Esther Sewall

Fifth daughter of Judge Edmund Quincy (II) and Elizabeth Wendell his wife.

Jonathan Sewall, Esther and their family resided at Cambridge, Massachusetts on Brattle Street. Jonathan was a graduate of Harvard College and was the last Attorney General of Massachusetts before the American Revolution. The Sewall family home in Cambridge, Massachusetts was wrecked by a revolutionary mob, consisting of some fifty men and boys, on September 1, 1774. Jonathan was in Boston at the time, and a very frightened Esther Sewall struck a bargain with the mob of "patriots". She exchanged the contents of her husband's wine cellar for the mob's dispersal. This terrifying event had a life-long impact on the eight-year-old Jonathan, Jr. who was to become the Chief Justice of Quebec. Jonathan, Esther and their children Jonathan, Jr., Elizabeth and Stephen moved to Boston within a week of the sacking of their Cambridge home; and were forced to flee what was to become the United States in 1775, never to return.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Apr 2 2017, 2:46:32 UTC