http://robertsewell.tripod.com/joncandicbio.html
Jonathan Sewell, Jr., left England in early 1785 under the care of Attorney General Jonathan Bliss. He studied law with the Solicitor-General for New Brunswick, Ward Chipman, an old family friend and a prominent New Brunswick lawyer, judge and Loyalist. Ward Chipman studied law in Massachusetts with Jonathan Sewall, Sr.. In a "memorial" written by Ward Chipman, he wrote, "...That previous to open hostilities between Great Britain and America, he was active in assisting, in the defence of Judge Sewell's house at Cambridge, Massachusetts, September, 1774, when it was violently attacked by a mob...." (Acadiensis, Vol. VI, No. 4, October 1906.)
Further evidence of Ward Chipman's bravery is found at Trinity Church.
Abigail Adams may have written about this incident in a letter to John Adams: From Boston, on July 7, 1776, she wrote:
Jonathan Sewell, Jr., was Chief justice of Lower Canada from 1808-38. "...He was also an influential political leader of those opposing Louis-Joseph PAPINEAU's Patriote Party. The son of a Loyalist, Sewell's political views were determined by the AMERICAN REVOLUTION. He sat in the LC Assembly 1796-1808, and was president of the Executive Council 1808-30 and Speaker of the Legislative Council 1809-39. He favoured a strong imperial and executive authority, anglicization of Canadian children through the schools, eliminating the French legal code, replacing the seigneurial system by freehold tenure, and reducing the position of the Roman Catholic Church. While he shared many of the political goals of the clique of British officeholders, he was more conciliatory than his colleagues and was subtle of mind. An intellectual of many talents, he was the first president of the Literary and Historical Soc of Quebec and wrote on history, literature and law. Harvard honoured him with an LLD degree in 1832." He died in Qu�bec on 11 November 11, 1839. His funeral was held on the 15th of November at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Quebec City.
Jonathan Sewell, Jr., appeared to have been embodied the concept of "renaissance man." During his exile in England as a child, "...Jonathan discovered a talent for the theatre, and his performance in a school play impressed the celebrated actress Sarah Siddons, who described him as �Dame Nature�s chosen son.� He had innate abi1ities in music and painting as well, and his father found that he had �impetuous and penetrating� powers of mind. Edward Winslow later described him as �one of the finest lads I ever saw.�..." "When the Loyalists from the American colonies migrated to New Brunswick in 1783, theatricals were part of the new community's life. The first dramatic performance for public charity took place in the long room of Mallard's Tavern, King Street, in 1789. Performances at various times were given during the following years. Two actors involved in the theatre were Jonathan and Stephen Sewell...." Jonathan's success in Quebec "...partially reflected his acceptance by Quebec�s British community. Its members embraced him even more readily after he became a prot�g� of Prince Edward Augustus, who, impressed by Sewell�s proficiency as a violinist, engaged him to lead an amateur orchestra in regular musical evenings. Sewell acquired the most recent works of European composers and for one concert composed new verses to �God save the King� which would create a sensation in 1800 when sung on a London stage by the actor Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan after an attempted assassination of George Ill...." "...By the 1790s reports exist of the latest string quartets and quintets by Haydn and Mozart being played by a group led by Jonathan Sewell Jr...."
Jonathan Sewell, Jr.'s wife, Henrietta Smith, not only was the niece of Joshua Hett Smith, an accomplice of Benedict Arnold who spent the night of September 22, 1780 at Smith�s house, she was the daughter of William Smith, Jonathan Sewell's predecessor. In 1786, William Smith was appointed Chief Justice of Canada.
These two mates in life, Jonathan and Henrietta, had suffered great hardship on account of the American Revolutionary War early in their lives and it must have been a cord that bound them. Her father had remained a loyalist, and from 1776, the year that she was born, to 1778 was confined to the limits of Livingston Manor, the home of his wife�s sister Margaret Livingston and Col. Peter Robert Livingston. She was six when, in 1782, he left for England, leaving his family at the Livingston home at Clermont. It is unclear as to when she was reunited with her father.
It has been said that coincidences are God's way of remaining annonymous. It also has been said that "most improbable coincidences likely result from play of random events. The very nature of randomness assures that combing random data will yield some pattern." My life has been full of the most improbable coincidences, but one of the strangest coincidences is the prevalence of Sewall houses in it.
The area north of Union Street in Saint John was developed as a garden "suburb" to the city below Union Street. "...Initially much of the area was owned by Ward Chipman and his father-in-law William Hazen. In 1817, in settlement of a medical bill, Hazen transferred over five acres, bounded by Coburg, Cliff, Waterloo and Peters streets, to the Paddock fanily." See: Heritage Strategy Overview Study, Central Peninsula: Saint John, New Brunswick.
One of my first jobs was as a student librarian at the Ward Chipman Library at the Saint John campus of the University of New Brunswick.
http://www.iment.com/maida/familytree/bliss/bliss.htm
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http://www.usgennet.org/family/bliss/bios/ma/jon.htm
"In 1785 [Jonathan Bliss] was appointed by the Crown attorney-general of the newly formed province of New Brunswick, and leaving England, took up his residence at St. John, New Brunswick, where he practiced [law] for twenty-four years. The year of his arrival he was elected member for St. John in the House of Assembly, and was intimately associated with all the legislation of New Brunswick's formative period. His legal ability gave him a leading position at the bar, and he appears as counsel in most of the important causes of his time. He was retained in 1790 by Benedict Arnold in the suit for slander which the latter brought against Manson Hart. In 1809 he was appointed chief justice of New Brunswick and retained this position till his death at Frederickton, N.B." "...One of his sons, William Blowers, became a judge of the Supreme Court, Halifax, and another, Henry, was a lawyer in London, and for many years agent for New Brunswick in England." William Blowers Bliss was appointed as director of the Bank of Nova Scotia in 1837 along with Alexander Keith, the real Alexander Keith behind Alexander Keith beer and their famous commericals."
Another son of Jonathan Bliss, Lewis, donated "the Family Memorial Window in the Chancel of Trinity Church, St. John. He was the last of the fours sons, and died 7th September, 1882, ages 89 years, and, with his brother Henry, was buried in Kendel Green Cemetery, London."
See: Benedict Arnold in New Brunswick - A Collection Of Articles And Essays. Canada Summer Works Grant, Material Gathered by N. Schell, M. Gormley, and S. Dimock. 1983. 971.024/Arn at the Saint John Free Public Library.
The New Brunswick homes of Jonathan Bliss have interesting histories.
A Saint John residence of Jonathan Bliss was the former home of Benedict Arnold, his former client. The home is described at http://new-brunswick.net/Saint_John/benedict/benedict1.html. "Arnold began a lawsuit against Hayt for slander. Munsun Hayt had said that Arnold had deliberately set fire to their general store to collect fire insurance. New Brunswick's best lawyers, Ward Chipman and Jonathan Bliss represented Arnold. Hayt's counsel was Elias Hardy." See: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/9002/arnold.htm.
In yet another ironic twist, Stephen Sewell, son of Jonathan Sewell and a law student associated with Ward Chipman, "went up the River" about a month preceding the hearing to take evidence.
See: Benedict Arnold in New Brunswick - A Collection Of Articles And Essays. Canada Summer Works Grant, Material Gathered by N. Schell, M. Gormley, and S. Dimock. 1983. 971.024/Arn at the Saint John Free Public Library.
Mr. Rodney J. Gillis, Q.C., has represented my son's father on a number of occasions. There is a picture of him on his Web site. If you look over his shoulder, you can see the current building on the lot where Benedict Arnold once lived.
Trivia: Did you know that the family of the traitor Benedict Arnold is a "branch" in the Thomas Jefferson and George W. Bush family trees?
When Benedict Arnold died, his obituary was all of 9 NINE words long.
The Fredericton residence of Chief Justice Bliss, now known as "Somerville House," has a presidential history of its own.
http://www.unb.ca/welcome/visitor_scrapbook/index07.html
In 1957, Senator John F. Kennedy visited Fredericton, New Brunswick. Senator John F. Kennedy was presented with "...an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by UNB benefactor Lord Beaverbrook. On the same day in October 1957, the future U.S. president gave his now famous speech "Good Fences Make Good Neighbours" at the fall convocation."
John F. Kennedy stayed at Somerville as a guest. The Queen Mother also stayed at Somerville as a guest when Lord Beaverbrook was a chancellor of the University of New Brunswick.
See also:
__________. "Somerville House hosts a summer soiree," The Daily Gleaner, August 23, 2003, p. A5.
Chiarelli, Nina. "Somerville House Returns to Splendor," August 21, 2003, P. A1.
Silcoff, Sean. "Lord Beaverbrook's summer house has been rescued; his fame may follow: Lord and Manor redux." National Post, August 11, 2003, p. A6.
http://members.rogers.com/robfisher/homes1.html
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www.gnb.ca/cnb/newsf/ss/2002f0837ss.htm
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http://www.law.unb.ca/tour/tapestry.html
Somerville House was bought in April from the province of New Brunswick for $455,000 by "Julia MacLauchlan - a Microsoft millionaire who head up a team of researchers at the company - and her husband, Warren McKenzie, an entrepreneur and business strategy consultant...."
Previously, Sommerville House was the Lieutenant-Governor's official residence, and, before that, used by the law school of the University of New Brunswick.
My favourite bequest to New Brunswick from Lord Beaverbrook is Salvador Dali's "Santiago El Grande" which is housed at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.
http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/articles/cham397.htm
"Three impressive case pieces of furniture were the featured stars at Christie's Americana sale on Saturday, January 18, and they performed well. "We called them the three tenors," said John Hays, who heads Christie's American furniture department, clearly pleased after the sale.
A full house watched while the Bliss family blockfront mahogany chest-on-chest, made in Boston, 1770-85, sold for $1,212,500 with buyer's premium to Ohio and Massachusetts dealer Bill Samaha. He outbid dealers Wayne Pratt, Todd Prickett, and Deanne Levison and scored a new record price for a chest-on-chest. Its small size, classic proportions, good color, and especially its brilliantly carved and gilded American eagle finial made it desirable. Moreover, there was a good story to go with it.
It is one of three Boston case pieces taken to eastern Canada. It went there with either Jonathan Bliss (1742-1822) or Jonathan Blowers (1742-1842). ..."