Willem Sewel (alsoWilliam) (19 April 1653 (baptised) – March 1720)[1] was a DutchQuaker historian, of English background.
He was son of Jacob Williamson Sewel, a free citizen and surgeon ofAmsterdam where he was born. His paternal grandfather, William Sewel, aBrownist ofKidderminster, emigrated from England to escape religious persecution, and married a native of Utrecht. His mother, Judith Zinspenning, daughter of a German Catholic, afterwards a Baptist, joined the Quakers in 1657, after hearingWilliam Ames. She became an eloquent minister, visited England in 1663, was author ofA Serious Reproof to the Flemish Baptists, 1660, aBook of Proverbs (translated into English byWilliam Caton, London, 1663),An Epistle, and other short books. She died at Amsterdam on 10 September 1664, aged 34. Her husband predeceased her.
Sewel was brought up by an uncle. At eight he was fairly proficient in Latin, but was soon apprenticed to a weaver. At fourteen he visited his mother's friends in England. Returning to Holland after a sojourn of ten months, he obtained work as a translator, contributed regularly to theAmsterdam Courant and other papers, wrote verses, and conducted a periodical. In spite of an invitation fromWilliam Penn to become master of the Quaker school opened atBristol, Sewel remained in Amsterdam until his death on 13 March 1720. He was married, with a family.
Sewel spent 25 years on his major work,The History of the Rise, Increase, and Progress of the Christian People called Quakers. It was first published in Dutch, asHistori van de Opkompste, Aanwas en Voortgang der Christenen bekend by den naam van Quakers, Amsterdam, 1717 (another edition, 1742). The English edition (London, 1722), dedicated to George I, was largely undertaken to correctHistoria Quakeriana (Amsterdam, 1695; English translation, London, 1696, byGerard Croese, to whom Sewel had given letters and narratives from England). Sewel's own work was based on a mass of correspondence,George Fox'sJournal, and, for the public history,Lord Clarendon'sRebellion andEdmund Ludlow'sMemoirs. It became an authority.[2]
Sewel's other works are:
These two works were reprinted together, 1708. It was reissued in edited form by S. H. Wilcocke, London, 1798.
Sewel edited theGrammaire Hollandoise of Philippe la Grue, 1744, 3rd ed. 1763, 4th, 1785, and translated the following into Dutch from the English:
From the Latin:
From French:
and from the German:
He also translated into DutchMatthew Prior'sOde on King William's Arrival in Holland, 1695.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: "Sewel, William".Dictionary of National Biography. London:Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.