Samuel Sewall (congressman)
Samuel Sewall (December 11, 1757 – June 8, 1814) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts. He was born in Boston, studied at the Dummer Charity School (now The Governor’s Academy) and Harvard College, and began practice as a lawyer in Marblehead.
Sewall served in the Massachusetts state legislature in 1783 and again from 1788 to 1796. He represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Federalist, serving the 10th district from 1796 to 1800. He had run for the 1st district in 1792. While in Congress, he was an impeachment manager in the proceedings against Senator William Blount.
From 1800 to 1814 he was a judge on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, becoming chief justice in 1814. He died in Wiscasset, then part of Massachusetts (now in Maine), while on a court visit there. Sewall was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1801. Fort Sewall in Marblehead was renamed for him in 1814.
Family and other notes: In 1781 he married Abigail Devereux; they had at least six sons and two daughters. His great-grandfather Samuel Sewall was a judge during the Salem witch trials and later Chief Justice of Massachusetts. Sewall was elected to the American Antiquarian Society on June 1, 1814, and died seven days later.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 18:41 (CET).