Samuel Sewall
Written by Heather E. Jones, revised by D.J. Ward
RELG415: Salem Witch Trials in History and Literature
An Undergraduate Course, University of Virginia
Spring Semester 2001, Fall Semester 2006
One of the nine judges selected to arbitrate the Salem witch trials in 1692, Samuel
Sewall sat on the Court of Oyer and Terminer, which would condemn nineteen individuals
to execution by hanging. Almost five years after the trials concluded, Sewall stood in
front of the congregation of the South Church in Boston while Rev. Samuel Willard read
his confession aloud. As the only judge from the trials to confess guilt for the part
that he played in the crisis that took place in Salem in 1692, Samuel Sewall stands as a
heroic figure in the history of Massachusetts.
Samuel Sewall was born in Bishop Stoke, England on March 28, 1652. He immigrated with his
mother to Newbury, Massachusetts in 1661 on board the ship "Prudent Mary," to join his
father, Henry Sewall Jr., who came to America four years earlier to claim his deceased
father's estate. In 1667, he was able to prove his proficiency in Latin and Greek and
was accepted to Harvard, where he would study for seven years. After receiving his first
degree in 1671, he continued his studies in the quest for an MA degree. Not only did he
obtain this degree, but he also meant his wife, Hannah Hull. A relative of the then
Harvard president, Hull also attended Sewall's MA oral examination. While obtaining such
a degree usually meant that a man would go into a life in the ministry, Sewall struggled
with that idea. After marrying Hannah on February 26, 1676, he decided to join the Hull
family business. Hannah's father John was the mint master and tax collector for
Massachusetts, which gave him great power and wealth within the colony. Sewall became an
active apprentice to his father-in-law. There seemed to be a gradual shift of power
during this time from the pulpit to hands of the wealthy, and Sewall's decision to enter
business was part of that change.
As Sewall's wealth and power grew, so did his responsibility and commitment to public
service. While rising through the ranks of the mercantile class, Sewall became a freeman
of Boston in Mary of 1678. This meant that he was able to vote for the candidates for
the House of Deputies. In 1681, he became the official colony publisher, and published
The Pilgrim's Progress, in which "he compensated for rejecting a life in ministry by
putting out the writings of some of New England's most distinguished clerics"(Francis,
34). John Hull passed away in 1683, and Sewall took over his business interests. Six
months later he joined the legislative Council in Boston, one of the bodies of the
Massachusetts bicameral legislature.
Spending the rest of the 1680s and early 1690s in charge of the family business and
involved in local government, Sewall was appointed by Governor Sir William Phips as a
judge on the Court of Oyer and Terminer in May of 1692. Phips had established the Court
in order to bring to trial those accused of witchcraft. Sewall was a logical choice, as
he had both high status in the community and a strong theological background. So he
joined with William Stoughton, Jonathan Corwin, Thomas Danforth, Bartholomew Gentry,
John Hathorne, John Richards, Nathaniel Saltonstall, and Peter Sargent as the men who
would serve as judges on the Court. Although only five of the nine judges were needed in
order to try a case, evidence suggests that Sewall was present for most of the trials.
The Court condemned nineteen people to their death that year until Governor Phips
finally closed it down on October 29. Certainly, however, Sewall's investment in the
issues of that year did not conclude with the trials, as five years later he would issue
his apology.
While Sewall began to feel remorseful soon after the trials ended, he still commented on
the presence of witchcraft in society. He noted in his diary on January 19, 1694, that
Mrs. Prout had passed away, "not without the suspicion of Witchcraft"(Sewall, 74). By no
means had he stopped believing in witches, only that nothing needed to be made of the
fact that someone might be a witch. Thus Sewall's apology in 1697 arose out of a genuine
fear that he had done wrong, not that witches did not exist.
Sewall's confession followed a series of family misfortunes. During the five years that
followed the trials, two of his daughters, Jane and Sarah died, along with his
mother-in-law. Hannah also gave birth to a stillborn child during this time, and the
remorse that Sewall felt over the trials had given him a sense of spiritual darkness.
With all of this haunting Sewall, he wondered if God was punishing him for his actions
in 1692. A passage recited by his son Sam on December 24, 1696 spurred him to take
action. The verse was Matthew 12:7, "If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have
mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless, " which he said "did
awfully bring to mind the Salem Tragedie"(Strandness, 75). When January 14, 1697, was
established as a day of fasting and prayer for the sins of the witchcraft trials, Sewall
took the chance to issue a formal apology. As Rev. Samuel Willard passed by his pew, he
handed him a letter, rising as Willard read:
Samuel Sewall, sensible of the reiterated strokes of God upon himself and family; and
being sensible, that as to the Guilt contracted upon the opening of the late Commission
of Oyer and Terminer at Salem (to which the order of this Day relates) he is, upon many
accounts, more concerned than any that he knows of, Desires to take the Blame and shame
of it, Asking pardon of men, And especially desiring prayers that God, who has an
Unlimited Authority, would pardon that sin and all other his sins; personal and
Relative: And according to his infinite Benignity and Sovereignty, Not Visit the sin of
him, or of any other, upon himself or any of his, nor upon the Land: But that he would
powerfully defend him against all Temptations to Sin, for the future; and vouchsafe him
the efficacious, saving conduct of his Word and Spirit.
Sewall's apology had certainly been made in earnest, as he genuinely feared the wrath of
God. While others, including twelve jurors and eventually Cotton Mather and Ann Putnam,
offered words of contrition none mirrored the importance and feeling of personally
responsibility of Sewall. Sewall biographer Richard Francis noted that, "What unifies,"
the confessions of the others, "is that they all see guilt as a matter of external
manipulation. Parris, the jurors, and Ann Putnam insist that they were well meaning but
had been deceived and made use of by a malignant power" (Francis, 185). Sewall's apology
truly stands out against the backdrop of the others, as his showed sense of moral
conscience and a real feeling of remorse. He would continue to fast one day out of the
year for the rest of his life as a sign of contrition.
Historian Chadwick Hansen noted that Sewall's apology did not mean that he had totally
changed his view about witchcraft. Citing a letter that Sewall wrote responding to John
Hale on November 19, 1697, Hansen explained, "Sewall still regarded witchcraft as a
punishable capital offense, but recognized that the court of which he had been a
prominent member had proceeded on unsafe principles and was guilty of shedding innocent
blood." His feelings about the injustice that he and the rest of the Court had done in
1692 influenced his work later in life. One specific instance of note came on June 24,
1700, when he printed a pamphlet against slavery asserting that it was wrong and men and
women should be treated as material possessions.
While Samuel Sewall was certainly just as responsible for the deaths of nineteen accused
witches in 1692 as any other member of the Court, he did one thing that none of the
other judges did: he apologized. Sewall's biographer, Richard Francis has characterized
the twofold nature of Sewall's now famous apology. "There's particular poignancy in the
case of a judge" making an apology, "a person whose job it is to supervise the passing
of a verdict on other people switches that responsibility clear around." But an apology
"can liberate both an individual and his or her society," freeing him, "from the past
and giv[ing] access to the future." A large mural size painting of Sewall making his
apology in front of the South Church congregation hangs in the Massachusetts House of
Representatives in Boston. The painting is titled "Dawn of Tolerance in Massachusetts.
Public Repentance of Judge Samuel Sewall for his Action in the witchcraft trials." The
painting is one of a set of five paintings that collectively are titled, "Milestones on
the road to freedom in Massachusetts." As Francis has noted, "Apology can be heroic;"
certainly, Sewall's act has taken on such a role in the history of Massachusetts and the
Salem witch trials.
Francis, Richard. Judge Sewall's Apology: The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of
an American Conscience. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005.
Hansen, Chadwick. Witchcraft at Salem. New York: George Braziller, 1969.
Sewall, Samuel, The Diary of Samuel Sewall. Ed. by Harvey Wish. New York: G.P.
Putnam's Sons, 1967.
Strandness, T.B. Samuel Sewall: A Puritan Portrait. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State
University Press, 1967.
