Sewall, Joseph, 1795-1851

Joseph Sewall (1795-1851) was the son of Joseph Sewall (1770-1852) and Lydia Marsh Sewall (1773-1805) of Bath, Me. The younger Sewall graduated from Bowdoin College in 1812 and practiced law in Bath. He served as Collector of Customs for the port of Bath, was active in civic affairs of his hometown, and was appointed adjutant general for the state of Maine, 1833-1834. He was the uncle of Arthur Sewall (1835-1900), the famous shipbuilder, and of Frank Sewall (1837-1915), the Swedenborgian clergyman. He was also a distant relative of Joseph Sewall (1688-1769), William Bartlett Sewall (1782-1869), and Edmund Quincy Sewall (1828-1908).

Adjutant general of Maine and collector of customs for the District of Bath.

Biographical Note

Joseph Sewall was born in 1795, in Bath, Maine, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1812, and practiced law in Bath, where he was collector of customs, 1842-1842, and adjutant general for the state of Maine, 1833-1834. Sewall died in 1851. His birth and death dates were obtained from the Library of Congress catalog that cites a lecture read by Sewall before the Lyceum (1833), entitled “the History of Bath,” Collections of the Maine Historical Society, vol. 2, 1847, pp. 189-228. Genealogical information was obtained from Louis Clinton Hatch, Maine: A History (New York, American Historical Society, 1919). vol. 4, pp. 383-385.