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My cousin, Gayle Modrall, and I were recently asked to research
the earliest Sewell line for the dedication of a Texas Highway
marker to Captain Joseph Warren Sowell, the first postmaster of
Fannin County, Texas whose cousins, the Texas Ranger Sowells,
barely escaped The Alamo and fought at The Battle of Gonzales
for Texas' Independence. Joseph Sowell was our great-great-
great grandfather.
Karen's original questions:
1. Can someone give me more information on Thomas Sewell/Sowell
who came from Engalnd and Settled in Sewell's Point, VA?
2. Where in today's Virgina is it?
3. What county was it when Thomas lived?
4. Who were his children?
We only have a single source on www.gencircles.com for the
children of this Thomas Sewell by researching a brother Henry
who served in the House of Burgess and also died at Sewell's Point.
The dates, however, are off and I am still researching the descendants.
In three hours, however, working through yahoo.com and gencircles.com,
we found the passenger list of 1619 for the ship George which brought
Thomas as an indentured servant at age 22. His name is spelled Sawell.
We found the muster roll of his servitude at age 26 for Abraham Piersey
at Piersey's Hundred and, through family websites, we found a full
description of life on this tobaco plantation by the accounts of other
passnengers, most notably the Woodsons, on the ship George who
accompanied Thomas to the Virginia Colony.
In the descriptions of the first slaves who also came to Jamestown
under the same trms of servitude and freedom as the white servants
on the George. Thomas is among those who are described as able-bodied
young men who, because of inheritance laws in England, were attracted
to new land and opportunity. There is a great deal about these families
and their sons online and some insightful detailed observations about
their customs and values in the book, Albion's Way.
By researching Abraham Piersey, we found all the members of the
original Virginia Colony, a notable list created just after the
release of the original King James version of the Bible. We tried to
relate the voyage on the George to the times and found this was the
year that William Harvey was credited with the discovery of the
circulation of the blood.
We found descriptions of The Virginia Colony and the earlier history
of the George which had stopped midway in the Thames on its 1617 voyage
to let off a passenger who was sick and died. She was Pocohantas, the
wife Rebecca of tobacco entrepreneur John Rolfe. Mrs. Rolfe had just
discovered that Capt John Smith was alive and well in London, not dead
as she had been told before her marriage.
Thomas was from Bristol, England and left London on the George in the
dead of winter, January of 1619. He arrived in Jamestown in the spring,
The Woodson account says: "The young couple embarked on the ship GEORGE,
January 29, 1619 and landed in Jamestown, Virginia in April 1619. (This
was one year before the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Mass. on the
Mayflower.)" Other sources confirm the arrival date as April 10th.
We found a photograph of Flowerdew, the Piersey Hundred, where Thomas
served out his time before acquiring Sewell's Point and a map showing
this land and its position on the James River relative to Jamestown,
Gloucester, Williamsburg and Surry. The photograph is an aerial view
and shows the James River in the background.
In the history of Flowerdew, there is a detailed account of the
massacre of the colonists by the Algonquin Indians. Over a third of
the colonists were killed, including women and children. Thomas is
not listed in the List of the Dead that is on the Internet so it is
assumed he survived as either an injured party ot to bury the dead.
He died at Sewell's Point.
There is a description of the revenge of the colonists against the
Indians. In the history of Norfolk, we found Sewell's Park as well
as Sewell's Point and the high regard with which the fmaily was held.
As I understand it, the Point today is where the US Navy docks its
aircraft carriers at the US Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia.
We found various descriptions of Sowell's Creek off the Hardware
River and different branches of the same family in Goochland,
the jamestown area, later in Albemarle County near Jefferson,
Bertie Countt, NC and Kershaw County in SC. After the Battle of
New Orleans and the war of 1812, the westward bound are in Davidson
County, Tennessee near Andrew Jackson and from there thorugh Arkansas
to the earliest settlers of Texas.
These Texans kept in touch with their Virginian cousins and the
history of the change in the name from Seawall to Sewell to
Sowell, from an oh sound to an ow sound, are well documented.
In the 1890's there is a lettter of condolence from an Uncle John
Sowell on the East coast who writes, "No Sowell male ever died
a natural death."
I hope this is of some help and interest. I would be happy to
answer any questions..
Anne
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