tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post8496401138767869863..comments2024-03-28T04:26:30.557-05:00Comments on Boston 1775: Jonathan Sewell’s D.N.A.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-83141017298125251622014-02-17T12:53:32.571-05:002014-02-17T12:53:32.571-05:00Interesting story about Jonathan Sewell We know of...Interesting story about Jonathan Sewell We know of him as the friend or John Adams at the crux of the revolution, who escaped to England barely with his family his and their lives at great risk, as the revolt unfolded. This was real historical Drama ,that even Hollywood could not improve upon!<br /> We have researched Sewell Seawell, Sawell, Sowell lines from the late 1500's and the name changing that went on was often times unexplained or unexplainable. Sometimes it was a simple errors of a Ships yeoman who registered Passenger's names as they came across the prow in Southampton and left again in Jamestown a "changed personage" and to future genealogists a perplexity!. Another change occurred at times we have concluded when loyalist Persons or entire families of the era denounces their Rebellious cousins and went north to Canada or back to England, whilst the Rebels changed their spelling to reflect a distinction henceforth. <br />The Ancestor of interest in my line is Thomas Sawell(b1589 d1649) or Seawell came to Jamestown on "the George" in 1619 (by ships log) with possibly another relative of the era, in the settlement was a Henry Sewell(b d Unknown). We know Thomas was listed as a servant in some capacity to Abraham Piersey of Piersey’s Hundred (AKA Flowerdew), He apparently received his 100 acres after a period of "indentured" servitude, (as was the common arrangement at the time). Henry's properties may have done similarly but records are sketchy.<br /> We know both held land in adjacent properties, and we think may have been, or probably were related, but no proof has come to light (yay or nay). There is good evidence that both were involved with a Sewell "shipping company" which shipped from Sewell's Point, VA, (where USN parks her Aircraft Carriers BTW). A senior Henry Sewell from an earlier Generation worked the Business end from England, We have seen documents of Shipments from there containing Tobacco, Sassafras, etc, all known objects of trade between the Colony and Motherland. "Pieces of these Puzzles" come together slowly, in fits and starts and names misspelled or mistaken from a steward's poor hearing can easily account for a Gent's name becoming a curiosity in the historical record, maybe even accounting for the apparent "end of a bloodline, or the beginning of another bloodline altogether in the clouded view of future researchers. WE would of course love to hear of some conclusive evidence to affirm our suspicions about Thomas and Henry possible relationship, if anyone reading this might know of a resource to that end Thanks<br />Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13746715824702090686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-69292922202390399592010-08-14T21:18:31.901-05:002010-08-14T21:18:31.901-05:00As I recall, when Attorney General Jonathan Sewall...As I recall, when Attorney General Jonathan Sewall changed the spelling of his family name, he insisted that “Sewell” had been the original spelling when the family emigrated to the New World. <br /><br />Which indeed it may have been, but spelling was so inconsistent in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that he was unusual for the period in insisting on one over the other. <br /><br />But he acted too late. The man’s only biography, written by Carol Berkin, is titled <i>Jonathan Sewall</i> because that’s the spelling he used for the most significant parts of his career. At least it offers a simple way to distinguish him from his son Jonathan Sewell.J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-146103632834371612010-08-14T20:24:16.218-05:002010-08-14T20:24:16.218-05:00Well some of us have Sewell as a family name from ...Well some of us have Sewell as a family name from England.<br /><br />Winston Sewell Stone :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-45472696705811487922010-08-14T11:48:16.555-05:002010-08-14T11:48:16.555-05:00It was commonplace in eighteenth-century New Engla...It was commonplace in eighteenth-century New England for couples to marry when the woman became pregnant—about a third of all marriages were followed by a birth within seven months. <br /><br />If a woman gave birth without being married, the law required that child to be bound out by the town’s Overseers of the Poor. In essence, the mother had no rights to such a child. Often, however, the man who became the legal master of the baby until it came of age was its maternal grandfather, keeping everything within the family.<br /><br />Examples of a father raising an illegitimate child are more rare. Of the four examples mentioned in this posting, three (Flucker, Lovell, Sewell) involve men in the social elite. Three (Franklin, Lovell, Sewell) involve male babies. In the Lovell case, the child (born to the daughter of Harvard college steward Jonathan Hastings) didn’t become part of his father’s household for years, but Franklin and Sewell seem to have raised their illegitimate sons from an early age. <br /><br />I don’t know of enough cases to see clear patterns, however. There are just enough to say that it wasn’t unheard of for Jonathan Sewell to treat his baby son the way he did.J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-35852625302141890912010-08-14T10:00:09.394-05:002010-08-14T10:00:09.394-05:00Good post. I'm curious about the child stayin...Good post. I'm curious about the child staying with his father. Was that commonplace? Was it because of the gender of the child? Did the mother agree to give up the child or was it a legal requirement?<br /><br />A very different and unusual situation compared to today's standard.Waldo4mehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07577350666062651359noreply@blogger.com