Judge Samuel Sewall

By: Paige PellegrinoMs. DelGrego

English CP3

• March 28th 1652

• Born in England

Birth

Childhood

• His mother, Jane Dummer

was 19 when married to his

father, Henry Sewall, who

was 32

• Immigrated with his mother

to Newbury, Massachusetts

in 1661 to join his father

• Had many brothers and

sisters

Family Life

• He married Hannah Hull, who was the

daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the

colony on February 26, 1676

• They met in Harvard

• After married Abigail Woodmansey in 1719,

but she ended up dying 7 months later

• Also married Mary Gibbs

• Had fourteen children, and only six survived

Education

• In 1667 he was accepted into Harvard

• Studied for 7 years

• Received his first degree in 1671, and continued studying

at Harvard to receive an MA degree

Career

• Joined his wife's fathers business

• He was an active apprentice to his father in law

• In his career he gained power, therefore he gained rights such

as becoming a freeman of Boston in 1678

• He soon became in charge of his father in laws business

• Became involved in the local government six months later as

part of the legislative branch

Career

• He was chosen by

Governor Sir William

Phips as a judge on the

Court of Oyer and

Terminer in May of 1692

• The court commended

19 people to their death

that year that he

became part of the

government

Religious Practices

• He was a Puritan

• He believed that bad things

happen to show God’s

displeasure with humans

• He also believed that the

death of his son was God

punishing him as a parent

Involvement in the Witch Trials

• He believed in the existence

of witches

• Heard from Puritan ministers

that witches were being used

by the Devil to destroy the

Puritan church

• He was a judge during the

Salem Witch Trials

• He started to feel sinful after

the trials of those who were

being accused of witchcraft,

and apologized 5 years later

Death

• January 1, 1730

• Died in Boston, MA

• Died at the age of 77

Citations•http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/saxon-salem/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=salem/texts/names.xml&style=salem/xsl/dynaxml.xsl&group.num=all&mbio.num=mb25&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes

•http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/sal_bsew.htm

•http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/saxon-salem/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=salem/texts/bios.xml&style=salem/xsl/dynaxml.xsl&chunk.id=b24&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes

•http://www.examiner.com/article/samuel-sewall-salem-witch-judge

•http://www.robertsewell.ca/samsewall.html