Life

He was son of Jacob Williamson Sewel, a free citizen and surgeon of Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

 where he was born. His paternal grandfather, William Sewel, a Brownist

Brownist

The Brownists were English Dissenters and followers of Robert Browne who was born at Tolethorpe Hall in Rutland, England in about 1550.-Origins:...

 of Kidderminster

Kidderminster

Kidderminster is a town, in the Wyre Forest district of Worcestershire, England. It is located approximately seventeen miles south-west of Birmingham city centre and approximately fifteen miles north of Worcester city centre. The 2001 census recorded a population of 55,182 in the town...

, emigrated from England to escape religious persecution, and married a native of Utrecht. His mother, Judith Zinspenning, daughter of a German Catholic, afterwards a Baptist, joined the Quakers in 1657, after hearing William Ames

William Ames (Quaker)

-Life:He joined the Quakers in 1655 at Dublin, having been a Baptist minister in Somerset, and afterwards an officer in the parliamentary army. He settled at Amsterdam in 1657, where he was tolerated, though once confined for a short time as a lunatic. He travelled in Germany, and was favourably...

. She became an eloquent minister, visited England in 1663, was author of 'A Serious Reproof to the Flemish Baptists,' 1660, a 'Book of Proverbs’ (translated into English by William Caton

William Caton

William Caton was an early English Quaker itinerant preacher and writer.-Life:He was probably a near relation of Margaret Fell. At the age of fourteen he was taken by his father to Swarthmoor, near Ulverston, to be educated by a kinsman who was then tutor to the Fell family; the boy was then sent...

, London, 1663), ‘An Epistle, and other short books. She died at Amsterdam on 10 September 1664, aged 34. Her husband predeceased her.

Sewel was brought up by an uncle. At eight he was fairly proficient in Latin, but was soon apprenticed to a weaver, and pursued his study of languages while employed. At fourteen he visited his mother's friends in England. Returning to Holland after a sojourn of ten months, he obtained work as a translator, contributed regularly to the Amsterdam Courant and other papers, wrote verses, and conducted a periodical. In spite of an invitation from William Penn

William Penn

William Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful...

 to become master of the quaker school opened at Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

, Sewel remained in Amsterdam until his death on 13 March 1720. He was married, with a family.

Works

Sewel spent twenty-five years on his major work, ‘The History of the Rise, Increase, and Progress of the Christian People called Quakers.’ It was first published in Dutch, ‘Histori van de Opkompste, Aanwas en Voortgang der Christenen bekend by den naam van Quakers,’ Amsterdam, 1717 (another edition, 1742). The English edition (London, 1722), dedicated to George I, was largely undertaken to correct the misrepresentations of ‘Historia Quakeriana’ (Amsterdam, 1695; English translation, London, 1696, by Gerard Croese, a German, to whom Sewel had himself given many letters and narratives from England). Sewel's work was based on a mass of correspondence, George Fox

George Fox

George Fox was an English Dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends.The son of a Leicestershire weaver, Fox lived in a time of great social upheaval and war...

's ‘Journal,’ and, for the public history, Lord Clarendon's ‘Rebellion’ and Edmund Ludlow

Edmund Ludlow

Edmund Ludlow was an English parliamentarian, best known for his involvement in the execution of Charles I, and for his Memoirs, which were published posthumously in a rewritten form and which have become a major source for historians of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. After service in the English...

's ‘Memoirs.’ It remains a classical authority.

Sewel's other works are:

• ‘A Large Dictionary of English-Dutch,’ 2 pts. Amsterdam, 1691; 5th ed. 1754; 6th, 1766.
• ‘A Compendious Guide to the Low Dutch Language’ (English and Dutch), Amsterdam, 1700; other editions, 1725, 1740, 1747, 1760–86.

These two were reprinted together, 1708. It was reissued in edited form by S. H. Wilcocke, London, 1798.

• ‘Oratio in Luxum’ (Latin and Dutch), 1715.

Sewel edited the ‘Grammaire Hollandoise of Philippe la Grue,’ 1744, 3rd ed. 1763, 4th, 1785, and translated the following into Dutch from the English:

• Robert Boyle
  Robert Boyle
  Robert Boyle FRS was a 17th century natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor, also noted for his writings in theology. He has been variously described as English, Irish, or Anglo-Irish, his father having come to Ireland from England during the time of the English plantations of...
  
  , ‘Disquisition about the final causes of Natural Things,’ 1688;
• William Penn, ‘No Cross, no Crown,’ 1687, and his ‘Good Advice to the Church of England,’ &c.;
• Gilbert Burnet
  Gilbert Burnet
  Gilbert Burnet was a Scottish theologian and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was respected as a cleric, a preacher, and an academic, as well as a writer and historian...
  
  , ‘Short History of the Reformation of the Church of England,’ 1690;
• Steven Crisp, ‘Way to the Kingdom of Heaven,’ 1695;
• William Dampier, ‘New Voyage round the World,’ The Hague, 1698–1700 (Leyden, 1707, 1737), the rare and curious account of shipwreck, entitled ‘God's Protecting Providence,’ &c., Philadelphia, 1699 (2nd edit. London, 1700; 7th edit. 1790), of Jonathan Dickinson (d. 1722).

From the Latin:

• Basil Kennett, ‘Romæ Antiquæ Notitia,’ published in Seine's ‘Beschryving van Oud en Niew Rome,’ 1704;
• and the works of Josephus, 1722.

From French:

• David Martin, ‘Histoire du Vieux et du Nouveau Testament,’ 1700;

and from the German:

• Gottfried Arnold, ‘Wahre Abbildung der ersten Christen,’ 1700; another edition, 1703.

He also translated into Dutch Matthew Prior

Matthew Prior

Matthew Prior was an English poet and diplomat.Prior was the son of a Nonconformist joiner at Wimborne Minster, East Dorset. His father moved to London, and sent him to Westminster School, under Dr. Busby. On his father's death, he left school, and was cared for by his uncle, a vintner in Channel...

's ‘Ode on King William's Arrival in Holland,’ 1695.