Elizabeth Missing Sewell
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Missing Sewell (1815–1906) was an English author of religious and educational texts notable in the 19th century.
, Isle of Wight
, on 19 February 1815, was third daughter in a family of seven sons and five daughters of Thomas Sewell (1775–1842), solicitor, of Newport, and his wife Jane Edwards (1773–1848). She was sister of Henry Sewell
, the first premier of New Zealand
, of James Edwards Sewell
, warden of New College, Oxford
, of Richard Clarke Sewell
, reader in law to the University of Melbourne
and the author of a large number of legal works, and of William Sewell
, clergyman and author. Elizabeth was educated first at Miss Crooke's school at Newport, and afterwards at the Misses Aldridge's school, Bath. At the age of fifteen she went home, and joined her sister Ellen, two years her senior, in teaching her younger sisters.
About 1840 her brother William introduced her to some of the leaders of the Oxford Movement
, among others, Keble
, Newman, and Henry Wilberforce
. Influenced by the religious stir of the period, she published in 1840, in The Cottage Monthly, Stories illustrative of the Lord's Prayer, which appeared in book form in 1843. Like all her early works these stories were represented to have been edited by her brother William.
The family experienced money difficulties through the failure of two local banks, and the father died in 1842 deep in debt. Elizabeth and the other children undertook to pay off the creditors, and set aside each year, from her literary earnings, a certain sum until all was liquidated. Until 1844 the family lived at Pidford Manor
or Ventnor
, but in that year Mrs. Sewell and her daughters settled at Sea View, Bonchurch
. Elizabeth bought the house, enlarged it in 1854, and later changed the name to Ashcliff. At Bonchurch, she was an acquaintance of William Adams
, another High Church author of religious works.
In 1844, Elizabeth Sewell published Amy Herbert, a tale for girls, embodying Anglican views. It has been many times reprinted and has enjoyed great success both in England and in America. In 1846 there followed two of the three parts of Laneton Parsonage, a tale for children on the practical use of a portion of the Church Catechism
. She interrupted her work on this book to publish Margaret Perceval (1847), in which at the suggestion of her brother William she urged on young people, in view of the current secessions to Rome, the claims of the Church of England
. The third part of Laneton Parsonage appeared in 1848.
Her mother died in 1847, and in 1849 Miss Sewell made an expedition to the Lake District
with her Bonchurch neighbours Captain and Lady Jane Swinburne and their son Algernon
, the poet, then a boy of twelve. They visited Wordsworth
at Rydal Mount
. In 1852 she published The Experience of Life, a novel largely based on her own experience and observations; her most notable literary production.
Elizabeth Sewell had now assumed responsibility for the financial affairs of the family, and finding that her writing was not sufficiently lucrative, she and her sister Ellen (1813–1905) decided to take pupils. They never regarded their venture as a school, but as a ‘family home', which they conducted till 1891. They began with six girls, including their nieces. Seven was the customary number. She defined her methods of education in her Principles of Education, drawn from Nature and Revelation, and applied to Female Education in the Upper Classes (1865). Good accounts of the life at Ashcliff are given in Miss Whitehead's Recollections of Miss Elizabeth Sewell and her Sisters (1910) and in Mrs. Hugh Fraser's A Diplomatist's Life in Many Lands (1910); both the writers were pupils. Miss Sewell defied the demands of examinations, and made her pupils read widely, and take an interest in the questions of the day . She herself gave admirable lessons in general history. The holidays were often passed abroad, and in 1860 Miss Sewell spent five months in Italy
and Germany
, the outcome of which was a volume entitled Impressions of Rome, Florence, and Turin (1862). She was in Germany again at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War
. On visits to London
and Oxford
she met among others Charlotte Mary Yonge
, Dean Stanley
, and Robert Browning
. She had made Tennyson's
acquaintance in the Isle of Wight in 1857.
In 1866, convinced of the need of better education for girls of the middle class, she founded at Ventnor St. Boniface School, which came to have a building of its own and to be known as St. Boniface Diocesan School. Its many years' prosperity was gradually checked by the High Schools which came into being in 1872. The death of her sister Emma in 1897 caused deep depression, and her brain became gradually clouded. She died at Ashcliff, Bonchurch, on 17 August 1906, and was buried in the churchyard there. A prayer desk was put up in memory of her by pupils and friends in Bonchurch church, where there is also a tablet commemorating Miss Sewell and her two sisters.
According to the Dictionary of National Biography
, Elizabeth Sewell's influence over young people was helped by her dry humour. Despite her firm Anglican convictions, she won the ear of those who held other views. She was an accomplished letter writer.
Between 1847 and 1868 Miss Sewell published, besides those already mentioned, seven tales, of which Ursula (1858) is the most important. She wrote also many devotional works and schoolbooks. Of the former Thoughts for Holy Week (1857) and Preparation for the Holy Communion (1864) have been often reprinted, as late as 1907 and 1910 respectively. Her schoolbooks chiefly deal with history, and two volumes of Historical Selections (1868) were written in collaboration with Charlotte Yonge. Elizabeth Sewell contributed to the ‘Monthly Packet.’
Biography
Elizabeth Missing Sewell was born at High Street, NewportNewport, Isle of Wight
Newport is a civil parish and a county town of the Isle of Wight, an island off the south coast of England. Newport has a population of 23,957 according to the 2001 census...
, Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
, on 19 February 1815, was third daughter in a family of seven sons and five daughters of Thomas Sewell (1775–1842), solicitor, of Newport, and his wife Jane Edwards (1773–1848). She was sister of Henry Sewell
Henry Sewell
Henry Sewell was a prominent 19th century New Zealand politician. He was a notable campaigner for New Zealand self-government, and is generally regarded as having been the country's first Premier, having led the Sewell Ministry in 1856.-Early life:Sewell was born on 7 September 1807 in the town of...
, the first premier of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, of James Edwards Sewell
James Edwards Sewell
James Edwards Sewell , Warden of New College, Oxford, was educated at Winchester College and New College.In 1830, he became a Fellow of New College, and practically passed the rest of his life there, being elected to the headship in 1860 The first University Commission had just released the...
, warden of New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
, of Richard Clarke Sewell
Richard Clarke Sewell
-Life:Sewell, eldest son of Thomas Sewell of Newport, Isle of Wight, brother of James Edwards Sewell, warden of New College, Oxford, Henry Sewell, premier of New Zealand, and of William Sewell, a Church of England clergyman, and the novelist Elizabeth Missing Sewell.He was baptised at Newport on 6...
, reader in law to the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
and the author of a large number of legal works, and of William Sewell
William Sewell
William Sewell , English divine and author, was born at Newport, Isle of Wight, the son of a solicitor.He was educated at Winchester and Merton College, Oxford, was elected a fellow of Exeter College in 1827, and from 1831-1853 was a tutor there. From 1836-1841 he was White's Professor of Moral...
, clergyman and author. Elizabeth was educated first at Miss Crooke's school at Newport, and afterwards at the Misses Aldridge's school, Bath. At the age of fifteen she went home, and joined her sister Ellen, two years her senior, in teaching her younger sisters.
About 1840 her brother William introduced her to some of the leaders of the Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
, among others, Keble
John Keble
John Keble was an English churchman and poet, one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement, and gave his name to Keble College, Oxford.-Early life:...
, Newman, and Henry Wilberforce
Henry William Wilberforce
Henry William Wilberforce , was a Church of England clergyman, a Tractarian, a convert to the Roman Catholic Church, and thereafter a newspaper proprietor, editor and journalist.- Life :...
. Influenced by the religious stir of the period, she published in 1840, in The Cottage Monthly, Stories illustrative of the Lord's Prayer, which appeared in book form in 1843. Like all her early works these stories were represented to have been edited by her brother William.
The family experienced money difficulties through the failure of two local banks, and the father died in 1842 deep in debt. Elizabeth and the other children undertook to pay off the creditors, and set aside each year, from her literary earnings, a certain sum until all was liquidated. Until 1844 the family lived at Pidford Manor
Pidford Manor
Pidford Manor is a manor house in Rookley, on the Isle of Wight, England. It is a five-bay Georgian style home on , accessed from the A3020 roadway....
or Ventnor
Ventnor
Ventnor is a seaside resort and civil parish established in the Victorian era on the south coast of the Isle of Wight, England. It lies underneath St Boniface Down , and is built on steep slopes and cliffs leading down to the sea...
, but in that year Mrs. Sewell and her daughters settled at Sea View, Bonchurch
Bonchurch
Bonchurch is a small village to the East of Ventnor, on the southern part of theIsle of Wight, England. It is situated on The Undercliff, which itself is subject to regular landslips. A large section of the settlement is found in Upper Bonchurch, halfway up St Boniface Down on the main A3055 road...
. Elizabeth bought the house, enlarged it in 1854, and later changed the name to Ashcliff. At Bonchurch, she was an acquaintance of William Adams
William Adams (author)
William Adams , Church of England clergyman and author of Christian allegories popular in Britain in the 19th century.-Biography:...
, another High Church author of religious works.
In 1844, Elizabeth Sewell published Amy Herbert, a tale for girls, embodying Anglican views. It has been many times reprinted and has enjoyed great success both in England and in America. In 1846 there followed two of the three parts of Laneton Parsonage, a tale for children on the practical use of a portion of the Church Catechism
Catechism
A catechism , i.e. to indoctrinate) is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present...
. She interrupted her work on this book to publish Margaret Perceval (1847), in which at the suggestion of her brother William she urged on young people, in view of the current secessions to Rome, the claims of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
. The third part of Laneton Parsonage appeared in 1848.
Her mother died in 1847, and in 1849 Miss Sewell made an expedition to the Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
with her Bonchurch neighbours Captain and Lady Jane Swinburne and their son Algernon
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...
, the poet, then a boy of twelve. They visited Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
at Rydal Mount
Rydal Mount
Rydal Mount is a house near Ambleside in the Lake District. It is best known as the home of the poet William Wordsworth from 1813 to his death in 1850....
. In 1852 she published The Experience of Life, a novel largely based on her own experience and observations; her most notable literary production.
Elizabeth Sewell had now assumed responsibility for the financial affairs of the family, and finding that her writing was not sufficiently lucrative, she and her sister Ellen (1813–1905) decided to take pupils. They never regarded their venture as a school, but as a ‘family home', which they conducted till 1891. They began with six girls, including their nieces. Seven was the customary number. She defined her methods of education in her Principles of Education, drawn from Nature and Revelation, and applied to Female Education in the Upper Classes (1865). Good accounts of the life at Ashcliff are given in Miss Whitehead's Recollections of Miss Elizabeth Sewell and her Sisters (1910) and in Mrs. Hugh Fraser's A Diplomatist's Life in Many Lands (1910); both the writers were pupils. Miss Sewell defied the demands of examinations, and made her pupils read widely, and take an interest in the questions of the day . She herself gave admirable lessons in general history. The holidays were often passed abroad, and in 1860 Miss Sewell spent five months in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the outcome of which was a volume entitled Impressions of Rome, Florence, and Turin (1862). She was in Germany again at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
. On visits to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
she met among others Charlotte Mary Yonge
Charlotte Mary Yonge
Charlotte Mary Yonge , was an English novelist, known for her huge output, now mostly out of print.- Life :Charlotte Mary Yonge was born in Otterbourne, Hampshire, England, on 11 August 1823 to William Yonge and Fanny Yonge, née Bargus. She was educated at home by her father, studying Latin, Greek,...
, Dean Stanley
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley was an English churchman, Dean of Westminster, known as Dean Stanley. His position was that of a Broad Churchman and he was the author of works on Church History.-Life and times:...
, and Robert Browning
Robert Browning
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
. She had made Tennyson's
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....
acquaintance in the Isle of Wight in 1857.
In 1866, convinced of the need of better education for girls of the middle class, she founded at Ventnor St. Boniface School, which came to have a building of its own and to be known as St. Boniface Diocesan School. Its many years' prosperity was gradually checked by the High Schools which came into being in 1872. The death of her sister Emma in 1897 caused deep depression, and her brain became gradually clouded. She died at Ashcliff, Bonchurch, on 17 August 1906, and was buried in the churchyard there. A prayer desk was put up in memory of her by pupils and friends in Bonchurch church, where there is also a tablet commemorating Miss Sewell and her two sisters.
According to the Dictionary of National Biography
Dictionary of National Biography
The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
, Elizabeth Sewell's influence over young people was helped by her dry humour. Despite her firm Anglican convictions, she won the ear of those who held other views. She was an accomplished letter writer.
Between 1847 and 1868 Miss Sewell published, besides those already mentioned, seven tales, of which Ursula (1858) is the most important. She wrote also many devotional works and schoolbooks. Of the former Thoughts for Holy Week (1857) and Preparation for the Holy Communion (1864) have been often reprinted, as late as 1907 and 1910 respectively. Her schoolbooks chiefly deal with history, and two volumes of Historical Selections (1868) were written in collaboration with Charlotte Yonge. Elizabeth Sewell contributed to the ‘Monthly Packet.’
External links
- Works by Elizabeth Sewell at the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
- Elizabeth Missing Sewell, Eleanor L. Sewell, The Autobiography of Elizabeth M. Sewell (1907)