlnthrop* s Countenance was m u c h changed from what
*twas on Monday, loo k 'd dark and lowering.

At last,

work,

I got my Chair

(black stuff o r Silk)

in place,

had some Converse,

to what 'twas before.

was taken away,

the

but very Cold and Indifferent

A s k ' d her to acquit me of Rudeness

if I drew off her Glove.

Enquiring the reason,

I told her

twas great odds between handling a dead Goat, and a living

-453-

Lady.

Got It off.

I told her I had one Petition to ask

that was,

that she would, take off the Negative she

of her,

l aid on me the third of October;

3he readily answer* d she

could not, a n d enlarg* d u pon It; She told me of It so soon
as she could;
bours,

could not leave her house,

business.

I told her she might do som Good to

help and support me.
Denison.

children, neigh­

£SheJ

I told her Yesi

. . .

said I had visited Mrs.

Afterward I said,

If a f ter a

first ana second Vagary she would Accept of me returning,
H e r Victorious Kindness a n d Good Will would be very Oblig­
ing.

She thank'd me for my Book,

(Hr. Mayhew's Sermon),

But said not a w o r d of the Letter.
the Negative,
Lightening,
ireston,

When she Insisted on

I p r a y ' d there might be no more Thunder and

I should not sleep all night.

I gave her Dr.

The Church's Marriage a n d the Church's Carriage,

which cost me 6 s at the Sale.

The door standing open,

Mr. A irs came in, h u n g up his Hat, a n d sat down.
awhile, M a dam Wlnthrop moving, he went out.

After

J ohn Eyre

fMadam Wlnthrop's sonj look'd in, I said How do ye, or,
your servant Mr. Eyre:
fill'd a Glass of Wine,

but heard no w o r d from him.
she drank to me,

I to her, She

sent Juno home w i t h me with a good Lantern,
6^-

and b i d her thank her Mistress.

course,

Sarah

I gave her

In some of our Dis­

I told h e r I had rather go to the Stone-House

adjoinin g to her,

than to come to her against her mind.

Told her the reason why I came every other night was lest
I should drink too deep draughts of Pleasure.

She had

t a l k ’d of Canary,
best Canary.
8?* 15.

her Kisses were to me better than the

E x p l a i n ’d the expression Concerning Columbus.
I tell my Son a n d daughter [Joseph] Sewall,

that the W e a t h e r was not so fair as I a p p r e h e n d e d . ' ^

81* 15.

I dine on F i s h a n d Oyle at Mr.

Stoddard* s.

Cept. Hill w i s h * d me Joy of my proceedings i.e. w i t h
M

Wlnthrop;

V i s i t i n g her:

S i s t e r Cooper ap p l a u d e d it,

spake of

I said her Complaisance of her Visit would

be oblig i n g to me.
8* 16.

L. Day,

I u p b r a i d e d my self that could be so

solicitous a b o u t Earthly things; and so cold a n d indifferent
as to the Love of Christ.
8T 17.
Wlnthrop,

Monday.

. . .

. . .

In the Evening I v i s ited Madam

who T r e a t e d me Courteously,

L i n e n as somtlmes.
w o u l d come again,

She said,
o r no.

impute Inconstancy to me.

but not in Clean

she did not know w h e ther I

I a s k ’d her how she could so
(I had not visited her 3ince

W e d nesda y night b e i n g unable to get o v e r the Indisposition
received by the Treatment received that night. • . .)
Gave her this d a y ’s Gazett.

H e a r d D a vid Jeffries

grandson] say the Lord* s Prayer,
of the Scriptures.

[a

a n d some other portions

He came to the door, a n d a s k ’d me to

go into the Chamber, where his G randmother was tending
L i ttle Katee,

to w hom she h a d given Physick; but I chose

to sit below.

Dr. Noyes a n d his wife came in, a n d sat a

3 8 1 D i a r y . Ill,

265-263.

Considerable time.
8? 18.

. . .

Juno came home with me.

Visited Madam Mico, who came to me In a

splendid Dress.

I said, It may be you have heard of my

V i s iting M a dam Wlnthrop,

[your] Sister.

If h e r Sister were for it,

she should not hinder it.

gave her Mr. Homes's 3ermon.
Canary,

She answered,
I

She gave me a Glass of

e ntertain'd me w ith good Discourse, a n d a Respect-

full Remembrance of my first Wife.
Q V 19.

I took Leave.

Midweek, Visited Madam Wlnthrop;

Sarah told

me she was at Mr. Walley' e CMadam Y.'inthrop's son-in-law],
wo uld not come home till late.
home:

. . .

Was ready to go

but said If I knew she was there,

I would go thither.

Sarah seem'd to speak with pretty good Courage,
be there.

She would

I went a n d found her there, w ith Mr. Walley and

his wife In the little R o o m below.

A t 7 a-clock I mentioned

going home; at Q. I put on my Coat, a n d quickly waited on
her home.
as

She found occasion to speak loud to the servant,

If she had a m i n d to be known.

Was Courteous to me;

but took occasion to speak pretty earnestly about my keep­
ing a Coach:

I said 1twould cost $ 1 0 0 . per annum:

said twould cost but £40.
in a n d sat awhile;
mons,

Mr. Eyre j-the son] came

I offer'd him Dr. Incr. Mather's Ser­

whereof Mr. Appleton's Ordination Sermon was one;

said he had them already.
Exit.

. . .

she

I said I would give him another.

Came away somewhat late.
8? 20.

. . .

went thither first;

Madam Wlnthrop not being at Lecture,
found her very Serene with her dftter

I

Noyes, Mr3.

Dering,

little Table,

and the widow Shlpreev sitting at a

she In her a r m ’d Chair.

a n d I to Mrs. Noye s .
speak w i t h her.

A f t e r awhile pray ' d the favour to

She took one of the Candles, a n d went

Into the best Room,
the

Couch.

sat down upon

said the Coach must be set on Wheel
She spake somthlng of my needing a

A s k ' d me what her Sis t e r said to me.

She said,
it.

clos'd the shutters,

She . . .

a n d not by Husting.
Wigg.

She drank to me,

I told her,

If her Sister were for it, She would not hinder

But I told her,

she did not say she w o u l d be glad to

have me for h e r Brother.

Said,

I shall keep you in the

Cold, a n d a s k e d her if she w o u l d be within to m o r r o w
night,

for we h a d h a d but a running Feat.

could not tell w h e t h e r she should,

or no.

As were dri n k i n g at the ^overnour's,

She said she
I took Leave.

he said:

In England

the Ladies m i n d e d little more than that they might have
Money, a n d Coaches to ride in.
brooks its name.

A t w h i c h Mr.

I said, A n d New-England
Dudley smiled.

G-overnour

CShuteJ said they were not quite so b a d here.
Q? 21. Friday,

M y Son,

the Minister,

came to me p.m.

b y appoi n t m e n t a n d we p r a y one for ano t h e r in the O l d
Chamber; more especially respecting m y Courtship.
6. a - c l o c k I go to Mad a m Wlnthrop*s;

A b out

S a rah told me her

M istress was gon out, but did not tell me whither she
went.

She pr e s e n t l y order'd me a Fire;

so I went in,

havi n g Dr. Sibb's Bowels fBowels o p e n e d ; or a D i scovery
of the U n i o n betwixt Christ a n d the C h u r c h ! w ith me to

-462-

read.
in:

I read the two first Sermons,

still no body came

at last a b out 9. a - c l o c k Mr. John Eyre came in; I

took the o pportunity to say to him as I had done to Mrs.
Noyes before,

that I h o ped my Vis i t i n g his M o t h e r would

not be disagreeable to him; He a n s w e r e d me w i t h m u c h
Respect.

W h e n twas a f t e r 9. a-clock He of himself said

he would go a n d call her,
Brothers:

she was but at one of his

A while a f t e r I heard M a d a m 7/in t hr op* s voice,

en q u i r i n g somthlng about John.

A f t e r a good while a n d

Clapoing the Gard e n door tv/ice o r thrice,
I m e n t i o n ' d somthlng of the lateness;
said I was later.

she came in.

she ba n t e r ' d me, and

She receiv'd me Courteously.

when our procee d i n g s should be made publlck:

I ask'd

She said

They were like to be no more publick than they were already.
Offer'd me no Wine that I remember.
to come away,

saying I w o u l d put on my Coat,

not to help me.
home,

I rose up at 11 a-clock
She offer'd

I p r a y ' d her that Juno might light me

she ope n ' d the Shutter, a n d said tv/as pretty light

abroad; Juno was weary a n d gon to bed.
Star-light as well as I could.
gave Sarah five Shillings.

So I came KSin by

A t m y first coming in, I

I writ Mr. Eyre his Name in

his took w i t h the date Oct o b e r 21, 1720.

It cost me 8 s.

J e h o v a h Jlrehi
October 22.

. . .

Lit t l e David Jeffries saw me, and

l o o king u p o n me v e r y lovingly, a s k ' d me if I was going to
see his Grandmother?

I said, Not to-night.

Gave him a

peny, a n d b i d him present my Service to his Grandmother.

October 24.
Common,

I went in the Hackny Coach through the

ston'd at M a d a m 7/inthrop's (had told her I would

take my departure

[for SalemJ from thence).

to the door w i t h Katee in her A r m s •
to take notice of the Child.
her,

Sarah came

but I did not think

Call'd her Mistress.

I told

b e i n g e n c o u r a g ' d by David Jeffries lovln ; eyes, and

sweet Words,

X was come to enquire w h e t h e r she could find

in h e r heart to leave that House a n d Neighbourhood,
a n d dwell w i t h me at the

South-end;

ly,

It did no ly In my Lands to keep

Not yet.

a Coach.

I told h e r

If I sliould, I

to keep company w i t h her

should be

I think

and go

she said soft­

in danger to be brought

Ne i g h b o u r Brooker,

tle before sent to prison for Debt) •

(he was a lit­

Told her I had an

A n t i p a t h y a gainst those who would p r e t e n d to give them­
selves; but n o t h i n g of their Estate.
tion of my Estate w i t h m y self.
do so.

I would a propor­

A n d I suppos'd she would

As to a Ferrlwlg, M y best and grentest Friend, I

could not p o s s i b l y have a greater, b e g a n to find me with
Ha i r before I was born, a n d had continued to do so ever
since; a n d I coula not find In m y heart to go to another.
She commended the b o o k I gave her,
Marriage;

Dr. Preston,

the Church

quoted him saving 'twas inconvenient keeping out

of a Fashion commonly used.
circumscribe m y Visit.

I said the Time a n d Tide did

She gave me a Dram of Black-Cherry

Brandy, a n d gave me a lump of the S u g a r that was in It.
She w i s h ' d me a good Journy.
came away.

. . .

I pray* d G-od to keep her and

8t 25.

Sent a Lett e r . . .

to m y Son by Wakefield,

who delivered it not till Wednesday;

so he visited her not

till Friday p.m. a n d then p r e s e n t e d m y Service to her.'-

31.

2. [[Monday.

Saturday beforeJ
about 6. p.m.

He had arrived b a c k from Salem the

. . .

A t night I visited M a dam Wlnthrop

They told me she was gon to Madam Mlco's.

I went thither a n d found she was gon;
house,

so return'd to her

read the Epistles to the Galatlons,

Mr. Eyre's L a t i n Bible.

Ephesians

A f t e r the Clock struck 8.

b e g a n to read the 103. Psalm.

Mr. Wendell

in
I

[a relative

by marriage to M a d a m Y71nthrop[] came in from his Warehouse.
A s k ' d me if I were alone?

Spake very kindly to me,

me to call M a d a m Wlnthrop.
had been at Mrs. Mlco's;

I told him,

offer'd

She woulci be angry,

he help'd me on w ith my Coat and

I came home: left the Gazett in the Bible,
of, b id her present m y Service to Mrs.

which told Sarah

Wlnthrop,

a n d tell

her I had b e e n to wa.lt on her if she had been a.t home#
Nov e m b e r 1.

I was so taken up that I could not go if

I would.
No v e m b e r 2.

Midweek,

went again,

there, who quickly went out.
Sugar Almonds,

a n d found Mrs. Alden

Gave her about % p o u n d of

oost 38 p e r it • . . .

wi t h them, a s k ' d what they cost.

She seem'd pleas'd

Spake of giving her

Hundred pounds p e r annum if I ay'd before her.
what sum she w o u l d give me,
5 8 ^ I b i d . . pp.

268-272.

a

A s k ' d her

if she should dy first?

- 465—

Said I would give h e r time to Consider of it.

She said she

heard as if I h a d given all to m y Ch.lla.ren by Deeds of
Gift.
&c.

I told her 'twas a mistake, P o l n t - J u d i t h was mine
That in England,

I own'd, m y Father's desire was that

it should go to my eldest Son;
thought

'twas forty.

sing this,

'twas £ 0 ^

p e r annum;

she

I think when I seem'd to excuse pres­

she s e e m ' d to think twas best to speak of it;

a lon g w i n t e r was coming on.

Gave me a Glass or two of

Canary.
No v e m b e r

4

V

1

Friday,

Went again about 7. a-clock;

found there Mr. J o h n Walley and his wife : sat discoursing
pleasantly.

I s h e w 1 d them Isaac Moses's Writing [Isaac

M o ses was a n Indian^.

M a d a m w.

serv' d Comfeits to us.

A f t e r a-while a Table was spread, a n d Supoer was set.
u r g ' d Mr. Walley to Crave a Blessing;
me.

A b o u t 9. they went away,

I

but he put it upon

I a s k ' d Madam what fashioned

Neck-lace I should present h e r with,

She said, None at all.

I a s k ' d her Wh e r e a b o u t we left off last time; mention'd
what I had off e r ' d to give her; A s k ' d her what she would
give me;

She said she could not Change her Condition:

h a d said so from the beginning;
her Children,

the Lecture.

could not be so far from

Quoted the Apostle Paul affirm­

ing that a single L i f e was bett e r than a Married.
swer'd That was f o r the present Distress.

you are the fitter to make me a Wife.

In that mind,

I an­

Said she had

not pleasure in things of that nature as formerly:
said,

She

I

If she held

I m ust go home a n d b e w a i l my Rashness In

— 460-

m a k i n g more haste than good Speed*
the Supper,

considering

I desired her to be within next Mond a y night,

If we l i v ' d so long.
saying,

However,

Assented.

She charg' a me with

that she must put away Juno,

I utterly d e n y * d It,
insisted upon it;

if she came to me:

It n e v e r came in my heart; yet she

saying it came in upon discourse about

the Indian w o m a n that o b tained her Freedom this Court*
A b o u t 10*

I said I would not disturb the good orders of

he r House,

a n d came away.

m y Coming away.

. . .

Vi
November 7 .

Monday,
• . .

She not seeming p l e a s ' d with

M y Son p r a y ' d in the O l d Chamber.

Twas on the Acc o u n t of m y Courtship.

Wlnthrop;

I went to Mad.

fou n d h e r rocking her little Katee in the Cradle.

I excus'd m y Coming so late

(near Eight).

She set me an

a r m ' d Chair a n d

Cusheon; a n d so the

Cradle was between h.^r-

a r m'd Chair a n d

mine. Gave her

remnant of my Almonds;

the

She did not eat of them as before; but laid them away;

I

said I came to enquire w h e t h e r she had alt e r ' d her mind
since Friday,

or remained of the same m i n d still.

Thereabouts.

I told her I l o v e d her, a n d was so fond as to

think that she l o v e d me :
for me.

I t old

her,

She said,

She said she had a great respect

Ihad made

her a n offer, without asking

a n y advice;

she

had so m a n y to advise with, that twas a

hindrance.

The Fire was come to one short Brand besides

the Block, w h i c h B r a n d was set up in end; at last it fell
to pieces, a n d no Recruit was made:
of Wine.

She gave me a Glass

I think I repeated again that I would go home

-467-

a n d bewail m y Rashness
Speed.

in maki n g more haste than good

I w o u l d endeavour to contain myself, and not go

on to eolllcit h e r to do that w h i c h she could not Con­
sent to*

Tools: leave of her.

she b i d me have a Care.

As came down the

3

teps

Treated me Courteously*

Told

h er she had ent e r * a the 4 t h year of her Widowhood.
h a d given h e r the N e w s - L e t t e r before I

I did not bid her

draw off her Grlove as sometime I had done.
not so cles.n as somtime
Midweek,

9T 9 V 1

it had been.

I

Her Dress was

J e h o v a h Jlrehi

Dine at Bro t h e r Stoddard's: were so

k ind as to enquire of me If they should invite M a d a m Winthrop;

I a n s w e r ' d No.

Courtesle.

. . .

T h a n k ' a m y Sister Stoddard for her

H a d a noble Treat.

was at W i d o w Belknap's.
w i t h me w i t h a Lantern.
2*83
open as I p a s s ' d by.*"

N ovember ll**1

. . .

A t night our Meeting

She sent her servant home

M a d a m Winthrop's Shutters were

Went not to M a d a m Wlnthrop's.

This i s

the 13d W i t h d r a w . 384

£no dateJ

A b o u t the middle of December £17203 Madam

Wlnthrop made a Treat for her Children; Mr.
Prince,

Willoughby:

rJoseph3 Sewall,

I k new nothing of it; but the same

day abode in the Council Chamber for fear of the R ain, and
285
d in'd alone u pon Kilby's Pyes a n d g ood Beer.*'

383 Ibid. , pp. 273-276.
5 8 5I b l d . , p. 277.

3 8 4 I b id., p. 276.

The story Is not quite ended.
at lecture

386

He still noted her absence

a n d was sensitive to Imagined slights where she

was concerned.3 ® 7 In the summer of 1725 she fell 111 a n d Sewall
came to the

sick chamber:

to her [Joseph,

that is,

“I

told h e r I found my Son coming

on aministerial vis it} a n d took the

Opportunity

to come w i t h him.

At comin : I

said,

She thank* d me kindly.

I kiss your hand Madame

dry) . 1,388 Two months l a t e r she died.

. . .

(her hand felt very

Sewall was one of the

bearers at her funeral.
Shortly a f t e r the break-down in his negotiations wit h
Madam Wlnthrop,
asking his

Sewall wrote to his friend Jer e m i a h Dummer

“Prayers that G O D wou l d . . .

such a good Wife for me

[as the recently departed Abigailj,

that I m a y be able to say,
LORD.

yet again provide

I have obtained Favour of the

. . . 1,389 A few months l a t e r (June,

1721)

he wrote to

the Rev. Mr. Woodbrldge at Hartford:
M y dJlHer H a n n a h is grievously f e t t e r ’d by Lameness;

has

not gon out of doors since last December was two years:
So that I a m left w i t h m y House-keeyer, Mrs. Lydia Kay;
w h i c h is disagreeable to me.
from school at Newbury,
Martha,

a n d Mary,

3 8 6I b l d . . p. 281,

I remember when I was going

I have sometime met your Sisters

at the end of Mrs. Noyes's Lane,

coming

entry for February 16, 1720/1.

3 9 7 I b i d . , p. 345, entry for December 6, 1724: " . . . Deacon
Cheekly Deliver'd the [communion} Cup first to Mad a m Wlnthrop,
a n d then gave me a Tankard.
'Twas humiliation to me. • • •"
388 I b i d . . pp. 360-361,
389Letter-Book,

entry for June 15, 1725.

II, 122-123.

— 469—

from their Schools at Chandler's lane,

In their Hanging

Sleeves; a n d have had the pleasure of Speaking with them:
A n d I could find In m y heart to speak w i t h Mrs. Martha
again,
Cl.e.,

n o w I my self am reduc'd to m y Hanging Sleeves
"now that I a m in m y second childhood "3*

The

t r uth Is, I have little Occasion for a Wife, hut for the
sake of Modesty,

a n d to cherish me In m y advanced years

(I was b orn M a r c h 28, 1652)

Methinks I could venture to

lay m y Weary h e a d In her Lap,

if it might be brought to

pass upon Honest Conditions.

You k n o w your Sister's Age,

a n a Disposition,

a n d Circumstances,

should be glad of your Advice

b e t t e r than I doe.

in my Fluctuations.

N o t hing a r r i v i n g from this quarter,

I

290

he set upon the W i d o w

Ruggles at Brookline,

one of those who h a d entered Into his
391
speculations three years before.
She expressed her "inability
to be Servicable, " however, a n d w hen Sewall pressed his case
finally told him that she w o u l d entertain him only if he would
392
"solicit her no more; or to that e f f e c t . *
This was in the

summer.

The fo l l o w i n g J anuary

(1721/22)

he made a n

^Epistolary

V i s i t " to Widow Gibbs at Newton, aski n g h e r at once if she
393
w o u l d be wil l i n g to m a r r y him.
U pon receiving a reply w h ich
seemed to suggest that the climate at Newton was favorable,
he a r r a n g e d for a c o ach a n d set out*

On this first visit he

5 9 0 I b i d . . pp. 133-134, l e t t e r dated June 1.
5 9 1 D iary. Ill, 174-175, entry for M a r c h 7, 1717/13.
3 9 2 I b i d . , pp. 290,
3 9 3 Ioid., p.

291, entries for July 15 and August 3, 1721.

299, l e t t e r dated January 12.

l i m i t e d himself to compliments
incomparably well

( M. . . told her * . . she writ

. . . “) a n d gifts

upon . . . a g o o d L e a t h e r Inkhoni,
200* Wafers in a little Box, M
to the c h i l d r e n ) . o n

(

Quire of P a p e r to write

a stick of Sealing W a x • • •

shillings to the servants,

cakes

the second—

Spake of the proposals I had Intimated p e r Mr. H. Gibbs;
for h e r Sons to be b o und to save me harmless as to her
Administration;
die d before me:
Life,

a n d to p a y me «6l00. p r o v i d e d their Mother
I to p a y her £ 5 0 . p e r annum during her

if I left her a Widow.

She said "twas iiard,

she

knew not how to have her children b o u n d to pay that Sum;
she might dye In a little time.

Mr. [John} Cotton [her
395
son-in-law, m i n i s t e r at Newton},
w h o m she c a l l ’d, spake
to the same purpose.

• • •

to the indemnifying Bond;
alone,

I said I was peremptory as
O f f e r ’d to take up w ith that

a n d a l low h e r £.40.. p e r annum.

w o u l d consider of it :

I said,

. . .

I w o uld also Consider.

A f t e r w a r d she e x c u s ’d h e r speaking to me.
m e a n t the w o r d Hard.

She said she

I suppose she

Carried her a p o u n d of G l a z ’d Almonds,

a n d a Duz. M e e r s [ ' } Cakes; Two bottles of Canary.
H a d a very g o o d L e g g of Pork,
Mrs.

. . .

a n d a Turkey for Dinner.

Gibbs help'd me on w i t h my Coat at Coming away; a nd

stood in the Front door till the Coach mov'd,
594 I b l d . . p. 300,

then I pull'd

entry for January 19, 1721/22.

3 9 5 I b l d . , p. 306, e d i t o r s ’ note.
Wid o w G i b b s ’ first husband
was the son of Robert Gibbs, a w ealthy Boston merchant, which
no doubt accounts f o r there once more b e i n g the dickering over
terms.

-471-

Off m y Hat, a n d she Curtesled.
n ext Thorsday;

to carry

Ctown clerk of B o s t o n 3.

I had m o v e d to be pu b l i s h e d

in our names to Col. Checkley
^5^ (3

T h o u g h p u b l i c a t i o n of the banns was del a y e d a veek while the
397
p a r ties dick e r e d o v e r terms of the settlement,
ag r eement
was f i nally r eached (children to be responsible for her former
debts,
him);

she to receive forty pounds a y e a r in case she outlived
399
o n M a r c h 1 “3. S. a n d M.G-. were O u t - p u b l i s h e d "
(I.e.,

the n e c e ssary fou r t e e n days had e x p i r e d ) ; a n d on M a r c h 29, 1722,
they were m a r r i e d b y the Rev. W i l l i a m Co o p e r . ^ 99
Sewall was very happy in his third wife,

fin d i n g h e r

'ta.

great Blessing, " especially In caring for his d a u g h t e r Hannah,
"whoes L e g g she d r e s s * d once a day at least;
q u i r e d a great deal of diligence,
W h e n Hannah* s painful,
to a n end In the

To do w h i c h re­

Skill, a n d C o urage.4^

c a l a m i t y - r i d d e n life finally came

summer of 1724,

the next patient r e q uiring

I b i d ., pp. 300-301, entry for J a n u a r y 26, 1721/22.
Ibi d . ,
p. 305, editors' note:
"The law required p u b l i c a t i o n by a sk­
ing b a n n 3 at three p u b l i c meetings, o r by public p o s t i n g for
f o u r t e e n days, b e s i d e s the e n t e r i n g of the parties* names wit h
the town clerk at least fifteen days before the marriage, and
p r o c u r i n g a certificate of publication. "
^ ^ I b i d .. p. 301, e n t r y f o r J a n u a r y 31; I b i d . . pp. 302, 303,
304, 305, entries f o r F e b r u a r y 2, 6, 10, 147 ^5*
22, 23,
24, a n d 26 or 27.
5 9 8 I d Id . . p. 305.
3 9 9 i b j d . . p. 306.
F o r the business of their get t i n g settled,
see I b i d . , entries for A p r i l 1, 2, 3, a n d 15.
^" L e t t e r - B o o k , II, 146, l e t t e r to J e r e m i a h Dummer d a ted
N o v e m b e r 20, 1722; Ibid., p. 160, l e t t e r to J o n a t h a n Dickinson
d a ted F e b ruar y 22, 1723/24; I b i d . . p. 162, m e m o r a n d u m of letter
to S o l o m o n St o d d a r d d a t e d M a r c h 14, 1723/4; i bid. . p. 180,
l e t t e r to A l i c e D u m m e r d a t e d D e c e m b e r 14, 1724.

-472-

nurse* s care was Sewall himself,
"locomotive faculty

who b e g a n n o w to find his
401
• • . very m u c h enfeebled. "
He ha d

lost

"many • • • Organs of M u s i c • . • F o r e — Teeth, b o t h u p p e r
402
a n d nether, "
a fact which, he says, "does • • • give me

w a r n i n g that I m u s t shortly resign m y Head:
me to do it cheerfully. m4^
g r a n d c h i l d r e n likewise

The

the L o r d help

Tjisplng L a n g u a g e " of his

told him that he

to remove to a b e t t e r Country, h4 ^ 4

"had n e e d to provide

He who h a d so rarely known

infirmity a n d sickness was n o w b u r d e n e d w i t h
[the] B ack . . .

w e a k Hands,

and . . .

"disorders of
405
feeble K n e e s . "
One

by one, again s t the p rotests of colleagues a n d friends,
r e s igned his p u b l i c offices,
so by a n

he

q u i c k e n e d in his resolve to do

"Extraordinary Sickness of F lux a n d V o m i t i n g the

n ight a f t e r the 27. J u l y [1728].

. . . "406

In one capacity o r a n o t h e r he h a d spent half a century
in the public life of Massa c h u s e t t s .

Now,

he said,

h i g h time for me to be f avoured w i t h some Leisure,
4 0 1 I b i d . , p. 211,
40^Ibld.a
1719/26.

1 0 5

4 0 5 P l a r y . Ill,

,

"it is
that I

l e t t e r to Edward T a y l o r d a t e d A u g u s t 27, 1726
l e t t e r to E d w a r d T a y l o r d a t e d Fe b ruary 16,

233, e n t r y for M a r c h 5, 1720/1.

4Q 4L e t t e r - B o o k , II, 213, l e t t e r to Samuel Storke d a t e d Sep­
t e m b e r 30, 1726.
4 0 5I b l d . . p. 262, l e t t e r to Samuel M a t h e r dat e d M a r c h 6, 1723/9
^ ^ I b i d .. p. 249, m e m o r a n d u m of let t e r to Rev. Mr. M o o d y
d a ted A u g u s t 16, 1728.
The p r o c e s s of resignation took several
years.
See, for example, the
D i a r y , III, 357-358, entries
f o r M a y 27, 28, 29,
31, 1725; ibid., p. 359, entry f o r June
3, 1725; L e t t e r - B o o k , II, 183-184, l e t t e r to Lt. Gov. William
Dumraer a n d the Council dat e d J u n e 4, 1725; D i a r y , III, 382,
e ntry fo r M a r c h 11, 1726; L e t t e r - B o o k , II, 247, l e t t e r to
G o v e r n o r Burnet dated J u l y 29, 1728; i b i d . , pp. 257-253, l e t t e j ^ H
to Samuel P a r t r i d g e d a t e d N o v e m b e r 5, 17S8.

—473—

may prepare for the entertainments of another YJbrld. m407 The
next year (1729) he felt himself

"mouldering down apace,

ana in December he too3c to his bed.
As the end drew near, his son Joseph made the following
entries in his own diaryJ
Dec 26.

M y father seem3 to grow weaker.

At different

times He repeated to me the Creed and the Lord* s prayr.
Mention'd that text, If any man Sin, we have an advocate
with the Father.

When ask'd what wee should Pray for—

Answer, to this Effect, that he might follow the Captain
of his Salvation.
Dec 29.

In general, he speaks but little.

I read to him 11 John 23-27 &c.

My Father

took notice and spake of what was read— that we were be­
holden to Martha.

Spake of the brazen Serpent— of looking

to Jesus— He the only remedy.
Jan 1.
before)

I was call'd uo about 4 cl. (or something

found my Father dying.

of his reason.

He seem'd to enj v the use

I pray'd with him, then Mr. Cooper.

C[ou3ln3 Chauncy came in and Pray'd.

My Honoured and

dear Father Expir'd about 35 minutes after 5 A.M.

Near

the time in which 29 year agoe, He was so affected upon the
Beginning of the Century, when he made those Verses to
usher in the New Year, Once more our God vouchsafe to shine. 409
4(^7Letter-Book, II, 247, letter to Governor Burnet dated
July 29, 1728.
40®Ibid., p. 268, letter to Samuel Browne dated May 26, 1729.
409I quote from Hill, History of the Old South Church, I, 443
the manuscript of this diary having been destroyed by fire.
See the comment in Sibley, V, 390.

-474-

On January 7,

"a fair cold Day, m410 he was

"honourably

Inter1d 11 in the tomb whither he iif. accompanied so many in
411
life.
Next day at
the South Church, Mr. Prince to ole the
text for his Thursday lecture from "he seventh chapter
first Samuel, verses fifteen through seventeen:

of

"And Samuel

Judged Israel all the Days of his Life; A n d he went from Year
to Year in Circuit to Bethel and Grllgal and Mispeh, and Judged
Israel in all those Places:

A n d his Return was to Ramah,

for

there .?&s his House,

and there He Judged Israel, and there

He built an Altar to

the LORD. 1,412

4X0The son’s diary, loc. cit.
411See the obituary notice in the News-Letter for January 3,
1730.
He was the thirty-first occupant of this tomb that had
originally been built for John Hull in 1683 (Letter-Book. II,
510-31E, entries from Sam Junior*s Memorandum Book)•
Accord­
ing; to Crawford, Old Boston, p. £80,
"he sleeps in death in
tne Old G-ranary Burying G-round almost on the very spot where
lie long ago had his home. "
412Quoted from the published sermon.

Chapter Seven
CONCLUSION
Fox* many years a f ter his death fame was unusually kind
to Samuel Sewall*

Entering Into popular legend, he lived in

m e n 1& minds as one who in his youth had married great for­
tune and who,

in his old age, became a figure of venerable

and almost godlike mien.

The fortunate youth was presented

in Hawthorne*s story of

"The Pine-Tree Shillings," the vener­

able old man in Whittier* s "The Prophecy of Samuel Sewall ,t—
Stately a n d slow, with thoughtful air,
His black cap hiding his whitened hair,
Walks the Judge of the Great Assise,
Samuel Sewall,

the good and wise*

His face w ith lines of firmness wrought.
He wears the look of a man unbought,
Who swears to his hurt and changes not;
Yet touched a n d softened nevertheless
With the grace of Christian gentleness;
The face that a child would climb to kiss;
Time a n d tender and bi*ave and Just,
That man might honor and woman trust*^
How firmly established was this Sewall of flattering legend
is shorn in the fact that a century and a half after the
all-too-human creature which was the actual m a n had been laid
***Vol. I of Works.

In his tomb,

so distinguished a critic as Moses Colt Tyi.er

wrote in these glowing terms:
men was Samuel Sewall,

. . .

honor, benevolence,

learning,

Intellectual force a n d breadth and brightness.

He was a man built,

By his great wealth,

his learning,

his warm human sympathy,

his magnanimity,

r v. . • •

every way, after a large pattern.

his great offices,

strong sense, his wit,
lessness,

gentle, and great

great by almost every measure of

greatness,— moral courage,
eloquence,

"A strong,

his

his fear­

he was a visible potentate among

It is significant that this estimate was written

shortly before the diary a ppeared in print.
The reason of the Sev/all legend, is not difficult to
understand.
he was,

Though hardly

"a. visible potentate among men, M

in the twilight years of the theocracy, a visible

embodiment of what he admiringly termed
3
N. E . , " antlauls m o r l b u s , orlsca f i d e .

Mthe first ways of
The sermon which

the Reverend Mr. Prince preached on the occasion of his death
contains, as we should expect, m u c h of the usual exaggeration
of praise, but he doubtless described what Sev/all had come to
represent to the m e n of his day when,
he referred to him as

in his closing words,

"this venerable Judge of our Country

whom the God of our Fathers was pleased to raise up and con% i l story. II, 99.
%•

3 See the L e t t e r - B o o k . I, 215, letter to Nathaniel Higginson
dated November 18, 1699; D i a r y . II, 56, entry for M a y 28, 1702
ibid., p. 410, entry for December 9, 1713; ibid., III, 147,
entry for November 15, 1717.

tinue to the present Generation,
our primitive Glory.
trates,

. . •

as a memorable Instance of

Last of tho old Charter magis­

last of those originally appointed to the Council of

the Province,

respected member of the highest court in the

land for as long almost as anyone then living could remember,
he was as one from a more heroic time, a legend while he was
yet

alive.
Nineteenth.-century America, more generally interested

in the cultivation of national legend in the name of patrio­
tism than in the examination of It In the name of science,
was content, for the most part,

to assign Sewall to a minor

but exalted place in Its mythology of earljr New England.
This was ended by the publication of the diary (1878-82);
for here were the facts,

In the face of w h i c h the Sewall of

romantic legend disappeared, perforce.

A m o n g New England*s

A S e r m o n , p. 35.
In the obituary notice which appeared
in the News-Letter for J & n u o c y 8, 1730, his character was
summed up "in this Epitome
. . . He was universally and greatly reverenc'd, esteemed,
a nd beloved a m o n g us for his eminent Piety, L e arning and
Wisdom; his grave a n d venerable Aspect and Carriage; his
instructive, affable a n d cheerful Conversation; his strict
Integrity a n d regard to Justice; his extraordinary tender
and compassionate Heart; his neglect of the World; his
abundant Liberality; his catholick a n d publlck Spirit;
his critical acquaintance w i t h the Holy Scriptures in their
insoir'd Originals; his Zeal for the Purity of instituted
Worship; his constant, diligent, a n d reverent Attendance
on it, b o t h in the Church a n d Family; his Love for the
Churches, People and Ministers; the civil and religious
Interests of this Country; his tender Concern for the abo­
riginal Natives; a n d as the Crown of all, His Moderation,
Peacableness a n d Humility; w h ich b e ing all united in the
same Person, a n d in a n h igh Degree a n d Station, rendered
Him one of the most shining Lights and Honours of the Age
a n d L a n d wherein He lived, a n d worthy of a very distin­
guishing regard in the Nev; English histories.

-473-

fonder eons, however,
m o re

ho continued to be dealt with in a manner

often reverential than realistic*

ately enough,

It remained, appropri­

for the Iconoclastic twenties of the present

century to produce a n estimate In which not only Is the last
s h re d

of any lingering m y t h removed b u t a freeh one— Sewall the

"embodiment of Defoe's merchant ideal"— is put in its place*
As is well known, Professor Parrlngton is provocative
even when the facts are not w i t h him, and. when,

in his chap­

ter* on Sewall Just referred to, he engages in remarks not
concerned with the demonstration of his thesis,
illuminating and apt.

Speaking,

he is both

for example, of the diary,

Goddard, "The Press and Literature of the Provincial P e ­
riod. " in V/insor e d . , Memorial History of Boston (Boston,
1833),I I , 417, declares him to have been "the light of his
generation.
His strong intellect and noble soul would have
won distinction in any age. " Ellis, A n Address (Boston, 1885),
p. 5, says that "not a line nor a word in [thej records re­
veals anything but a pure and unstained soul, a most tender
and scrupulous conscience, a lovln ; and childlike heart, a
walk in life spent a n d consecrated as under the All-Seeing
and Holy E y e . " There are numerous such statements to be found
In the writings of the time*
See, for example, Hubbard's
statement in his review of the first volume of Sewall's
Letter-Book, N a t i o n , XLIII (1836), 119; Weeden, Economic and
Social History (New York, 1890), I, 427; a n d Chamberlain,
Samuel S e w a l l and the World He Lived in (Boston, 1897), passim.
The last named v/or^T despite its pious author's honest Intent,
partakes largely of the nature of a sentimental genuflexion*
I find two statements of the time that are surprisingly,
even exaggeratedly, antag-onistlc in tone.
Wlnsor, in an edi­
torial note to the Memorial History (Boston, 1882), I, 540,
save:
"It must be confessed that it Is not easy to read this
diary without pity a n d disgust mingling with amusement and
with interest." . . .
There seems to have been in Sewall a
concentration of all that there was In his age repulsive to
our modern education. " Davis, History of the Judiciary (Boston,
1900), p. 61, finds himself "impressed . . . with the convic­
tion that he, Sewall, was a narrow,bitter and unrelenting theo
logian to whom can be accorded only the Justification and de­
fence which the inquisition of Spain might have claimed. "

-479-

he s a y s z

«. . . [It] is a fascinating book . . . the one among

all the books of the time that Is still quick with life after
these two hundred years and more.

In It . • • we can trace the

change that was coming to Massachusetts

in the transition from

a theocracy to a royal colony; and we can feel the strong emo­
tions which that change aroused.
on flesh and blood;

The dry facts of history take

forgotten names become living men walking

the streets of Boston or argulnp; in the Council Chamber; Samuel
Sewall himself becomes more real to us than our own contempo6
raries.H
These words are very right.
If one were to a dd to
them,

it would be to say that what Sewall was,

either fact or myth,

in terms of

is m uch less important than one thing

which he did, namely keep a diary.

Whatever else he did, what­

ever else he wrote, whatever has been said or written about him
— all are significant primarily as they illuminate this unique
record of life in Puritan New England during the late seven­
teenth and early eighteenth centuries.
6 Colonial Mind, p. 38.

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(1943),

Henry F h , "Historical Sketch,

£13-507.

in Catalogue of the

Boston P ublic La tin School, Boston, 1886.
J erne man, Ha reus

\<. ,

La bo rind an.. D e p endent Cla sees In

Colonial A m e r i c a , 160 7 - 1 7 85,
Johnson,

C hi ca go, 1931.

E. a . J., American Economic Thought In the Seven­

teenth Century, London, 1952.
Johnson,

Emory R., T. W. Van Metre,

Or. G-. Huebner, and

D. 2. H' nchctt, History of Domestic and F o r eign Comilerce of
the United S t a t e s . Washington, D.
Kingsley,

£ vols.

William L. , ed., Yale Cdl.LeL'f-i A She ten £>£ jjLs.

Hi story, New York, 1879,
Kit t redye,

C., 1915,

2 vols.

Coo rye Lyman,

(Vol. I cited.)

t’ltchcraft In Old and N e w Engla n d .

C ambridge, Hass., 1929.
Knapioen, M. M., Tudor Puritanism,
Lawrence,

Chicago, 1959.

Henry v;., "Samuel S e w a l l 2 Revealer of Puritan

Nev; England, " South Atlantic Q u a r t e r l y , XXXIII
Littlefield,
1 6 5 9 - 1 7 0 0 , loston,

G-eorge Emery,
1907,

(1954),

20-57.

The Early Massachusetts P r e s s ,

2 vols.

---------------------------- , Early Schools and School-Books
of New England, Boston, 1904.
Locke, Mary Stoughton, A n t i - 51avery in America- • .
1 6 1 9 - 1 8 0 8 . Raacliffe College Monographs, No. 11, Boston, 1901.

-494-

Lodge,

H enry

H is to ry ,

B o s to n ,

T-: 1 t

IT

ry ,

Love,

C a b o t,

"A P u r i t a n

18S4.

R epr.

(N ovem ber,

1 8 7 3 ),

” ri l l i n m

Xevr E n g l a n d ,

De L o s s ,

3o to n ,

of

New

M a th e w s ,
P o s to n ,

in

^ h .is e t t s

B o s to n ,

Occam a n d

Days

of

th e

C h ris tia n

1900.

The

E x p a n s io n

Lav;

Mea d,

Qua r t e r l y ,

E d w in

.JLL x — Qu a r t e r l y ,

"M e m o ir

of

G -e n e a lo rlc a l

of

New Bn m l a n d .

M oore,
c h u s e tts .

Samuel
I

I

XI

Gr. H . ,

Edmund

(A p ril,

Nev;

A g a in s t

C e n t u r y , ” M a s s .a —

7 5 -9 4 .

(O c to b e r,

a P u rita n

1 9 2 3 ),

4 9 1 -5 0 4 .

Ma s s a c h u s e t t s ,

"

Nev; E n g —

8 5 -5 4 .

S e v / a l l , " New E n g l a n d

X X X II

The

P re ju d ic e

w ig g le s w o rth ,

1950) ,

"The M a rro v ;

P u ts .,

Nev; Y o r k ,

Morgan,

1 9 3 8 ),

( J a . n u ■; r y ,

1 3 4 7 ),

and

1C 5-11G .

o f P u rita n

(F e b rua ry,

H is to ric

D i v i n i t y , " C o l.

1 9 5 5 ),

E n g la n d H in d i

The

£ 4 7 -3 0 0 .
S e v e n te e n th

1939.

T e lfe r,

Qua r t e r l y ,

'M ic h a e l

Q u a rte rly .

P e rry,

H.

(M ay,

I I I

New Y o r k ,

M oot.,

X III

th e

S e v e n te e n th

"T h e M eaning'* o f

------------------------------ ,
C e n tu ry .

th e

of

D. ,

Hon.

M a s s .,

in

F. 0 . ,

R e g is te r .

M ille r,
of

"The R e s u l t s

M a s s a c h u s e tts

A r t i s t , " Nov; E n g l a n d

la n d

a n d T h a n k s r - 1v i n '

Samson

K im V a i l ,

N a t n • .,

M a tth ie s s e n ,

S o c .,

A m e ric a n

1909.

M a th e w s,
Law yers

of

in

1900.

E n g la n d .
L o is

M r.ra c i n e

S tu d ie s

S o l-6 4 3 .

Fa s t

f

In d ia n s

fro m

Pepy s , " in

" T r a i n i *.g Dr y

(D ecem ber,
N o te s

on

in

1 9 3 8 ),

th e

Nev; E n g l a n d , " Nev; E n g ­

6 7 5 -6 9 7 .

H is to ry

of

S la v e ry

in

M assa­

1886.
S .,

N o t e b o o k s , " Nev; E n g l a n d

"L ig h t

on

Q u a rte rly ,

th e
XV

P u rita n s

fro m

(M arch,

194&) ,

John

H u ll*

95 -1 0 1

------------------------------------- 9 T h e P u r i t a n
------------------------------------- ,
fir- r t e r l y ,

XV

H o ris o n ,

"The

P u rita n s

(D ecem ber,

1 9 4 2 ),

Samuel

-u lld e rs

S .,

F a m ily .

-c s to n ,

1944*

and. S e x , " Hev: S n r r l a n d

59 1 -6 03 .
cf

th e

Bay

C o lo n y .

Nev: Y o r k ,

I960.
9 H a rva rd

C e n tu ry .

C a m b rid g e ,

M o rris ,
tie

R ic h a rd

D e c la ra tio n

(An r i 1 ,

1 9 26 ) ,

cf

in

trie

S e v e n te e n th

't l a s s a c h u 3 e 1 1 s n n u

tlx?

Common L a w :

M a s s .,
B. ,

C o lle g e

1936,

0 v o ls .

1 6 4 6 , " A m e ric a n

H is to ric a l

Rev le v :,

44 5 - 4 5 3 .

--------------------------------------- , S t u d l e s JLn t a g H i s t or-;: o f
Lav;,

Nev; Y o r k ,
M urdock,

M a s s .,

N e n n e th

B .,

H a n d k e rc h ie f s fro m

o f th e d ia r y

Nev

S n g la n d Q u a r t e r l y ,

( Samuel

B o s to n

I(A p ril,

L a .tin

School

(1 9 9 7 -3 0 ),

3 1 -9 9 .

N e a l,

D a n ie l,

N e tte ls ,

1 6 9 0 - 1 7 2 0 , " Ilev;
fe v ia s ,

C a m b rid g e ,

“T h e

in

M ark

Va.n L o r e n

T e a c h in g

of

"The M enace
Q u a rte rly .
S .,

Y ork,

a b rid g e

1 9 2 7 ]),

1 9 5 8 ), b5 7 -1 5 9 .

17 1 2 , " C o l.

H is to ry

On - l s n ..

V.’ i n f i e l d ,

th e

L a tin , and

c f

Soc.

of

G-reek a t

M a s s .,

P ro c. .

Hew E n g l a n d , L o n d o n ,
of

C o lo n ia l

IV ( A p r i l ,

W itc h c ra ft

in

S a le m

1720.

H a n u fa c t u r i n g ,
1 9 3 1 ),

2 5 0 -2 6 9 .

V i l la g e ,

S a le m ,

1916.

N o b le ,
C o l.

The

C u rtis ,

of

S e v /a ll1 s D ia r y [N e v

------------------------------------------- >

M a s s .,

P a u l.

1907.

men

X X V II

A m e ric a n

1950.

------------------------------------------- -1 R e v i e v .

th e

XXXI

Soc.

John,

o f H a s s .,

p a lfre y ,

John

"N o tes

or

Pubs. ,
G orham ,

th e

T ria l

III ( 1 S 9 5 ) ,
H is to ry

and

P u n is h m e n t

of

C rim e s

5 1 -6 6 .

o f Nev; E n g l a n d ,

H o sto n ,

187

-496-

P a rke r,

H enry

I>.,

'llc ru ls

I lev: En ■ ; l a n a , " Lev: E n g l a n d
P arkes,

H enry

New E n g l a n d

E .,

q u a rte rly ,

I I I

(J u ly ,

V ernon L o u is ,

E n fo rc e m e n t

V

"Mew E n g ] r. n r i

q u a rte rly .

p n i ' 1- i n : t o n ,

ano. L a w

(J u ly *

in

th e

1 9 3 0 ),

The

in

1 9 3 2 ),

C o lo n ia l
45 1 -4 5 2.

S e ve n te e n

T h irtie s ,"

3 9 7 -4 1 9 .

C o lo n ia l

H i n d . 162Q -13Q Q .

Nev; Yc-rh, 19 27.
P earson,

A.

P.

S c c tt,

P : 1vi t P . n l s m : 1 5 3 5 - 1 6 0 3 .
P e te rs o n ,
m outh
XX

and

(June,

Pay

H a ro ld

Nev E n p la n e ,

A.

F .,

(V o l.

V II

and

R e in s c h ,

E q u ip m e n t

of

th e

P ly ­

Q u a rte rly ,

or

H a s s .,

HecoM s
Pubs. .

(S e p te m b e r,

Car r i e s

K.

No.

52,

H is to ry

of

H a rva ra

XX X

C ounty

[1 9 3 3 j ) ,

5S 6-5S 7.

The L i b r a r i a n s

U n iv e rs ity

C a m b rid g e ,

S u ffo lk

X X IX ,

1 9 3 4 ),

B o lto n ,

H<* r v a r d

of

L ib ra ry ,

lin s s .,

U n iv e rs ity .

of

E ib lio -

1897.
S o -to n ,

c ite d .)
P.

C o lo n ie s ,, " i n

of

1 6 6 7 -1 3 7 7 .

J c -irh ,
I

Ho v i e w

Soc.

C o n trib u tio n s ,

Q u in c y ,

S .,

S e ia c t

"E n g lis h
Essays

in

Common L a w

in

th e

£ rly

A n g lo -A m e ric a n L e g a l

A m e ric a n

H is to ry ,

I,

1907.

R o b e rts ,

O liv e r A .,

M !a s s ftc h u s e tts ,
R o b in s o n ,
E n g la n d .

(C o l.

J .,

C o lle g e .

P o s to n ,

"The m i l i t a r y

1925.

1 6 2 0 - 1 6 9 0 , " Hiy-' E n g l a n d

T heodore

q u a rte rly ,

P o tte r,

1S60#

L .,

E n g la n d ,

pno. E l i s r . b e t h a n

1947 ), 1 9 7 - 2 0 2 .

Cou r t : 1 6 7 1 - 1 5 3 0

■;re. y h i c a l

C a m b rid g e ,

C o lo n ie s ,

P lu n h e tt,

H a rva rd

Thom; s C o r t w r l u h t

B o s to n ,
John

1 6 0 7 -1 9 07,

R o w le y ,

'.7111 i a m

H is to ry

1 8 9 5 —1 9 0 1 .

and

le o rg e

S a le m ,
P .,

P.

M a s s .,

"The

of

th e

il i l lta iy

(V o l.
Dow,
1922.

I

The

Company

of

th e

of

New

c ite d .)
Sai l i n g S h ip s

(V o l.

P u r i t a n 1 -, T r a g i ?

I

c ite d .)

V i s i o n , " Nev; 5

-497-

S a lis b u ry ,
Savage,
S e ttle rs

of

E dw ard

Jam es,

S e h o le s ,
New E n g l a n d ,
S c o tt,

S o -a ll,
IS 4 1 ) ,

possessor

The

New H a v e n ,

d i c t i o n a ry

th e

F irs t

13G2.

(V o l.

IV

P u rit - n

II i n A ,

Ife w Y o r k ,

a n d Mug i e

1335.

c ite d .)

In

1950.

E n g la n d

and

1934.
'.'o o d s to c '-:,

Hew Y o r k ,

(ra in ls te r-d e s c e n d n n t
of

th e

E s c . , M Ame r i c a n

BIS d i a r y ) ,

Q u a rte rly

of

1399.
B u r l i n -to n ,

’i l e m o i r

R e g is te r,

of

Hon.

X III

M a s s .,

Samuel

(F e b rua ry,

£37 -£ 5 3 .
"S e w a ll* s D ln r y , " N a t I on,

1 3 3 0 ),

157 -1 5 3 ,

D .1 r y .
of

It

th e

n
a

o ffic e

I ndex

re v ie w

name

of

one.

h im

as

tout

(F ebruary
•J -e* V o l .

C h rrle s

th e

V o l.

I l l

The

file s

th e

XXX

re v ie w

, Ive s

th ^ s r e v ie w ,

d u b io u s

(A

177-179.

P o o le 's

a u th o r

tio n

Memo r i a l s ,

The P u r i t a n s

'.'.'a lte r,

Samuel

B o s to n ,
V/.,

P e x-c.v A • ,
L e n d n,

S e w a ll,
th e

H e rb e rt

S ir

F a m ily

A G -enealo, l e a l

New E n g l a n d ,

Sc line i d e r ,

Io n .;

S .,

II

F r c .no i s

of
of

th e
th e

of

th e

Adams,

c o n t r a d i e t !• n o
m e n tio n e d

a u th o r

£6 a n d M a r c h 4 ,

In

above

la tte r,

at

but

J r.,

as

a ttitu d e

make

m a g a z in e

p u b lis h e d

th e
its

th e

th e

oetv/een

a s c rip ­
New Y o r k

o th e r

is

' n o n yn o u s.)
S e y b o lt,
C e n tu ry

R ob e rt

F. ,

"The P r i v a t e

B o s t o n , " New E n g l a n d

S c h o o ls

Q u a rte rly ,

V III

of

S e v e n te e n th -

(S e p te m b e r,

19 3 5 ),

41A -4A 1.
------------------------------- 1 T h e
1 6 5 4 —1 7 7 5 ,

C a m b rid g e ,

S h ip to n ,
c ia l

M a s s .,

C liffo rd

A g e , " C o l.

Soc.

of

K. ,

Town O f f 1c la 1 g o f

C o lo n ia l

3 o s to n ;

1939.
" T h e New E n g l a n d

M a s s .,

Pubs.,

X X X II

C le rg y
(1953),

of

th e

£4 -5 4 .

G la ­

-498-

S h u rtle ff,
De s c r i p t i o n

of

3ib le y ,
of

He r v a r d
"The

HI

B o s to n .

John

S in s

B. ,

Lo n y l o n ,

Toocr;r.n h lc -i.l

C a m b rid g e ,
of

^na

H is to ric a l

1390.

31 o gr a ph l e a l

and M e rc ie s
1 9 3 6 ),

A

B o s to n ,

U n iv e rs ity ,

(S e p te m b e r,

Joseph

Mn. t h n n i e l

a

2 7 7 —1 :8 5 .

She t o he s of, C -ra .'m a te 3

1373.

(V o l.

H a rva rd

I I

c ite d .)

S tu d e n t, " IIo re

(M a te ria l

fro m

th e

Boohs.

d ia ry

of

So\vn 1 1 . )

S m a ll,
.re v ie w ,

K. ,

"The

H (S e rote m b e r,

New E n g l a n d

3 .9 0 3 ),

S ta rk e y ,

M a rio n

L .,

Sum m er?,

Mont a gu,

G ram m ar

S c h o o l, " S c h o o l

5 1 3 -5 3 1 .

The

D o v 11

in

M a s s a c h u s e tts .

New Y o r k ,

is -.:.
The

ie o s m o h y

of

~Vit c h c m f t .

New Y o r k ,

1937.
Tawney,
Y ork,

R.

H. ,

E.

W. ,

B e l 1 ;io n

ana,

tire

R is e

of

G a p l t ; . d l < ; m , New

1936.
T a y lo r,

H is t o r y

"The

o f H assachuse t t

W itc h c ra ft
,

ed.

E p is o d e , " in

A lb e rt

ru s h n e ll

Gcm onveal t h

H a rt,

II,

B o s to n ,

1937.
Thomas,
H a s s .,

Is a ia h ,

c h u s e tts

B a y ,"

T ro e lts c k ,
Nev; Y o r k ,
T ru m b u ll,
M is s io n s
1 3 7 5 ),

H is to ry

of

P rin tin g

in

A m eri c a ,

W o rc e s te

1310.

T h o r n d i :e ,

ches,

The

in

S.

L o th ro o ,

C o l.

Boc.

E rn s t,
1949,
J.

of

The

’T h e

M a s s .,
S o c ia l

P ro c . ,
T heory

I
of

of

P ly m o u th and M assa­

(1 3 9 3 -9 4 ),
th e

£23- £ 3 3 .

C h ris tia n

C hur-

3 v o ls *

Hammond,

"The

New E n g l a n d , " A m .

1 6 -4 3 .

P s a lm o d ie s

O rig in

A n tiq .

and P ro g re ss

S o c .,

P ro c. ,

of

LHI

In d ia n
(O c to b e r,

-499'

T y le r,
1765,

Hoses

New Y o r k ,
Upham,

C-

(V o l.

V'., L e c t u r e s

f S a le m

May n l i e n ,

W ashburn,
chus e tts

fro m

Weeden,

A H i s t o r ;: o f A m e r i c a n L i t e r a t u r e » 1 6 0 7 -

1397.

-------V .'ard,

C o lt,

1 630

V /lllia m

E n g l a n d , " Am.

on

V /ltc h c ra ft,

C o lo n y

S ke tch e s

to

th e
3 .,

n n tic ,

c ite d .)

W itc h c ra ft.

O ld

E nory,

I I

B o s to n ,

Lays.

of t h e

P .e v o lu t l o n
"The

S o c .,

E s rly

P ro c. .

B o sto n ,
1867,

: o. t o n ,

H is to ry

1775.

A fric a n

n .s .,

V

2 vole.

1896.

J u d ic ia l
In

1832.

B o s to n ,

S la v e

o f Mass a
1840.

T rade

(O c to b e r,

in

New

1 3 3 7 ),

107-

1 °8.
----------------------------------------- 1 E c o n o m i c
R o w l a n d : 1 6 2 0 —1 7 8 9 .
V,re n d e l l ,

New

B a rre tt,

Y ork,

and

1890,

C o tto n

S o c la l

H is to ry

of

New

2 v o ls .

M a th e r.

P u rita n

P rie s t,

New Y o r k ,

1391.
W e rte h b n k e r,
H is to ry

Thomas

o f A m e ric a n

J .,

L ife

The

F irs t

3 i'd .y :,

A m e r i c a n s t 1 6 0 7 —1 6 9 0 ,

New Y o r k ,

---------------------------------------------------

The P u r i t a n

W h itin g ,

In

1927.

O lig a rc h y ,

New Y o r k ,

1947.

R e s to ra t Io n

to

W h itm a n ,
■
and H o n o u ra b le
W h itm o re ,
31
I

E.

S .,

th e

R e v o lu tio n .

Z a c h a ria h

th e

Cl

W.

H .,

P u rita n is m

1 6 6 0 -1 6 6 3 .

H is to ric a l

Coraoany.

" S e w a ll's

1 3 7 3 ),

E n g lis h

New Y o r k ,

S k e tc h

B o s to n ,

of

th e

1931.

th e

Anc le n t

1820.

u ia ry , " N a tio n ,

2 7 3 -2 7 4 ,

From

2 86-237.

(A

X X V II

(O c to b e r

re v le v '

of

V o l.

1892.

(V o l.

; y .)

W h ittie r,
c ite d .)

O .,

A rtille ry

and Novem ber 7,
of

S tu d io s

John

G re e n le a f,

'Y o rk s .

New Y o r k ,

I

-500

'7 ± 1 1 a r d ,
v/orce s t e r

Joseph,

Coun t y ,

V’ I n s h i p ,
John

51lo t ,

An A ddreg r

P .,

b o s to n ,

The

in

H is t.

e d ito r,

I,

SewaU

P ro c. ,

th e

Bar o f

1830.

Company o f

of

ana

L X V II

"The L i t e r a t u r e

H is to ry

Bosuon,

M a s s .,

New E m e la n d

"Sam uel

3 o c .,

J u s tin ,

The M em or±a 1

I!e m b e rs o f

1649

and

1920#

------------------------------------------ ,

7/i n so r ,

th e

Me s ° . , L a n c a s t e r ,

deorpe

Company, " M a ss.

to

::o s t o n ,

Hew E n g l a n d

(1 94 1 -4 4 ),

of

of

tip

tine

55-1 1 0 .

C o lo n i.n l

w h ic h

he

is

P e rio d , "

a ls o

th e

1832.

\7inthrop, Robert C . , A b i d Terence o f Opinion Concerning t h e
Rea son 3 why Ka t h erine hlnthrop Refused t o
S e w n l l . Boston,
7/oodw ard,
Y /o rde n,
Soc l a l

'.’ r i r h t ,
Law,

la n d ,

h.

5. ,

B e n ja m in

Ite m s

A. P o e t r y .

J a n tz

has

T riv ia l

th e

c h a ra c te r ana
ses.

In

o rd e r

J r.,

p.

27

th a t

Nev.- Y o r k ,

1944.

C ross, " P a rk-A ve n u e

ff.

A m e ric a n

In te rp re ta tio n s

of

N a tu -

1931.

by

S e w a ll,

L ite ra ry

p rin te d

Though t h e
ana

C u ltu re

of

in

"The

I t

Is ,

e x te n t
th a t

of
it

ite m s

and
have

c o rre c tio n s

b ib lio g ra p h y

m uch

C u rre n ts

1 9 2 7 ),

F. ,

P e o p le L i v ed,

in

E a rly

” ev: E n g ­

1920.

in c lu d e d

as

"Love

io d d a rd ,

and m in o r a d d itio n s
s ta n tia lly

’.7ay o u r

M a s s .,

Thorn- s

New H a v e n ,
I I I .

The

(N ovem ber,

C a m b rid g e ,

v; r i g h t ,

Chief Justice

1885.

’ .’ l i b e r t i n e ,

R e v ie w

L ia rry

of

m a n u s c rip t.

a ll

made,

been
th is

S e w a ll* s p o e t r y

F irs t
th e

in

C e n tu ry

w h o le

S e w a ll's
may b e t t e r

a ffo rd s

a c tiv ity
do

of

so,

as

fr e s i l l y
s e c tio n
w h ic h

checked
Is

H a ro ld

N e w E n g la n d
an

id e a

a m aker

e x p la n a to ry

sub­

of

V erse. "
th e

of
and

ve r­
de—

scriptive mf'tter has frequently been inserted.
"The Humble Springs of Stately Sandwich beach. 11

6 lines.

Pi"ry, I, 27, entry for October 23, 1676.

Revised versirn in

the Boston News-Letter for Llarch 23, 1723;

repr.

III, 322,

in the D i ary,

e d i t o r s 1 note.

"C s;rer t Ilenasseh, were it not for thee. "

2 lines.

D 1 r y , I, 37, entry for liarch 6, 1677.
"Mrs. Mehitable Holt. A Person of H- rly Piety. "

(An

aunt of S e v a l l 's who died In En gland, September 30, 1677.)
6 lin^s. Broadside at the Hass. Hist. Soc.

(probably printer

at Boston, 1639— 90) and in the Sewall I.beno ran dun Booh at
the N. Y. Hist.

Soc.

"3i Christum Discis, nihil est si caetera discis. "
Latin.

Printeu boch plate of arc and 1690.

2 lines

At the Hass. Hist.

Soc. and in the Memorandum Booh at the N. Y. Hi-1. Soc.
'ilrs. Ju..ith Hull."
at boston, June 22, 1695.
Public Library.
Repr.

Oil

Bewail

*s mother-in-law,

1. 10 line broadside at the Boston

2. 12 line broadside at the Am. Antia. Soc.

in Am. Antic. Soc., Trans. . Ill (1857),
"Causa parat.a mihl est,

4 lines Latin.

c-t vitae,

D l a r y . I, 426,

•written on being

272.

et mortis,

ibidem. "

entry for Liny 13, 1696.

Lines

"grievously stung to find a sweet desirable

Son dead Qthe thirteenth child,

stillborn^.

"To be engraven, on a Dial. "
^t Hass. Hist.

who died

See.,

fol. 112.

4 lines.

1 6 9 0 * s.

..."
Commonplace Booh

Printed in Juntz*

"The First Century of N e w England Verse, " p .

311.

-502-

”To horses,

swine, neat cattle,

sheep, anu. deer. "

PI a r y , I, 479, entry for Hay 10, 1638.

2 lines.

Printed in Joshua

Coffin, The History of Newbury (Boston, 1845), p. 166.
"EccecB antiphrasin vocitaris,
Latin.

Ductor A r u n d e l . ”

4 lines

Letter— B o o h , I, 245, letter to Josias Crow dated Octo­

ber 18, 1700.

He sends to his friend

'te. Taete of my Daughters

Bride-Cake, wrapt up in two or three Latin Verses. ”
’U p o n Mr.

Samuel Willard, his first coming into the A s ­

sembly, and Pi’aying,

after a long and dangerous Fit of Sick­

ness; November 31. 1700. "

1. 8 lines.

D i a r y , II, 20,

for November 21, 1700.

2. 3 four— line stanzas.

printed 1700 and 172C.

Repr.

entry

Broadside

In Mass. Hist. 3oc., P r o c . ,

ser. 2, II (1835), 42-15.
"Wednesday, January 1. 1701.
st Boston of tre Massachusetts. "

A little before Break-a-day,
1. o four-line stanzas.

Diary.

II, 23, entry for- January 2, 1700/1, ana broadside at Mass. Hist.
?oc.

2. 6 four— line stanzas.

Lhorary and Am. Antia.

Brcacisids at the Boston Public

Soc.; appended to Proposals Touching the

Accome1 jnhment cf Pr o u h e c l e s (Boston, 1713).
Hist.

Soc., P r o c . , ser.

Repr.

2, I (1884-85), 14.

Enitanh on his granddaughter Sarah Sev/all.
lost.

in Mass.

Apparently

Mentioned in the Diary. II, 69, entry for December 8,

1702, as having been sent to Richard Henchman.
"Superannuated Squier, 'Vigr.;* d and p o w d e r 1d with pretence. "
4 lines.

Diary, II, 79, entry for June 8, 1703.

Satire against

John Saffin, opponent of Sevvall in the anti-slavery issue, not
G-cvernor Dudley as indicated in the index to the Diary, III, 5

oOo—

tlbi Psaltem CHRISTUM et sua Regna canentem. M
1. 4 lines Latin,

D i a r y , II, 136,

2. 6 lines Latin,

L e t t er-B o o k . I, 514, memorandum and editors'

note.

entry for August 24, 1705,

The verses were sent to Richard Henchman with a copy of

Calvin on the Psalms,
H0ceani Fluctus Anna moderante superbos. M
Dir r y , II,

137,

2 lines Latin,

entry for September 10, 1705, and L e t t e r-Booh,

I, 514, letter to Cotton Mather dated September 10, 1705,
English version In the D i a r y . II, 140,
1705,

An

entry for October 25,

substitutes Christ for Anna,
"Roma simul coelebsque ruunt in tempore P e t r u s . " 2 lines

Latin.

L e t t e r - B o o k . I, 313, letter to Richard Henchman dated

October 13, 1705,

Sent to Henchman for

"Roma inhonesta Jacet,
Latin.

Diary,

II, 140,

"examination and censure,

Sanctae gaudete puellae."

entry for October 15, 1705.

£ llne3
Revised and

included in a letter to Oovernor Saltonstall, L e t t e r - B o o k . II,
139, letter dated July 16, 1722,
"Deslne Belshazzar Temple Omnlpotentis abuti. "
Latin,

Dia r y , II, 141, first week of November, 1705,

"Soundi
English.

2 lines

Sound!

Dir- r y , II,

the Jubilenn .rurapet s o u n d , "

141, first week of November, 1705,

"On the burning of the Quebec Cross. "
and 4 line English paraphrase,
vember 25, 1705.

\ ^r 24, 1705,

titled

1. 2 l i n e 3 Latin

D i a r y . II, 143, entry for No­

2. 4 lines Latin.

December 24, 1705.

2 lines

D i a r y . II, 150, entry for

Printed in the Boston N e w s - L e t t e r , Decem"In Obltura Crucis. "

— o04—

••Tom Child had often painted Death. "
D i a r y , II, 170,

4 lines English.

entry for November 10, 1706,

the day of Child*s

death.
"Feria Septiraa, MartiJ 8 9 1707.
Angllae &c. S e x t o . M

Anno Regnl Annae Regina©

2 lines Latin, 4 lines English.

D i ary.

II, 181, entry for M a rch 8, 1707.
"Feria S e x t a ; Quintllls auarto, 1707. 11 Broadside, appar­
ently lost.

See the Diary. II, 191, entry for July 4, 1707.

"Deo Servatorl. "

4 lines Latin.

memorandum for July 14, 1707.
brance " of Ipswich

Letter-3ook,

Written in

I, 350,

"Thank full Remem­

"and out of Respect to Mr. Jaffrey* s Memory. "

"Upon the Reverend Mr. Francis Goodhue, who . . .

was

surprised with a Fever at Rehoboth, and there died Sept. 15,
1707, Aetatis 29. "
ruary 28, 1725.
•Verses
for November

8 lines Latin.

Boston News-Letter. Feb­

Repr. Dia r y , III, 321, editors' notes.

on Mr.

Clap. "

20, 1708.

Mentioned, D i a r y . II, 243,

No copy known; possibly not

entry

by Sewall.

"Stylo Jullano, Bostonlae Hovanglorum Ferla Septlma,
Decerabris 17, 1709. "
memorandum.

1. 2 lines Latin.

Letter-Book. I, 387,

Written Inside the cover of a Commentary on the

Book of Job presented to Charles Sucre, Governor of Carthagena,

then resident in Boston.

2. 2 lines English "Upon the

same Subject" (Ibid. )♦
"In dedltlonem Castelll Portus Regalis Impsratorl Excellentisslmo Francisco Nicholsono Armigero, Ootob.
1. 16 lines Latin.

Letter-Book, I, 399-400,

2. 20 lines Latin.

See Ibid., p. 400, editors'

2. 1710. "

inserted.
note.

— 505'

3.

22 lines English,

Royal. "

titled

"Verses on the Capture of Port

See Ibid., p. 406, editors1 note.

"Vive, doce, rerna,
2 lines Latin.

Diary,

semper, mlhi CHHISTE Sa c e r d o s,"

II, 311, entry for May 16, 1711.

"Left Jonathan [a nephew at Salem] my Distich transcribed by
him at my bidding*. "

Appended to verses addressed to Sewall

by Rev. Nehemiah Kobart.
I, 315,

editors*

M. . . gave

in the Letter-Book,

note.

"Auris, mens,
2 lines Latin.

Broadside repr.

oculus, manus, os, pes, menere fungi. ”

Din ry. II, 339, entry for March 8, 1711/12.

C a p t.

Tuthill Mr. Tompson* s, Heaven the best

Country, with my Distich."
September 10, 17 28,

See ibid. . Ill, 392, entry for

In which he tells of dreaming that his

watch was stolen, on which these linec were engraved.
"Erroresoue meos mlhi condonate perosos. "
D iary, II, entry for December 20, 1712.

2 lines Latin.

Lines added to the

verses of Benjamin L a m e l l .
"To the Rev'd Mr. John Sparhawk on the BIrtij of his Son,
August or September 1713,"
Cn an end page of the

12 lines English,

2 lines Latin.

VMagunkaquog" Journal; printed by the

editors of the Dir r y « III, 408.
"Imbres nocturni decorant Regalia Lucls. "
Diary, III,

22, entry for October 5, 1714.

Mr. Stanton

"Gone a G u n n i n g . "

2 lines Latin.

Distich left for

"Isaac's withdrawn; my Laughter's done."

5 lines English.

'Magunkaquog" Journal under date of March 31, 1715.
death of his fellow Judge and Councillor,

On the

Isaac Addington.

— 506—

“Lines made to direct me in sign in
3 lines La tin.
On

Dinr.y. Ill, 49,

entry for July

the death of ills sister, Mrs.

a led at

Newbury,

January £9, 1717.

Soc., P r o c . . ser.

5, 1715.

Jane G-errish, who

4 lines Latin.

interle© vcd almanac at the lias s. Hist.
Fist.

the Pcund-olate. "

2, VIJI (1893),

Soc.

In an

Printed In Llass.

£14.

“A small Vial of Tears brought from the Funeral of JOHN
7/INTER OP, a very goodly Child.
Hist.

Soc.

1C line broadside at Mass.

L e t t e r - D o o h , II, 70, letter to the father dated

April 3, 1717.
"Anglic a. Jana Jacet german is flenda duobus. "
Latin.

Letter-Book, II, 84, letter to

January

£5, 1717/18.

fact that

6 lines

Jeremiah Dumner dated

He was moved by e consideration of the

"now ray Brother, Hr. John Bewail, and Four Sisters

an! my Honoured Parents ly Burleb at Newbury. "
What
English.

signify these Locks, and Holts,
Letter-Book,

January 25, 1717/3 3.
"Salem,
bacy. ”
1721.

£ lines

II, 84, letter to Jeremiah Dumner dated
On tne death of his wife Hannah.

Dec. 13, 1717.

6 lines English.
Repr.

an ' Cars? "

A specimen of Nev; English Celi­

Boston News-Letter for February 15,

in Mass. Hist. Soc., P r o c . . ser.

2, III (1887),

330-381, and in H. E. Hist, and 3-en. Reg. , XXIV (1S70),
"Hocte vlatori comitera nix Candida Lumen. "

292.

2 lines Latin

L e t t e r - B o c k , II, 1£’3, letter to Jeremiah Dumner dated December
13, 1720.

Imitation of a distich of Ovid.

"Upon the drying up of that Ancient River, THE RIVER
LIERHYI.I.K. "

36 line broadside at Mass. Hist. Soc., dated

-507-

Janu'•ry 15, 1719/50.
IX (1894),

8—10.

Repr.

in Mass. Hist.

See the D i a r y , III,

540,

Soc., Proc.,

ser.

5,

entry for Jonil ry

17, 1719/50.
"Upon the downfall c f the papists at Black Priers, London,
October tine twenty sixth, 10: 3, *' 14 lines La tin.
L ev. s-Letter for October 54, 175:5.
143,

editors*

Repr.

In th

Poston

L e t t e r-Boohf Tl,

note.

"Upon the River I h r r l r b . "
L e t t e r . February 5:1, 1755.

5 lim-s Latin.

Rear.

Boston N e w s-

in the D i a r y , III, 351, editor

note •
"Decemhris 5. 17.55. "
February £1, 1753.
note.

Repr.

On Daniel Rogers,

I, 1755.

See Sibley,

351, editors*

drowned in Black Rock Ccve,

December

III, 353-359.
[1755/53. ] "

February 51, 1755.

eu itors * note.

Boston N e w s-Letter,

in the Die r y , III,

• "Januarll 14, 15, 16.
2Tovs~Letter,

: linen Latin.

Repr.

4 lines L'-tin.

Boston

in the Diary . Ill, 551,

On the recovery of Roger's body.

See Sibley,

l o c . c lt.
"Upon the Reverend Mr. Samuel Pierpont and Mr. Benjamin
Gibson, learned and worthy Ministers,
the same night. "
II, 17 53.

Repr.

8 lines Latin.

Boston N e w s - L e t t e r , April

in the Pi a.r y . Ill, 355, editors'

"Boston, Feb. 1. 1753/4. "
entry for February 4, 1723/4,
nry,

their dying in one and

2 lines Latin.

note.

Dla r y , ITI, 330,

and Boston News-Letter for Febru-

6, 1753/4.
"Durn Cererem et 3acchum medltaris, Ralle Sacerdos. "

lines Latin.

Lctter-Bcok,

2

II, 174, letter to Governor Salton-

-

1303-

stall dated September 5, 1724.

On Father Ralle and the defeat

of the K r".:;ebee In .1- ns«
"Feria Quinta,

Novembrls duodecimo,

L e t t e r - B o o k , II, 178,
12, 1724,

A

1724. "

5 lines Latin,

letter to Edmund Quincy dated November

"short Eplthalamlum " on the marriage of Quincy's

daughter*
"Nos simul occidimus,
Latin,

nostra recidente corona, "

2 lines

Let t e r - B o o k , II, 193, letter to John Yvlntbron ds.ted

January 4, 1725/6,

On the death of his brother Stephen Sewall

of Salem,
fThree Sams,
lish,

piar^,

two Johns, a n d one good Tom, "

III* 375,

second week of April,

2 lines Eng­

1726,

On the

nr 11 orders of M a r y Coney,
"In Remembrance of Hr, Samuel H i r s t , "
v;ko died January 14, 1726/7.

Sewall's grandson,

24 lines English.

Broadside at

I.Iass. nis t . So c ,
B, Prose,

Including ledger accounts, memorandum books, etc.

Notes of sermons,
6 at Mass, Hist, Soc.),
manuscript volumes,

11 vols,

(5 at Boston Public Library,

From M a y 1672,

Small, 4 X 6

inch

some bound in calf and some In vellum, with

about 150 close-packed,

double pages of notes In each.

Memoranda In interleaved almanacs.

From 1673,

tors of the D i a r y , I, 2S2, note, state that

The edi­

"Sewall made notes

In the Almanacs for each year, perhaps as aids to his more
extended diary,

. . . "

to the regular diary
text. "

The editors have included in notes to

"such extracts as served to Increase Cth

Some of these memoranda also appear in N. J2, Hist.

-509-

G-en. R s r ; . , VII (1853),

1:05, VIII (1354), 314.

Numerous of these

slim 4 X 6 Inch volumes at I.Iass. Hist. Soc.
Pi- r y .

From December 3, 1673 (first regul- r entry)

to

October 13, 1709 (last regular entry), lacking the years
1577-85 as the result of a vol u m e 1s being lest.
5 e m 11 j a ^e r s , Lias s. Kist. Soc.,

Colls. , ser. 5, V-VII

(1873-80), of which it is the principal iter:.
5inry is in four volumes,
1710-20,

respect3vely.

Printed in

The manuscript

for 1672-77, 1685-1703, 1703-12, and

The volumes are 6 X p’ inches and bound

in calf, excepting the 1703-12 volume, which is agproximotely
9 X 14 inches and. bound in vellum.
scripts,
A'-

Like all the Sewall manu­

their condition is excellent.

At Mass. Hist. Soc.

bridged edition is Samuel 5ev.r-.ll1 3 Dl-~ rv. ed. Mark Van

Boren , American bookshelf Series
"Pi' ry a n i
Hist.

Soc.).

(N ov;

Commonplace book, 1675—

York, 1927).
M (so listed at Lias s.

3 X 12 inches, bound in vellum.

The thin- that

nr inly distingui shes this, miscellaneous volume is Sewall * s
recorl .if meeting- with the South Military Company, kept from
April, 1861, to April, 1686.

The first 26 fol. pares are hie

•'’ocounts for February 11, 1675,

to November 26, 1677 (the peri­

od of his apprenticeship with John Hull).

Oth r items in the

volume are a first draft cf the Phaenomena ana one of Talit ha
Cuml. a careful hand copy of Nicholas Noyes'

"Reasons Against

’.Veering of Periv/iggs, " commonpla.ce extracts from sources related
to his prophetical inquiries, and. copies of letters concerning
the same.

-510-

"Comnonplnee Boole, 1677 to—
Soc.).

6 X 3

" (so listed at Hasc. Hist.

inches, bound in cr If.

Scattered diary entries

for the years 1677-36 (arranged chronologically and printed,
Dio r y , II, *1P-*P3) , but mainly extracts from books .arranged
under appropriate heads—

"De Resurrection'.-; mortuorum, " "De

H.lr isterio, " ,rDe Orntlone, " "Do 3nc mnicntes, " "De Infant Lou3 , "

etc.,

the cii' ry entries bein;" mostly under

"De Omene. "

At

the beginning of the booh is w r i t t e n : "S-muel Sewnll, his
Books,

Decenb.

29, 1677. "

Notes of meetings of the Old South Society.
1631.

3 X 5

inches,

From January,

calf bound, bearing the initials,

A note by the Rev. Samuel Sewall of Hurlington, Mass.,
end pages and dated 1330, describes it as

"3. S . "
in the

"a Record of Texts

of Scrinturer., and of Questions deduced therefrom, discussed
• • • at Private or Conference lieetinge of L'embers of the Old
South Society,

.'oston . . .

held at each others houses in turn;

arid yen-rally on Wednesday evening of each week. . . . "

At

Ilass. HI~t. Soc.
Letter,

"For the Reverend Hr. Increase Lather,

dated larch 23, 1632/3.
ser. 4, VIII (1363),

in boston, "

Ha ther P a p ers, Hass. Hist. Soc.,

Colls,

516-517.

Dill of Lad.i:i : Hook.

5 X 3

inches, bound

in c°lf.

Bills

from December 6, 1683 (John Hull died the rjreceding October 1)
through Harch 5, 1698, at which time the book, having pages
still unused, was taken over bi James Torten.
Soc.

At Hass. Hist.

-511

L e d g e r.
Hound
a re

In

by

1.1

vellum;

John

on

COO f o l .

H u ll.

S e v n l’

1635 ■" n 1 c o n t i n u e

u n til

:i; Li u centu :y Is ter.
Letter,

the c o v e . - ,
pages.

Jit

Loose

e n lrl? s

s h o rtly

"3m.t.jo1 S e v . - r . l l H i s

b e .;In

b e fo re

■ '•lto r
h is

a t

th e

H u ll's

own

d e a th

b e g in n in g
de- t . :

In

n lm o ^ t

IT. H. Hist, and den. Soc. 1 1bra ry.

"For his mueli esteemer Friend, Hr. Cos ton Hat her,

t Poston, " dr-ten Dec amber £5, 1634.
See.,

page?

L e d f; e r , "

Hat! '.or Pope r e . I H s n

Colls. . ser. 4, VIII (1368) , old.

I, 53, editors’ note.

Letter

Hist.

F.epr. in the Diary.

'Hn^.-r several heads" on

"v;hy

t..o Heart of America nay not bo too seat of the New Jerusalem. "
Letters to his uncle Stephen Dumner,

dr.ted simply 1634/5,

and to his uncle Nathaniel Dummer, dated February 2, 1634/5,
both in Hn. 'land.

N. Eh Hist, an... don. H e g . . IX (1355) , 287-233.

Con corns his being an actual compositor of boohs for the press.
Letter-Book.

One volume manuscript at Hass. Hist.

3 X 13 Inches, veil tun-b o and, begun in Fe bruary, 1635/6,

Soc.,
and con­

tinued. to September, 1729, a few months before his death.
Ills cel laneous matter at the beginning of the volume dates from
as early as 1672.

Printed in 3ewall P a p e r s . Hass. Hist. Soc.,

Colls. . ser. 5, I-II (1836-37).
Account Hooh.
April 23, 159:1.
4 X

6

Sntries for the nerlod Liareh 50, 1688,

Lihs the

’11 a gun k a n u o g " Court Journal,

to

It Is a

Inch, vellum-bound, pocket booh with a clasp binding.

Not ledger accounts, but individual items of
Lrtract? in Llass. Hist.
Lias s. Hirt. Soc.

Soc., P r o c ., LII

"paid and rac'd."

(1919), 554-540.

At

-512

Lett or,

"For the Reverend Hr. Increase Uather,

dat>d July 24, 1689 •
ser. 4, VIII (1363),
editors’ note.

Llatho r P an e r r f Lias s .
517*

Repr.

Hist.

in London, "

Soc*, j^pl 1 s • ,

in the? D i a r y . I, 231-232,

Concerns Bewail* s course in the matter of Andros*

7,'rits of Intrusion.
Journal of Voyage to England.
ber 29, 1639*

3 X 3 inches,

November 28, 1688,

courd in calf.

part of the Din r y , I, 236-291.

to Novem­

Printed as a regular

At Mass. Hist. Soc.

Letter of Sewall and Isaac Addington to Col. John Plncheon
of Springfield about plans for raising troops against the
ouas and Sineques, " dated May
Hist.

Soc.,

8

, 1690.

Colls. . ser. 2, VIII

In Plncheon P a p e r s . Mass.

(1S19), 233-243.

Letter to unnamed addressee dated May 21, 1690,
arrangements against the French and Indians.
editors*

’*Ma-

concerning

Diary, I, 380-381,

note.

Letter to Nehemiah drew dated J a m r ry, 1690/1,

in

"Letters

of Samuel Lee and Samuel Sewall Relating to New England and the
Indians," ed. Cr. L. Kittredge,

Col. Soc. of Mass., Pubs., XIV

(1913), 15 2-153.
"Memorandum Booh. "
8

vo•

(So listed at N. Y. Hist. Soc.)

On the manuscript title page is written,

74 pp.,

"Samuel Sewall

his booh, August the 15. 1695, " and th? material bears dates
in 1695-96.

Some miscellaneous material

arithmetic),

nut notable for its collection of New England poetry

of the period.
eighteen

(e.g., exercises in

The first part of this collect! n consists of

"tributes of tears" and

"lamentations" of the kind

Sevoll himself specialized in, by Benjamin Tompson, Thomas

7/ally, William Adame., ana unidentified authors.
I.Tehi t a b l e Kolt.

One,

"Mrs.

A pert: on of early Piety, " is by Sewall.

The second t>rrt of the collect! -n la s e c u l a r and has a particu­
lar interest for t'.v t reason,

though as poetry the pieces it

contains a.re feeble enough.
Dl“ ry fragment of M a r c h 15, 1696/7,

on the m e a n In ; and

met-'oo. of name-chan rin / arsons; the Indians.
•399, editors*

In hi' r y . Ill,

note.

Phr.enomena cuaodam Apocalyptlea A d A spec turn No v 1 Orbls
confif:urata.

Or some few Lines towards a description of the

N e w Heaven hs. it makes.
. . ., Poston, 1697. 4to,

those w^Q.
6 4

pp.

the New Earth

Second edition, Boston,

1727.
The Sellin 7 of J o s e p h , Boston, 1700.

4to, 3 pp.

Repr.

in Benjamin Lay* c rill Slave Keepers the t keep the Innocent in
Bondage, A p o s t a t e s , Philadelphia, 1737; 0. H. I.Ioore*s Notes
on the H 1s to ry of Slave ry in M a s s a c h u s e t t s . New York, 1336;
Dlr r y . II, 16-20,

editors'

note,

etc.

Dl n ry fra foment on a trip to Cape Cod anu M a r t h a 1 s Vineyarc as a commissioner for the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel,

in April, 1702.

XIV (1860) , 15-15,

In

Hist, and Gen. R e g , ,

nnd Dl- r y , III, 397-339,

editors'

note.

"Computation that the Importation of Negrcos is not so
possible as that of White Servants, " Boston N e ws-Le t t e r , No.
112, June 12, 1706.

Attributed to Sewall by E. A. J. Johnson,

American E conomlc Thought in the Seventeenth Century (London,

-514-

1932), pp. 20-21.

Attribution acceptable only as a reason-

able specul-'tl'in.
"Tuesday, I’ov, 25. 1 ’AD7•

The Reasons of my v:i211dr*atv1ny

m y Vote from what was Pass'd in Council, upon Saturday, Novem­
ber the Fi ret, relating to an Address offered to her Majesty
. . •, "Boston, 1707.
*112.

Brcadsiie.

Repr.

In the Di-ary. II, *111-

At N. Y. Hist. Soc.
Account booh lcept ac disbursin ; agent for the Cornp.'xny for

the Propagation of the Gospel in Nev.' England and the Farts Ad ­
jacent in America.

Covers the years 1705-19.

SO page m anu­

script ledger at Iiass. Kist. Soc.
TallthP- C u m l . or an Invitation to Women to look after
their Inheritance

Ir the. Heavenly liana 1 one.

unfinished manuscript
1675—

(see above,

"Di- ry and Commonplace book,

") , but v;as apparently printed because in the Ledger

there is an entry (fol. 188,
which. reads:
2.

Exists only in

15* 0. "

Mass. Hist.

dote of January 15, 1 7 1 1 T?j)

"For printing; & folding . . .

Talltha Cuml

A digest of the piece by George Ellis arrears in
Soc., P r o c . . XII (1873), 380-334.

Letter to the Reverend Edward Taylor at Westfield,
June 14, 1712.

Copied,

say the editors of the diary,

dated

"from the

fly-leaf of a manuscript volume of th ^cloyy in the Library at
Yale

College, " and printed,

D i a r y . II, 351-353,

editors*

note.

Proposals Touchinr; the Accomplishment of Proyhesle s. • •
Boston, 1713.

4to, 12 pp.

Journal of Journey to Martha's Vineyard and Circuit Court
Journal

(listed at Mass. Hist.

See. as

"Diary, Notes of Sermoi

t? tc

•

1714**lr^l

fin j.

account

vellum bound a n d f a s t e n e d

boolc^

") .

29

with a clasp, w i t h

GrUNKAQUOG-* October 11, 1 *71511 on the cover.
to

th is

tr io

to

journal, t h a t
the V i n e y a r d ,

inch,

4 X 6

the words

"L'A-

It is apparently

Sewall refers in connection with his
when he says,

II, 425, entry for April 5, 1714)•

"See my Journal" (Din r y .
The portion that covers

his circuit travels is for the period of March, 1714,

to

July, 1716, and has been partially printed in notes to the
D i a r y . II, 42.6-440; III, 1-4,

24— 25, 400-408.

notes are for sermons heal'd on the circuit*

The sermon
Items in the

"account boot" section relate primarily t o the handling of
the estate of Madam Bridget Usher,
Probate Journal.
as

for which Sewall was executor,

Manuscript record of

matters

handled

Judge of probate for the period December 5, 1715,

cember 19, 1728.

6 X 8

inch, bound in calf.

to De­

At Mass. Hist.

Soc.
Journal of voyage to Arrowsick and Circuit Court Record,
August 1, 1717,

to August 17, 1727.

4 X 6

inch, bound in calf.

It Is to tills Journal that Sewall refers when he says,
my Voyage to Arrowsick in Kennebeck River,
Book" (Dir ar y , III, 135,

see m y Octavo Paper

entry for July 39, 1717) 9 and,

my Court-Journal " (ibid. , p. 185, entry for May 17,
volume was acquired by the Mass. Hist.

Soc.

"For

"See

1718) .

The

in 1869 but remained

unidentifled b y the editors of the diary, who say of i t : "Not
among the books and papers now owned by the . . .
Nature of contents m u c h like that of the

Society. "

'MAGrUNKAQDOG-" volume.

-516-

Letter to hi- son Samuel c;rtea August 56, 1750.
H i n t , a n - G-en. Ho;:. » I (1347), 111-113,
Dl" r y , I, xl-xv.

ar.l r ^ r .

In _N. S.

In the

Important grnealo- leal Inf orr.mtIon.

A Memorial. Relating to the Kennebecli Indians. Boston,
1751.

4to, 3 pp.

Note:

There are two Items tint have been mistakenly n ttrlrated

to Sewall.

The first of these Is The Revolution In New Sng-

lond J u s t i f i e d , a.nd the People there v Ind. loo ted from the Asper­
sions cast upoxi them b.y Ur. John Palmer . . .
The fact that a prelimin. *rj
and

"Tc

(Boston, 1691).

the Reader" is signed by

"S. 6." has caused such authorities as Whitmore, Andros

Trac t s , I, 7; Sabin, XI, No. 46751; and Palfrey,
ascribe It to Edward Rawson and Samuel Sewall.
fact that it could

dence is as fellows :
Andros,

III, 514, to
Except for the

have been ivritten partly by Sewall,

is no evidence to support the ascrl.'ttcn.

P.

"E. R. 11

there

3tron0 contrary evi­

1. S e w a l l ’s role in the revolution against

hov/ever sympathetic he may have been, was a passive one.

If he did have a hand In so important a piece of v-or’
i, it is

remarkable that novhere

In all his detailed records Is there

any suggestion of it, a ' ct -which would make this work unique
in this respect among the more substantial products of his pen.
Washburn,

Sketche s t p. 123, attributes it tc Edward Rawson and

Samuel Shrimpton.
The second mi s t a k e n attribution is tie piece on the questior
"Whether Trading for Negros

I.e. carrying them cut of their

own Country Into perpetual Slavery, be in it self Unlawful,

A

a n d especially contrary to the great Law of CHRISTIANITY? M
appearing in The Athenian Ora c l e , The Second Edition (London,
1704),

I, 545-548*

Sewall,

Sabln and Evans both ascribe this to

doubtless because a handwritten note in a contempo­

rary hand at the top of the first page of the' copy at the
Mass* Hist. Soc* reads:

"Capt. Sewall sent the following

question over to the Athenian Society. "

But in the Letter-

B o o k , I, 322-323, letter to Nathanael Byfield dated January
4, 1705/6, Sewall writes:

"Sir, you may remember that Mr.

Saffin Printed a Letter [of reply] to The S elling of Joseph*
I did not trouble the Town with a Reply:

but in stead . . .

have now reprinted the Sentiments of the Athenian Society,
which I had not seen nor heard of, till I saw it in a Book­
sellers Shop last Fall.

..."

See similarly, ibid., p. 326,

letter to John Hlgglnson dated April 13, 1706.

A n unpublished

discussion of the matter is contained in a letter by Allyn B.
Forbes,

Director of the Mass* Hist. Soc.,

Rare Book Collection,

to Frederick P. Goff,

the Library of Congress, dated February

11, 1942, a copy of which accompanies the reprint at the Mass.
Hist.

Soc.
Finally, a reference in Tyler, H i s t o r y . II, 103,

item by Sewall with the title,

to an

"Answers to Queries Respecting

America, 1690, " presumably refers to the letter to Nehemlah
Grew dated January, 1690/1, noted above.