Thoreau and Sewall Families Papers, 1790-1917, bulk 1831-1876

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Summary

Abstract:
The collection contains correspondence and manuscripts chiefly of the Sewall family of Massachusetts in the 19th century. However, there is also correspondence from the the Ward family and members of the family of author Henry David Thoreau, as well as a scrapbook of the Thoreau family.
Extent:
135 pieces.
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection contains correspondence and manuscripts chiefly of the Sewall family of Massachusetts in the 19th century. However, there is also correspondence from the the Ward family and members of the family of author Henry David Thoreau, as well as a scrapbook of the Thoreau family. The correspondence covers the years of 1790-1876, with the majority between 1831 and 1876. The majority of the correspondence is to or from Ellen Sewall Osgood, who wrote mostly to her mother Caroline Ward Sewall and received most of her correspondence (within this collection) from Sophia Thoreau. However, there is also correspondence from the Sewall family, the Ward family, and the Thoreau family. Several letters, within this collection, make references to Henry David Thoreau, John Thoreau, Jr., Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Amos Bronson Alcott.

The collection also contains a scrapbook kept by several members of the Thoreau family. It was first kept by John Thoreau, Jr. and contains poems written by John, poems by other authors copied by John into the journal, photographs, hair fob, and a poem by Henry David Thoreau to his brother. The scrapbook was then turned over and started in the opposite direction as a dedication to Henry David Thoreau, after his death. Sophia Thoreau continued to add to the scrapbook until just before her death, at which point she sent it to Ellen Sewall Osgood. Ellen added to the contents as did her daughter, Elizabeth Osgood Davenport. This side contains letters and newspaper clippings about Henry, after his death, and the Thoreau family.

There is a rock labeled opal that was sent to Ellen Sewall Osgood by John Thoreau. This opal is mentioned in the letter from John Thoreau to Ellen’s brother, George, on Dec. 31, 1839 (HM 64928).

The last item is a three-ring binder. It contains photocopies of typed transcriptions of the letters and manuscripts in the collection. There is a brief introduction written by George Lyman Davenport, Jr., Ellen’s grandson by her daughter, Elizabeth. It has a table of contents for the Thoreau scrapbook. It also has a brief family tree for both the Sewall and Ward family showing only the direct ancestors of Ellen Sewall Osgood. However, the family trees end with Ellen’s generation. The transcriptions are not in chronological order, but remain in the order arranged by Mr. Davenport. Some of the items mentioned in Mr. Davenport’s introduction (the mineral specimen box and the seven-volume set of Thoreau’s works) are not a part of this collection.

Biographical / historical:

Ellen Devereux (Sewall) Osgood was born on March 10, 1822, in Barnstable, Massachusetts, to Edmund Quincy and Caroline (Ward) Sewall. Edmund Sewall was a Unitarian minister in Scituate, Massachusetts, for seventeen years. In 1842, Ellen met Reverend Joseph Osgood, born on September 23, 1815, to Dr. Joseph Otis and Elizabeth (Fogg) Osgood in Kensington, New Hampshire. They married on May 20, 1844. Rev. Joseph Osgood, like Ellen’s father, was a Unitarian minister, who served fifty-five years as the pastor at the First Unitarian Church of Cohasset. Ellen and Joseph had ten children: Caroline Ward, born in 1845 but died the same year due to accidentally smothering in her bedding when no one was watching; Elizabeth, who married George Lyman Davenport and had George L. Davenport, who maintained this collection; Joseph Otis; Edmund Quincy Sewall; George; Ellen Devereux; Mary Fogg; William Sherburne; Frances Parsons; and Louise Lovett, who helped her sister Elizabeth write the article about their mother and Henry David Thoreau. Ellen died on December 8, 1892 and Joseph died on August 2, 1898.

Ellen’s parents were both descended from two of the original founding families of Massachusetts. Caroline (Ward) Sewall was sixth generation of William Ward. William Ward moved to New England in 1638 from England with his second wife, Elizabeth, and his first five children of the eventual thirteen children. He helped to found Sudbury, Massachusetts. His eldest son, John, settled in Newton, Massachusetts, with his wife Hannah Jackson and was the first representative of the new township in 1679 at the General Court. Joseph (1), the youngest of thirteen children, born November 15, 1677, married Esther Kenrick and had nine children. Their third child was Joseph (2) born on September 21, 1706 who married Experience Stone and had twelve children. Joseph (2) was a deacon at the West Parish Church and a blacksmith. Joseph (3), the second son of Joseph (2) and Experience, was born on July 2, 1737. He married Prudence Bird and had eight children. Joseph (3) was a schoolteacher before the Revolutionary War. During the war, he was the secretary and aide-de-camp to both General Heath and a distant cousin General Artemis Ward. He eventually became Colonel of the General-Commissary of the Musters. On November 26, 1778, he was taken prisoner by the British. After his release and retirement from the military, he became a realtor and stockbroker. Joseph and Prudence’s last daughter was Caroline Ward who married Edmund Quincy Sewall on August 23, 1820, and had three children: Ellen Devereux, Edmund Quincy, and George Ward.

Edmund Quincy Sewall is a descendent of Henry Sewall (3) who came to New England in 1634. Henry’s (3) grandfather, Henry (1), was a mayor of Coventry, England. Henry Sewall (2) did not agree with the English politics and had his son and family to move to New England with him in 1634. Henry (3) came with his wife Jane Dummer and his first five of their eight children, including a nine-year-old Samuel Sewall (1). Samuel Sewall (1) married Hannah Hull and had fourteen children. He was a Chief Justice of Massachusetts Supreme Court and presided over the Salem witch trials. Only six of his fourteen children survived beyond childhood and only the two sons lived into their seventies. One of the sons was Joseph Sewall who married Elizabeth Walley. They only had one child that lived into adulthood, Samuel Sewall (2). Joseph was pastor of the Old South Church of Boston. His son Samuel (2) married Elizabeth Quincy and had seven children. Samuel (2) was a merchant and a deacon at his father’s church, Old South Church. Samuel son, Samuel (3), followed in his great- grandfather’s footsteps and became a Chief Justice of Massachusetts Supreme Court. Samuel (3) married Abigail Devereux and had nine children, the seventh child being Edmund Quincy Sewall. It is through this ancestor that Ellen is related to Louisa May Alcott, her second cousin. Samuel’s (3) sister Dorothy married Colonel Joseph May and had a daughter Abigail May. Abigail married Amos Bronson Alcott and had Louisa May Alcott.

After Col. Joseph Ward’s death, Prudence Bird Ward and her daughters become close friends with the Thoreau family, especially Mrs. Cynthia Thoreau (Henry David Thoreau’s mother), and Misses Elizabeth, Jane, and Maria Thoreau (Henry David Thoreau’s aunts). It was Maria Thoreau who, in 1817, introduced Caroline Ward to Edmund Quincy Sewall. In 1833, Mrs. Ward and her daughter, Prudence, moved to Concord and lived in a house owned by John Thoreau, Sr. (Henry David Thoreau’s father). They lived there until Mrs. Ward’s death in 1844. In 1836, Caroline brought her daughter Ellen to visit her grandmother, aunt and the Thoreaus. Caroline took her son Edmund on a similar trip in 1839. It was this same year that Ellen (age 17) paid another visit by herself. She attracted the attention of both John Thoreau, Jr. and Henry David Thoreau. Both John and Henry corresponded with Ellen as well as sent her other items. Henry sent her poems and John sent her crystals and stones for her mineral specimen box. In 1840, Edmund became a pupil at the Thoreau school. In July 1840, John proposed to Ellen. She initially accepted, but eventually declined due to her father’s wishes and because she was concerned for her father’s health. In November of the same year, Henry also proposed to Ellen. Since she declined John, she had to decline Henry. Years later, she told her daughters, Elizabeth and Louise, that she regretted accepting John’s proposal since she cared more for Henry. Henry told his sister, Sophia, on his deathbed that he never got over his love for Ellen. Ellen remained close to Sophia Thoreau. They wrote often until Sophia’s death in 1876. Just before her death, Sophia sent Ellen a scrapbook that had been started by John, then was used by Henry after John’s death, and was continued to be used by Sophia after Henry’s death. Ellen’s aunt, Prudence, was a close confidante to Maria Thoreau, which continued for years even after Prudence left Concord in 1844. Prudence Ward died on June 2, 1874 and Maria Thoreau died in 1881.

Note: The numbers in parentheses following the names in the Biographical Note refer to the numbered names in the family trees.

Acquisition information:
Purchased from Grace Davenport, July 17, 1991.
Arrangement:

The correspondence and manuscripts are arranged together alphabetically, followed by the scrapbook, ephemera, binder, and oversized material.

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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