By Maureen Storey
Maureen Storey has kindly put this report together for the April issue.
There was an excellent response to the Society’s recent appeal for help with the Sewell surname coordinator role. We are still determining the best way to fit the various offers together, but we should be able to announce the new Sewell coordination team in the next journal.
The Society welcomes two new Sewell members: Samantha Watson and Kammie Lee.
Samantha has traced her father’s Sewell line back through Elizabeth Mary Ann Sewell, who married Joseph Ditcham in 1885, to Thomas Sewell, who was born in Great Yarmouth, NFK, in about 1766. Samantha is hoping to take the tree back further but wondered if we knew of any link between her family and that of Anna Sewell (of Black Beauty fame), who also had connections with Great Yarmouth. Sewell is a relatively common name in that part of Norfolk, so whilst we can’t definitely rule out a connection between the two families, nor have we found any evidence of one.
Kammie wrote to the Society to ask if we had any information on the parents/marriage of Peter Sewell, who was born in Stebbing, ESS, in 1797. Kammie has the marriage certificate for Peter Sewell and Sarah Hayden in Little Dunmow in 1841, which gives Peter’s father’s name as James. However,lthe census entries for this couple indicate that Peter was born in Stebbing in about 1797, and the only baptism of a Peter Sewell at that time in Stebbing gives his parents as Thomas and Elizabeth. We can account elsewhere for the only other Peter Sewell that we know to have been born in this general area (i.e Peter Sewell, bpt 1789, Felsted), so for the time being we have accepted that there was a mistake in the marriage register (although the register itself is clear, perhaps it was written up from hastily written notes with Thomas being misread as James).