In general, we are certainly related if one or more of the following apply:

• you are a descendant of Jonathan Sewell, Chief Justice of Lower Canada.
• you are a descendant of Stephen Sewell, Solicitor General of Lower Canada.
• you are a descendant of {Rev} Henry Sewall who came to New England in 1634.
• your arms are a black shield with a silver chevron and 3 silver bees.
• your ancestor was "a Mayor of Coventry" circa 1600.

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    Our family who came to New England in 1634 spelled the name "Sewall" at that time.  Previously, "Shewell" had sometimes been used.  It seems that shortly after 1634, the Sewalls remaining in England began to spell the name "Sewell".  Jonathan Sewall (II), the last Attorney General of Massachusetts before the American Revolution, changed the spelling of our name to "Sewell".  Our relatives who remained in what was to become the United States retained the "Sewall" spelling.

    The following information on the family of Anna Sewell who wrote "Black Beauty" in the 1870's is summarized from the Dictionary of National Biography (Sidney Lee, Editor), Volume LI, pages 287 - 288 (London, 1897).  A connection, if any, with our Sewall/Sewell family must have been two centuries or more before the time of Anna Sewell, who died unmarried in April 1878.

Generation One
John Holmes of Tivetshall, Norfolk had a daughter:

• Ann Holmes

Generation Two
Ann Holmes married John Wright, a gentleman farmer in Suffolk.  John gave up farming circa 1809 and joined in business with a shipowner in Yarmouth.  Ann and John had a daughter:

• Mary Holmes

Generation Three
Mary Holmes (born on April 6, 1797 at Sutton, Suffolk; died on June 10, 1884) married in 1819 to Isaac Sewell (died on November 7, 1878), youngest son of William Sewell of Great Yarmouth.
    Isaac Sewell kept a small shop near Bishopsgate Street, London and later travelled for a large Nottingham lace factory.  In 1835, he was appointed manager of the London and County Joint-Stock Bank at Brighton.  The Sewells lived at Brighton and subsequently at Lancing, Hayward's Heath and later at Grayling Wells.
    Mary and Isaac had two children:

• Anna Sewell
• Phillip Sewell (born on January 14, 1822)

Generation Four
Anna Sewell (born on March 30, 1820; died in April 1878)
    "In 1871 she began in intervals of sickness to write her attractive 'autobiography' of a horse; it was published in 1877 under the title of 'Black Beauty', and had a remarkable success (nearly a hundred thousand copies had been sold by 1894, when a new edition appeared).  Miss Sewell died in April 1878"

    Henry Sewall and his family came to Maryland in 1661.  This Henry was a cousin of our ancestor {Rev} Henry Sewall (III) who came to Massachusetts in 1634 and a grandson of Henry Sewall (I) of Coventry, Warwickshire (1544 - 1628)  Henry was a planter in St. Mary's County and Secretary of the Province of Maryland.

    Henry Sewall married Jane Lowe (died 1700/1) circa 1650 and they had the following children:

• {Major} Nicholas Sewall who married Susanna Burgess. A great grandson of Nicholas and Susanna was Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a Maryland signer of the American Declaration of Independence. This descent may be summarised as follows: 

1. {Major} Nicholas Sewall (1655 - 1737) m. (before 1685) Susanne Burgess (ca. 1657 - 1737); their daughter: 
2. Jane Sewall (ca. 1685 - 1761) m. (1704) Clement Brooke; their daughter: 
3. Elizabeth Brooke (1709 - 1761) m. Charles Carroll; their son: 
4. Charles Carroll (1737 - 1832), a Maryland signer of the American Declaration of Independence. See Wikipedia for more on Charles Carroll.

• Elizabeth Sewall who married first Jesse Wharton and secondly William Digges.
• Mary Sewall who married first William Chandler and secondly George Brent.
• Anne Sewall who married first Benjamin Rozer and secondly Edward Pye.
• Jane Sewall (1664 - 1693/94) who married in 1681 (as his second wife) Philip Calvert (1626 - 1682), youngest son of George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore by his second wife Joan. Note:  Jane Sewall was about 16 years old when she married in 1681 to Philip Calvert who was about 55 years of age. Philip was the youngest brother of Cecil Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore and hence an uncle of Cecil's son Charles Calvert (1637 - 1714/15), Governor of Maryland and later 3rd Lord Baltimore who had married Jane Lowe in 1666. Jane Lowe and her first husband Henry Sewall (died 1664) were Jane Sewall's parents. Thus, it appears that Jane Sewall married her stepfather's uncle. Or have I got something wrong in this story? For documentation, see Douglas Richardson: Plantagenet Ancestry, Baltimore, Maryland, 2004 pages 183, 469, 774 and the references given therein. The situation here is almost (but not quite) as difficult to follow as that old country and western tune I'm My Own Grandpaw. For more on this great old tune, click here.  Please send comments and corrections to Robert Sewell.

    Henry Sewall returned to England in 1664 and died shortly thereafter. His widow Jane married in 1666 Charles Calvert (1637 - 1714/15), Governor of Maryland and later 3rd Lord Baltimore. For Jane's ancestry, please see Ancestors of Jane Lowe.
 

    Lewis Sewall, a great X2 grandson of Henry Sewall and Jane Lowe, moved from Maryland to Alabama in 1801. Please see a poem written by Lewis Sewall, circa 1820.

Family of Dominicus Sewell

    Dominicus Sewell married Sarah Thorndike who was born on January 18, 1736 at Beverly, Massachusetts. Dominicus and Sarah had several children in Massachusetts and the family moved to Nova Scotia in the 1760's. Dominicus Sewell's will was read in 1822. Many descendants live in New Brunswick.

Click to see Photos shared by Inez Morehouse of Saint John, New Brunswick.

Click for The Family of Dominicus Sewell in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. 

To save this file, right click the link, select "Save Target As . . ." (or whatever it is) and carry on.

Judy Wright's great grandfather served as Superintendant of Police in Bengal, India and her greatX2 grandfather, {Major} Richard Manuel Sewell (1835- 1873) lived in Valparaiso, Chile where he was involved with mining interests.  We wondered if he had a connection with the Sewell Copper Mine; but this appears unlikely. The mine opened in 1905 and wasn't given the Sewell name until 1915. This was in memory of the recently deceased company executive Barton Sewell of New York. Barton Sewell was a strong supporter of developing this mine; but never visited Chili.       Judy's father (who died in 1992) had the coat of arms pictured to the right that are basically the same as those used by the Sewell Family from Coventry. A summary of this family is given below.  Please send any information to: Judy Wright and Robert Sewell

    The late Mrs. Ruth Summers was descended from Thomas Sewell who married Mary Hartshorne in October 1707 at Langham, Rutlandshire.  Ruth Summers had traced the family down to the present day, but we can't find any connection between our families.

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    There is a Sewell gravestone at St. Mark's Church in Niagara on the Lake, Ontario.  It can be seen at the Genealogy.com Virtual Cemetery.  Buried at St. Mark's are the Henry Sewell Family and the Thomas Sewell Family.  Robert Sewell has had contact with a descendent of this family, Mr. Don Sewell of California.  The really frustrating aspect of this situation is that Don recollects his grandfather stating that their family is descended from a Mayor of Coventry, but we can't find the connection!

    For a "parfit gentil knyght" who also hails from Westmoreland, be sure to visit Dominic Sewell .
For more on historical reproduction items, visit Historic Enterprises.

    This Sewell family lived at Great Henny, Hinckford Hundred, Essex. Robert Sewell was granted the arms "Argent on a bend Gules three martlets of the first" in 1667.  

    Robert Sewell married 1st about 1648 to Dorothy Ryves, daughter of Richard Ryves and Dorothy Gold of Shaftesbury, Dorset.

    Robert married 2nd in 1664 to Jane Ryves, a cousin of his first wife Dorothy and a daughter of Brune Ryves and Kathryn Waldrum. Brune Ryves was the Dean of Windsor, and as such, was spiritual head of the Canons of St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, England.  For further details, try looking up "Dean of Windsor" at Wikipedia or on a search engine.

   Some online genealogies have referred to Jane Ryves' father as "the Duke of Windsor." See below for details.

   For more on this family, please click to Contact Raelene Yeates.  

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    Joseph Sewell was given a land grant in Quebec, and it has been suggested he was a United Empire Loyalist.  However, he also took a Freeman's Oath at the Alburg, Vermont town meeting of 1792.  Perhaps he was a "late loyalist"; many of whom came to British North America years after the conclusion of the American Revolution.

    A grandson, Joseph Kirkland Sewell, resided in Quebec circa 1843, but had ties to Illinois.  Joseph Kirkland Sewell's son Luman Algernon Sewell resided in Daysville, Ohio; Toronto, Ontario; and also in Iowa.  He fought in the American Civil War.

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    Carolynn McCully of Sarnia wrote in September 2001:

    "John Roland Sewell (b. 1863 England, d. 1929 Kirkland Lake Ontario) John was married to Carolina Lovella Maude Sibly (b. 1874 England, d. 1963  Kirkland Lake Ontario).  According to the family there doesn't seem to be any marriage certificate.  The union took place in England.  My grandmother and one of her sisters were born in England.

    "John Roland Sewell is my Great grandfather on my father's side.  My grandmother Madeline Olwen née Sewell told me that her father John Roland was a first cousin to Anna Sewell author of 'Black Beauty' and that there was a town or area of some kind in England named after the family. She also said that her father was at one time a Rev. of the Anglican Church before coming to Canada. There was some kind of 'scandal' and he and his family (from Maude Sibly) were 'disowned' so to speak. His sisters did come to Canada for his funeral (they paid for the funeral) and made sure he was buried 'in the cloth', however they did not want anything to do with his family."

    In late October 2010, it was reported that are at least three different Sewell Families in the Sarnia area who cannot find a connection with each other. Two of these families appear to have come from Ireland in the 19th and 20th centuries. One family came from the Carrickfergus, Belfast area of Northern Ireland.

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Sewells of Kingston and Chatham-Kent

   This family appears to have come from Co. Carlow in Ireland. David Sewell and his wife Sarah Ann (née McKeever) were in the Kingston, Ontario area from the 1840's to about 1868 when they moved to Chicago, Illinois. They moved back to Chatham-Kent, Ontario in 1877.
 
   For further information, please contact Fred Sewell   sewellf(at)aol.com  Please replace (at) with @.

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    Carol Trollope wrote about a Sewell connection:

    "Anne Sewell married Thomas Trollope b. 1797 (Surgeon), in England.  Thomas was the son of Rev. Thomas Daniel Trollope b. 1760 d. 1828, who married Anne Trollope dau. of Rev. John Trollope bn. 1729, married to Anne Guyon."

    Thus, Carol has the following line:
 

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    Carla Gardner wrote in January 2002:

    "I'm picking up my grandmother's research.  She followed some research through books:  History of Sewell Families, and Immigrant Ancestors."

    According to this family record, Henry Sewall and Ann Hunt had two sons named Henry:

• "My" Henry who came to New England in 1634 and married Jane Dummer. 
• Another Henry shown below who settled at Sewell's Point, in either Maryland or Virginia.  

Another genealogy states that Henry Sewell (1610 - 1644) shown below was a son of Richard Sewall and Mary Dugdale. Yet another genealogy shows Henry Sewell (1610 - 1644) as a son of "Lord Henry Sewell of England." A summary of this family is as follows:
 

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    More Sewells with whom we cannot establish a connection are:

• Marcus L. Sewell, born in England in 1805, died at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836.

• John Sewell, former Mayor of Toronto, Ontario says his great grandfather Ned Sewell was a sailor who came to Canada in the 1870's from ?  (W. Darcy McKeough, Correspondence, 1996)

• Margaret Sewell was a teacher in Niagara Falls, Ontario and was referred to by Robert Sewell's late great uncle Eric of Kenora as a "sister", but Robert Sewell can't find any connection.

• Charlie H. Sewell of Toronto signed his name "C.H. Sewell" on fake land surveys during the 1930's.  He was imitating Robert Sewell's grandfather Henry Charles DeQuincy Sewell who was an Ontario Land Surveyor and signed his name "H.C. Sewell".

• Sewells of St. Catharines, not us:  Two Sewells with initials the same as persons in our family "skipped town" leaving unpaid bills in the 1980's and 90's.

    Although there are many Sewells with whom we are not able to establish a relationship, there have been many more success stories:

• Carma Wallace's great grandfather Herbert Grant DeQuincy Sewell was reported in all our Sewell records as having died of a heart attack in California in 1946, unmarried and without children.  Then I found Carma's website (no longer available) where Carma has a great deal of family history.  It is through Carma that Robert Sewell met 4th cousin Sewell Vincent Sample.

• Nell Livingston Blay's family history recorded descent from William and Agnes Livingston (circa 1600).  With a great deal of hard work, Nell found the missing connections to the Livingstons of Callendar.  Nell Blay and Robert Sewell are 10th cousins.

• James Arthur "Jim" Sewell just happened to ask Donald Sewell (brother of Robert Sewell) if he was by any chance descended from the Sewalls of Coventry, England.  It turned out that Jim is a 4th cousin of Robert and Donald.  It is through Jim and his brother Ian that Robert Sewell met other 4th and 5th cousins including W. Darcy McKeough, Deborah Carroll and Sewell V. Sample.

• {Colonel} John St. Alban Sewell was always a mystery.  We knew there was some sort of connection and eventually found it. {Colonel} John St. Alban Sewell was a natural son (i.e., born without the parents having undertaken the formality of a church ceremony) of Chief Justice Jonathan Sewell and his lady friend Elizabeth Cornfield.

    Be sure to visit The Heraldry of Sewell for further details and more coats of arms.

    There are other Sewell families and other Coats of Arms.  The Sewells of the southern United States have unspecified arms with a Leopard’s head as the crest, and a John Sewell in the 14th century had for Arms a “Sea-Whale” or whale on a shield.  Yet another Sewell family from Essex (traced from 1583 to 1727 and apparently extinct after 1727) had for Arms a silver shield with a red diagonal and three silver birds on the diagonal.

    Try Heraldry on the Internet for more information.  This site states:  “... if your name is Smith, and a guy in a mall shows you a coat of arms with the name Smith under it, that proves nothing at all. You are just as likely to be related to the founder of the Virginia colony, or the Scottish economist, or the nephew of Senator Kennedy, or none of the above. The guy in the mall with the database is fudging these issues and trying to sell you a pig in a poke. His database is certainly incomplete and probably very inaccurate, and he doesn't care about pedigrees. He is just out to exploit the similarity between your name and some name in his database.”

    If purchasing a coat of arms, remember “Caveat Emptor!”; “Let the Buyer Beware!”

Click to Contact Robert Sewell