Gen Henry Sewall

  General Notes:

Before the Revolution he was a mason by trade; corporal in Prescott's Massachusetts regiment, May 1775. The following sketch for his service in the Revolutionary War appears in Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (13:1018).

Henry Sewall, Falmouth (also given York). Capt. David Bradish's co; billeting allowed from date of enlistment, May 12, 1775, to July 8, 1775; credited with 57 days allowance; also, 4th Sergeant, Capt. David Bradish's co., Col. Edmund Phinney's (31st) Regt; company return endorsed "Octr 6th 1775;" also, order for bounty coat or its equivalent in money dated Cambridge Camp, Dec. 15, 1775; also, Ensign, Capt. Tobias Fernald's (2d) co., Col. Edmund Phinney's Regt; muster roll of field, staff, and commissioned officers, dated Garrison at Fort George, Dec. 8, 1776; appointed Jan. 1, 1776; reported re-engaged Nov. 13, 1776, as 1st Lieutenant in Col. Brewer's Regt; also, Captain, Col. Sprout's Regt; Continental Army pay accounts for service from Jan. 1, 1777, to Dec. 31, 1779; reported as serving 29 mos. 25 days as Lieutenant, 6 mos. 5 days as Captain; also, 1st Lieutenant, Col. Samuel Brewer's Regt; pay abstract of officers for rations from Jan. 1, 1777, to March 31, 1777, dated Boston; said Sewall credited with 180 rations; also, Lieutenant, 12th Mass. Regt. commanded by Maj. Tobias Fernald; return dated Boston, of officers who were in actual service and who had not been absent subsequent to May -, 1777, except by leave of proper authority; also, 1st Lieutenant, Capt. Donnell's co., Col. Brewer's Regt; return dated Camp at Valley Forge, Jan. 22, 1778; residence, York; also, letter from Lieut. Col. Samuel Carlton to the Board of War, at Boston, dated West Point, Dec. 27, 1778, asking that clothing be delivered said Sewall, Lieutenant, and others, officers of (late) Col. Brewer's Regt; also, Col. Carlton's (late Brewer's) Regt; return of officers for clothing, dated Boston, Feb. 2, 1770; also, Captain, 12th Mass. Regt; list of officers; commissioned June 25, 1779; also, Lieutenant, (late) Col. Brewer's (12th) Regt; return of officers for the moiety of money due July 15, 1779; reported Commissary of Musters; also, Captain, 12th Mass. Regt; list of settlements of rank of Continental officers, dated West Point, made by a Board held for the purpose and confirmed by Congress Sept. 6, 1779; commissioned June 25, 1779; also, pay roll of Capt. Sylvanus Smith's co., Col. Timothy Bigelow's (15th) Regt., for Oct., 1779, signed by said Sewall, Commissary of Musters, sworn to at Peekskill; also, Captain; return of officers belonging to (late) 12th Mass. Regt. commanded by Lieut. Col. Ebenezer Sprout, "now in actual service," dated Boston, Jan. 17, 1781; also, list of men belonging to said Sewall's co., 2d Mass. Regt., who had enlisted for the war, as returned by said Sewall, Captain, dated West Point, Jan. 28, 1781.

Henry transferred to 2nd Massachusetts, 3 May 1782. He was the Major and Aide-de-Camp to Major-General Heath from 19 May 1779 to June 1783.

In 1783 he settled at Fort Western, Hallowell, Maine; was Town Clerk of Hallowell, then of Augusta for thirty-five years. He served as Clerk of the District Court of Maine, 1789 until 1818. He was the Register of Deeds of Kennebec County from 1799 to 1816. And was a Major-General, 8th Division, Massachusetts (Maine) State Militia. The diary he kept while in the Army has been printed in the Maine Farmer (August - November, 1872).

Henry was an Original Member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati from 1783 until 1845. He later served as the Vice President of the Society in 1845. Henry was granted a Bounty Land Warrant 26 June 1789, and applied for a soldier's pension 30 March 1819. His widow Elizabeth applied for a widow's pension 1 March 1835, age 75 yrs.

Henry married Tabitha Sewall, daughter of John Sewall and Mary Sayward, on 9 Feb 1786. (Tabitha Sewall was born on 25 Nov 1753 and died on 19 Jun 1810.)