William Bartlett Sewall ----------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ File contributed and transcribed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Tina S. Vickery on April 22, 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------- “No name,” says Mr. Willis, “was more honored at the bar and in the courts of Massachusetts and Maine for more than a century than that of Sewall.” The subject of our sketch was born in York, Dec. 18, 1782, and entered Harvard in 1799, where he was a classmate of Rev. Dr. Payson of Portland. After admission to the bar, he opened an office in Portland, was admitted to the Supreme Court in Cumberland County, and soon became a partner with Chief Justice Mellen. On the 26th of Nov. 1816, he married Betsy Cross of Portland, and at her death, three years later, removed to Kennebunk. In 1824, he returned to Portland and took charge of the editorial department of the Advertiser, which he continued to conduct several years, adding in the meantime a semiweekly edition. In 1837 he returned to Kennebunk, re-married, and died in that place on the 4th of March, 1869. In connection with Judge Bourne, Mr. Sewall prepared the “Register of Maine,” for 1820. He was a ripe scholar, of cultivated taste and fine thought, and devoted much time to poetry and prose composition. THE GAMESTER’S VERDICT. Won against the unanimous opinion of the Judges tampering with the Jury. We cut and shuffled, stirred our stumps, But zounds! they put us to our trumps. They held court card, led suit beside; With all four honors on their side; They played the deuce! but we, more brave, Finished on hearts, and played the knave. We better knew the pack to fix, And won the game at last by tricks!