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Richard Benson Sewall, English scholar: born Albany, New York 11 February 1908; Instructor in English, Yale University 1934-40, Assistant Professor 1940-51, Associate Professor 1951-59, Professor 1959-76, Master, Ezra Stiles College 1959-70; married 1940 Mathilde Parmelee (died 1974; three sons); died Newton, Massachusetts 16 April 2003.
If a biographer's empathy can be inherited, then Richard Sewall was well placed to understand the New England context of his one great subject, the poet Emily Dickinson. For the Sewalls themselves are a New England family of historical lineage – there were family members living in Salem, Massachusetts, during the infamous witch trials of the 17th century, and Richard Sewall's own father was the 13th in a consecutive line of Congregational ministers.
Sewall himself was born in Albany, New York, and educated at Philips Exeter Academy, then Williams College, for his BA, before taking a PhD at Yale in 1933. After teaching briefly at Clark University, he joined the Yale English department faculty in 1934 and taught there for over 40 years, retiring in 1976. But this traditional background and education belied a truly individual mind, as well as a humane morality – rigorous but liberal, always questioning – which made him both a powerful and popular figure to the young.
This influence was of particular importance during the campus traumas of the late 1960s, which afflicted Yale in particular. As Master of Ezra Stiles, one of Yale's two new colleges designed by Eero Saarinen, Sewall managed to win the trust of a radicalised student body by appointing such dissident voices to the new college's fellowship as the anti-war leader and Yale chaplain William Sloan Coffin and Allard Lowenstein, the progressive Democrat who helped drive President Lyndon Johnson from office.
With the trial of the Black Panther Bobby Seale in New Haven during 1969, the threat of widespread violence on Yale's campus and in the city was very real, and temperatures were only lowered by the successful intervention of Yale's President, Kingman Brewster (later Ambassador to the Court of St James), who, influenced by Sewall and others, declared that he personally doubted the ability of Seale to receive a fair trial. This declaration made Brewster a pariah among conservatives and Yale alumni (at the time the two were largely indistinguishable) but placated the young and arguably saved the university from being burned to the ground.
As a teacher Sewall was enormously popular, but he was never a showman. It was rather the moral and human emphasis he put on literature which entranced countless Yale undergraduates. His lectures on tragedy (to several generations of Yale students) were especially appealing, and resulted in one of the only two books he wrote, The Vision of Tragedy (1959). Sewall saw tragedy as occupying a primary and primal position in human life, rather than as a set of dramatic conventions first laid down by Aristotle. For Sewall, the tragic hero so often found in the greatest works of Western literature was a resonant, archetypal character, whose bewildered quest for the meaning of his experience recalls the original terror, harking back to a world that antedates the conception of philosophy, the consolations of the later religions, and whatever constructions the human mind has devised to persuade itself that the universe is secure.
But a far larger audience than former undergraduates will remember Sewall for his magisterial two-volume The Life of Emily Dickinson – 25 years in the making – which won the National Book Award in 1974. Like Gerard Manley Hopkins, Emily Dickinson enjoyed an entirely posthumous fame, for, other than a handful of poems published anonymously, none of her work saw print until after her death.
Even then, it was only in the second half of the 20th century that she began to assume her rightful canonical status as a major American poetic voice; before then, her work was known chiefly for its eccentric punctuation and, more vulgarly, for the fact that virtually every poem she wrote can be sung to the monotonous cadence of "The Yellow Rose of Texas".
Her life attracted more interest, as she had become extraordinarily reclusive in her late twenties, confining her interactions with people thereafter to correspondence, but the resulting stereotype of Dickinson as an oddball again detracted from serious consideration of her poetry.
Thanks to the efforts of critics such as Harold Bloom, we can now see the powerful originality at work in Dickinson, and the very Modernist accent of her preoccupation with her vocation as a poet. The new seriousness with which Dickinson began to be treated was fortified by Sewall's biography, which by thoroughly researching the details of Dickinson's solitary adult life in Amherst, Massachusetts, refuted many of the more superficial perceptions of the writer. The chief effect of Sewall's labours was to demonstrate that from a very early age Dickinson saw herself as an artist, and that her self-imposed isolation was the result of her immersion in her poetry rather than its cause.
Dickinson's emotional life – the subject of wild speculation, from hints of lesbian entanglements with her sister-in-law to the presumption of a failed love affair that led to heartbreak and hermeticism – is never neglected by her biographer, but, as Sewall recognised:
The whole truth about Emily Dickinson will elude us always; she seems almost wilfully to have seen to that.
The recognition of his biography's limits was characteristic of Sewall's essential modesty, which, combined with a mild, wry sense of humour, made him such an attractive figure. Named by Yale's President in the early 1950s to head a committee on "Manners and Morals", Sewall announced:
I have never had any manners, and my morals are slipping badly. But I'll bluff it through.
Andrew Rosenheim.³

He had long been associated with the Sewall Day Cordage Company of Boston and since the winding-up of the affairs of that concern he had been president of the Warwick Cotton Mills.⁴

At Holderness School, Chapel Lane, Holderness, NH 03245 "[the] aisle window in the Chapel of the Holy Cross is dedicated to the memories of brothers Richard Hartwell Sewall '39 and Homer Sewall Jr. '42. While at Holderness, both boys were varsity athletes, active in the school musicals, and heavily involved in school life and leadership.
Homer, known at Holderness as "Squeak," threw a game-winning touchdown pass in the 1941 game against Proctor, and helped spearhead campus fund-raising for the British War Relief Fund. Homer joined the army right out of Holderness, and was placed in the medical corps with a unit that was scheduled to remain in England during the invasion. He instead volunteered for service with the airborne troops, landed with them in Normandy on D-Day, and died two days later. The window panel honoring Homer depicts Saint Stephen, the first martyr (l).
Richard was a dive-bomb pilot in the central Pacific during the war, later training other pilots until his discharge in December, 1945. He died the following May from complications related to rapid changes in altitude. Richard's panel depicts Saint Timothy (r), who assisted St. Paul and who became bishop of Ephesus at a young age. Bishop Dallas said of the window's subject that, since Richard "was unusually mature for his age and had already undertaken heavy responsibilities, the choice is especially appropriate."⁵

Robert Benford “Bob” Sewall, 91, of Casa Grande died on Jan. 23, 2014, at home with his family by his side.
Mr. Sewall moved to Casa Grande as a retired school maintenance supervisor, then hauled the Casa Grande Dispatch and sister publications for nearly 27 years before retiring again.
He was born on Sept. 29, 1922, in St. Louis Park, Minn., and was a son of Ralph and Evelyn Sewall. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He later supervised 100 school custodians, groundskeepers and laundry workers in his hometown and also was a volunteer firefighter for 20 years. He moved with his wife, Lucille, to Casa Grande after visiting the community a few times. In 1975 he began hauling newspapers for the Dispatch and sister publications.
He was active in the Christian Church of Casa Grande and sang in the choir. He loved going to church, hanging out with his grandchildren, buying cars, camping, fishing, riding around in his RV, golfing and going to casinos. He was known as a social butterfly.
Survivors include a son, Michael Sewall of Minnesota; a daughter, Cheryl Gutierrez of Casa Grande; a sister, Marlene Avona of California; five grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife; a daughter, Marsha Stagg; three brothers, Billy, Gene and Vernon Sewall; and a sister, Jeanette Hatcher. Casa Grande Dispatch.³

Robert C. "Bob" Sewall, 93, of Grove City, passed peacefully surrounded by his four daughters on Monday, Nov. 22, 2021, in Grove Manor.
Bob was born on Aug. 14, 1928, in Lackawannock Township, Mercer County, to Lewis F. and Mary (Kerr) Sewall.
He graduated from New Wilmington High School in 1946.
Following high school, Bob moved to Grove City to begin what became a lifetime passion of farming on Center Church Road.
Also, he was employed and retired from General Electric, Grove City, following 25 years of service.
Previously he was employed by Sandy Lake Implement and he drove school buses for Brenton Holter for many years.
Bob was a former member and elder of Center Presbyterian Church, Grove City, and was a member of Mineral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Ohio, since 1995.
Bob is survived by his four daughters, Marcia Cummings and husband Bruce; Brenda Rouse and husband Logan; Kim Gergel and husband Jeff; and Shelley Kibby and fiancé Norm Rebadow; eight grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; and his former wife and mother of his children, Deanna (William) Conkle.
His parents; a brother, James K. Sewall; sisters Mary Lou DiRienzo and husband Domenic; and Betty Jean Reynolds and husband Stephen; and a niece, Marjorie DiRienzo, preceded Bob in death.
Bob was cared for by the staff at Grove Manor, where he received exceptional care and was well-loved.²

Will of Robert Darnall Sewall
Resident of Prince Georges County, Maryland
December 31, 1852

In the Name of God Amen. I Robert D. Sewall of Prince Georges County Maryland being of perfect health of body and of sound and disposing mind, memory and understanding and capable of executing a valid deed or contract, (?) the certainty of death and the uncertainty of (??) and being desirous of settling my worldly affairs and thereby be the better prepared to leave this world when it shall please God to call me hence do therefore make and publish this my last will and testament in manner and form following that is to say:

First and principally I commit my soul unto Almighty God and my body to the earth to be decently buried at the discretion of my Executors herein after named and after all my debts and legacies and funeral charges are paid I devise and bequeath as follows;

ITEM: I will and direct that all my stock of cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, farming utensils and implements of husbandry together with all my crops of every description be sold by my Executors and the proceeds thereof together with all monies which may be due me at the time of my death be applied to the payment of any just debts, legacies and funeral charges. And if this portion of my estate shall not be sufficient for this purpose, then I direct that my Executors shall sell such portion of my negros as they may select to provide for such deficiencey.

ITEM: I give and bequeath to my faithful and trustworthy houseservant Abraham Clarke his freedom and being aware of the laws of my own state upon this subject and the difficulty of his acquiring his freedom in this state I do hereby further direct that the sum of one hundred dollars be allowed to him by my Executors to enable him to remove to the District of Columbia or elsewhere where he can be secure in the enjoyment of his freedom.

ITEM: I give and bequeath to Thomas F. Bowie junior, eldest son of my much esteemed friend through life Thomas F. Bowie, Esquire, a negro boy not under ten nor more than fifteen years years old, to be selected from my stock of negros and delivered to him by my Executors, to him the said Thomas F. Bowie, jr, his executors, administrators and assigns.

I also give and bequeath to Mary Mackall Bowie, second daughter of my said valued friend Thomas F. Bowie, Esq a negro girl not to be under 10 or more than fifteen years old in further consideration of my great regard for her father to be selected and delivered over to her in the same manner as in the preceding bequest to her the said Mary Mackall Bowie her executors, administrators and assigns forever. I also direct that a mourning dress suitable to his estate and condition in life shall be furnished to my said friend Thomas F. Bowie Esquire by my Executors at the expense of my estate should he esteem my memory to accept the same.

ITEM: I give and bequeath to my friend William P. Brinham a suit of mourning to be furnished him at the expense of my estate also my double barrell gun.

ITEM: I give and bequeath to my niece Ellen C. Daingerfield, daughter of Henry Daingerfield Esq my gold watch and chain and seals.

ITEM: I give and bequeath to my nephew Henry S. Mitchell my library and all my books also any wardrobe and clothes and an equal share with my two nieces Susan S. and Ellen C. Daingerfield of all my silver plate except my service of teaplate which service of teaplate I give and bequeath to my said nieces Susan S. and Ellen C. Daingerfield to be equally divided between them share and share alike. I also give to my two said neices Susan S. and Ellen C. Daingerfield an equal share with my nephew Henry S. Mitchell in all my other silver plate, that is to say one third of said plate to each of them share and share alike.

ITEM: I give and bequeath unto Robert D. Sewall Mitchell, son of my nephew Henry S. Mitchell one negro girl to be selected by his father from the stock of my negros not to be over fifteen or younger than ten years old to him the said Robert D. Sewall Mitchell his executors administrators and assigns, provided nevertheless that the negro girl so bequeathed to the said Robert D. Sewall Mitchell shall be taken and deducted from the share of my negros slaves (???????) Henry S. Mitchell (???) him as a part of his distributive share thereof.

ITEM: I give and devise to my nephew Henry S. Mitchell his heirs and assigns all that portion of my real estate which I purchased of Charles B. Calvert and which was conveyed by deed bearing date the eleventh day of February in the year eighteen hundred and forty two (1842) from George W. Briscoe as trustee lying on the eastern side of Piscataway Branch containing about four hundred and seventy six acres of land more or less, reference being had to said deed duly recorded among the land records of Prince Georges County in Liber J.B.G., No 2 folios 97 and 98 and will more fully and at large appear to him the said Henry S. Mitchell her heirs and assigns in fee simple forever.

ITEM: I also give and devise to my said nephew Henry S. Mitchell, his heirs and assigns all the portion of my real estate lying east of the said Piscataway Branch which I purchased of Arthur P. West and Eleanor his wife and Horatio C. Scott called Woodstock and Popular Neck and the Lower Quarter which is mentioned and described in a deed from him said Arthur P. West and wife and Horatio C. Scott bearing date the eighth day of January eighteen hundred and forty (1840) and duly recorded in Liber A.B. No. 12, folios 449, 450 one of the land record books of Prince Georges County reference being thereto and will more fully and at large appear containing in all five hundred and twenty four acres of land more or less to him the said Henry S. Mitchell his heirs and assigns in fee simple forever.

ITEM: I also give and devise to my said nephew Henry S. Mitchell his heirs and assigns all my lots of ground in or near Carrollsburgh in the City of Washington which are unimproved: but my house and lot of ground thereto attached situated on Capitol Hill in the said City of Washington recently in the occupancy of the Hon. Reverdy Johnson I give and devise to my two neices Susan S. Daingerfield and Ellen C. Daingerfield their heirs and assigns forever as tenants in common and not as joint tenants share and share alike.

ITEM: I give and devise to my neices Susan S. Daingerfield and Ellen C. Daingerfield to them their heirs and assigns forever as tenants in common and not as joint tenants my homestead plantation on which I now reside commonly known as Popular Hill the same consisting of a part of a tract called Darnalls Discovery and also that part of my real estate consisting of woodland which I purchased of Charles B. Calvert lying immediately adjacent to Popular Hill being also a part of His Lordships Kindness and now in my possession and also all those tracts parts of tracts or parcels of land on where William P. Brinham now resides and which were devised to me by the last will and testament of my deceased brother Richard B. Sewall lying on the western side of Piscataway Branch and adjoining The Popular Hill estate, the same being a tract or parcel of land called the Addition to His Lordships Kindness and a tract or parcel of land called Darnalls Discovery and all the land adjacent thereto now in my possession the whole of said lands comprising that portion of my real estate which lies on the western side of the said Piscataway Branch containing in the whole share two thousand acres of land more or less to be equally divided between them the said Susan S. Daingerfield and Ellen C. Daingerfield their heirs executors administrators and assigns as tenants in common and not as joint tenants .

ITEM: I give and devise to my said neices Susan S. Daingerfield and Ellen C. Daingerfield their heirs, executors administrators and assigns as tenants in common and not as joint tenants all the property real, personal or mixed which I may hereafter acquire by devise or bequest from my friend William P. Brinham by whose last will and testament as now executed I am sole legatee and devisee to be equally divided between them the said Susan S. and Ellen C. Daingerfield as tenants in common share and share alike.

ITEM; I give and bequeath to my said nieces Susan S. Daingerfield and Ellen C. Daingerfield all my household and kitchen furniture of every kind and description whatever including bedsteads, beds, bed clothes and every other article or thing whatever which may be in my house at Popular Hill at the time of my death (except those articles herein before bequeathed and specifically enumerated) to them the said Susan S. And Ellen C. Daingerfield, their heirs, executors administrators and assigns to be equally divided between them share and share alike. And it is my will and desire and I do hereby enjoin it on my executors that no inventory shall be made or taken of said household and kitchen furniture or other articles as aforesaid for record in the Orphans Court and that no commission shall be allowed or received by them on the value of said household and kitchen furniture except so far as the same may be necessary to secure to the State of Maryland the collateral taxes which may accrue on the same.

ITEM: It is my will and desire (after the payment of all my just debts, funeral charges and the aforesaid specific legacies) and I do hereby give and bequeath all my negro slaves, men, women and children (excepting Abraham Clarke and the specific legacies herein before mentioned ) together will all their increase to my said nephew Henry S. Mitchell and my said nieces Susan S. Daingerfield and Ellen C. Daingerfield their heirs executors administrators and assigns to be divided among them in three equal shares, share and share alike, provided nevertheless that in regard to that portion of the said negro slaves which may fall to the share of the said Henry S. Mitchell, my will and desire is and I do hereby direct that all sums of money which the said Henry S. Mitchell owes me at this time or may owe me at the time of my death on bonds, notes open accounts or otherwise or by reason of my being security for him to George Thomas and others, or if my estate should be obliged to pay the same after my death, whether the said bonds, notes, open accounts and other indebtedness should or may be barred by limitations or not, shall be deducted and abated by my executors from his the said Henry S. Mitchell’s share of the value of said negro slaves so bequeathed to him by this clause of my will and that the remaining portions in value of said slaves after providing as aforesaid for the payment of his said indebtedness to me shall not be paid over or delivered to him. It being my desire and intention so as to promote equality and justice that the said Henry S. Mitchell’s share of said negros hereby bequeathed to him shall be charged with the payment of all money he may owe me or I may be answerable for him at the time of my death. And as to the said negroes so to be deducted and abstracted from the share of the said Henry S. Mitchell, I give and bequeath them with all their increase to my said two neices Susan S. and Ellen C. Daingerfield their executors administrators and assigns in equal proportions share and share alike, and also to Henry S. Mitchell who shall have one third part thereof, an equal share with the said Susan S. and Ellen C. Daingerfield.

ITEM: I give and bequeath to my said nephew Henry S. Mitchell and to my said neices Susan S. and Ellen C. Daingerfield in equal proportions share and share alike the nett proceeds of my claim against the government of the United States for the burning of my father’s house in the City of Washington by the British troops in the War of 1812 whenever the same shall be collected or paid.

ITEM: I will and direct that a sum of money not exceeding fifteen hundred dollars which I hereby bequeath to my executors for that purpose shall be expended by them in the repairs and fitting up of the Family Graveyard at Popular Hill in such manner as they may think best.

ITEM: I give, devise and bequeath all the rest and residue of my estate not herein before devised or bequeathed, whether the same be real, personal or mixed unto my nephew Henry S. Mitchell and my two neices Susan S. and Ellen C. Daingerfield to be equally divided between them in three equal portions share and share alike. And lastly I do hereby constitute and appoint my nephew Henry S. Mitchell and my brother in law Henry Daingerfield Esq. Of Alexandria, Virginia to be sole Executors of this my last will and testament revoking and annulling all other wills by me heretofore made, ratifying and confirming this and none other to be my last will and testament. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this thirty-first day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.
Robert D. Sewall

SEAL

Signed sealed and published and declared by Robert D. Sewall the above named testator as and for his last will and testament in the presence of us who at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other, have subscribed our names as witnesses therein.
R.H. Marshall
Edward H. Calvert
C.B. Calvert

Prince Georges County Sct:
April 6th, 1853
Then came Richard H. Marshall and Charles B. Calvert two of the subscribing witnesses to the within will and made oath on the Holy Evangely of Almighty God that they did see Robert D. Sewall the testator therein named sign and seal this will and heard him publish, pronounce and declare the same to be his last will and testament that at the time of his so doing he was to the best of their apprehension of sound and disposing mind memory and understanding and that they together with Edward H. Calvert the other subscribing witness respectively subscribed their names as witnesses to this will in the presence of the testator at his request and in the presence of each other.
Sworn before
William A. Jarboe
Reg. Of Wills for P.G. County

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     A fighter died in New Orleans Sunday afternoon, a fighter for two lost causes. He was Major Robert H.F. Sewall. A fighter to the end.
     In the War Between the States Major Sewall fought under the Stars and Bars. From the time peace once more returned to the nation until Sunday afternoon he fought tirelessly to persuade local, state and government officials that his "spur dike" plan for controlling the inroads of the Mississippi river was the answer to the greatest problem of the Mississippi valley.
Major Sewall knew Appomattox Courthouse. Major Sewall was alive and well when the Bonnet Carre spillway, not spur dikes, was decided upon as the answer to the great flood danger of 1927.
     With his passing Sunday afternoon the champion of state's rights and spur dikes joined his fellows in Gray. He died at Charity hospital, still a fighter though 83 years old.
Following the end of the Civil war, Major Sewall returned to his plantation in Iberville parish. He was keenly alive to the ever-present danger of flood from the treacherous Mississippi which provided life for his crops and if the whim was strong, the death of those same crops. It became a problem which appealed to his nature as a fighter.
In July, 1924, after years of study he redoubled his efforts to get the United States government to apply his idea of constructing spur dikes to withstand the erosions of the Mississippi river water on the levees. He was a violent antagonist to further increase in height of the levees and to spillways.
     Major Sewall's eyesight was failing but not his spirit. He carried his fight for spur dikes into the board of state engineers.
Spur dikes - concrete piling driven into a caving bank, forcing the current of the swollen river to form an eddy. Instead of "eating out" the levees, was the major's contention, the spur dikes would cause a suspended silt to be deposited by the resulting eddy which would "make" instead of destroy the levee wall. Such dikes, was his argument, would force the water to the other side of the river and force it to scour out a channel there. The piling for the dikes would be of either concrete, (a plan patented by Major Sewall) or of wood driven in the river in an upstream direction at a 45 degree angle. The plan he advanced provided for water-tight sections of piling driven in sections 500, 1000, or some other distance in feet apart. The major contended that the idea had show [sic.] practical results near Shreveport and at the Poland street wharves in New Orleans.
     In 1887, so convinced was Major Sewall that his plan would solve the age-old problem, he quit his plantation and devoted his entire time to his new cause. Many engineers heard his arguments and in 1924 his plan was declared impractical. He found a companion spirit in Frank H. Waddill, noted engineer, who after reviewing Major Sewall's spur dike plan warmly supported the idea.
Trials were given the spur dike plan. It was found that while it was adaptable to furnishing and driving watertight sheet piling, as far as flood regulation was concerned Major Sewall's plan was impractical. And so, though defeated, Major Sewall died at Charity hospital Sunday afternoon at 5:30 p. m. Military funeral services in his honor will be held today at 1:15 p.m. at the P.J. McMahon chapel, 4800 Canal street, followed by services at St. Francis de Sales church at 1:45 p.m. At 3:15 p.m. the body will be sent to Baton Rouge for burial. Major Sewall earned his commission while serving in the Second Louisiana Cavalry during the Civil war. He is survived by two daughters, Mrs H.P. Simmonds and Mrs. C.P. Chester, and three sons, Robert H., James Nelson and P.H. Sewall. The Times-Picayune, 18 February 1929.⁵