Jamaican Sewells

[Sugarcane]

I am trying to trace the Sewell family who lived in Jamaica for generations. Susan (Nathan) Knight

[Tim Soles]

The Sole Society has received the following message and file attachments from a person who wishes to remain anonomous, but who is willing to help with any further questions. The file attachments are listed at the end of the message:


A friend connected with the Sewell family told me that Susan (Nathan) Knight is looking for information about the famous Jamaican Sewell clan on one of the Sole Society Site Forum pages. Please follow this link to view her post from August 2009: http://www.soleforum.org.uk/showthread.php?t=290 (http://www.soleforum.org.uk/showthread.php?t=290).

If you provide her with the information below and the attached files, she will have all of the information that she needs about the great Jamaican Sewell dynasty that started with William Sewell and Mary McRae in about 1830 and continued until about 1970.

There were other planters and pre-manumission slave owners in Jamaica with the surname Sewell prior to 1830, but I don't have any information about them yet...

If Susan uses the following links, she will find a genealogy chart on the Sole web site that details all of this information as well as information on one of the Sewell descendants that participated in World War I named Brigadier-General Horace Somerville Sewell ('Sambo'). She should note that the date of birth on Horace Sewell's linked page is incorrect: it should be 1881, not 1991. He is listed correctly on the Sole Society genealogy chart that I mentioned previously.

Ms. Kennedy should use this link: http://www.sole.org.uk/sewecumr.htm (http://www.sole.org.uk/sewecumr.htm) for the relevant Sole Society genealogy chart and this link: http://www.firstworldwar.bham.ac.uk/nicknames/sewell.htm (http://www.firstworldwar.bham.ac.uk/nicknames/sewell.htm) for information on Brigadier-General Horace Somerville Sewell ('Sambo').


All the way at the bottom on the left hand side of the aforementioned Sole Society page (using the link), she will see the Jamaican Sewell family tree. However, the last paragraph on the page, above the family tree, denies any knowledge of the fact that the whole Jamaican clan is Creole and that Mary McCrea was a mulatto slave. The correct information is detailed in the attached articles from a newspaper called the Daily Gleaner, which is Jamaica's version of the New York Times, as well as the First World War link about Horace Somerville Sewell provided above.


The late reporter Ray Fremmer wrote a special series about this Jamaican Sewell dynasty. Henry Sewell was extremely rich and very well-known during his lifetime. Ms. Kennedy should read the newspaper articles in the following chronological order:


1) William Sewell - March 2, 1980
2) Henry Sewell...Heir to an empire
3) Sewell - Arcadia Pen - Last of Series (the important information is towards the end of this article)

34

30

32

31

33

[RHew]

Does anyone have information on other Sewells in Jamaica around that time?
I am trying to trace Louisa Sewell, born about 1871, presumably in Jamaica, daughter of James Sewell, possibly from Trelawney, Jamaica, or overseas. She died in Christiana, Manchester, Jamaica, wife of Lewis Allen, planter. James lived in the Christiana area and his other children were Kitty (Catherine?), Beth (Elizabeth?), Sal (Sally?), and George. Any information or pointers to sources would be greatly appreciated.
Robert