A DISCOURSE OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF THE HONOURABLE STEPHEN SEWALL, ESQ; CHIEF-JUSTICE OF THE SUPERIOUR COURT OF JUDICATURE, COURT OF ASSIZE, AND GENERAL-GOAL-DELIVERY; AS ALSO A MEMBER OF HIS MAJESTY'S COUNCIL FOR THE PROVINCE OF THE MASSACHUSETTS-BAY IN NEW-ENGLAND. WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE ON WEDNESDAY-NIGHT, SEPTEMBER 10. 1760. AETATIS 58. DELIVERED THE LORD'S DAY AFTER HIS DECEASE.
Boston: Printed by Richard Draper... 1760. 66, [2 blanks] pp, with the half title and final blank leaf, as issued. Newly stitched with the half title neatly extended in blank bottom and lower right edge, and inner margin. Else Very Good. An interesting association copy, with the contemporary signature on half title of "Gid. Hawley." Gideon Hawley, like Mayhew's father Experience, was a missionary to the Cape Cod Indians for many years.
Mayhew, the eloquent voice for American religious and political freedom, likens Sewall to the biblical Samuel, "many years the chief judge and magistrate of Israel; one of the most excellent characters which we meet with amongst those of the ancient worthies."
Justice Sewall, like Samuel, was "an excellent patriot ... ever properly jealous for its laws and liberties," and acutely aware of "the evils, the oppressions, and the grievous slavery" of a monarchy. Unlike many contemporary funeral orations, this one is a detailed biography of Sewall, from his younger days as a student at Harvard, which he entered at the age of fourteen. Mayhew emphasizes his aptitude for the law: "His genius was so piercing, and his natural penetration at once so deep and quick, that no science, however crabbed, intricate or involv'd, could long make opposition thereto." His only faults were "an excess of these two virtues, liberality and self-diffidence!"
Sewall's father was Stephen Sewall of Salem, the clerk of court at the Salem Witch Trials. Justice Sewall's uncle, Samuel Sewall, presided at those trials.
Evans 8666. Cohen 2097. ESTC W20184. Item #38732
Price: $500.00