31 Facts About Jonathan Sewell

Sewell utilized the idea of substantive law over procedural law as much as possible when it came to delegating punishment for criminal cases specifically; Sewell saw the certainty of punishment over the seriousness of punishment as enough to alter the intentions of non-violent or non-hardened criminals.

Jonathan Sewell had attempted to influence the French-Canadian population in Montreal and Quebec in the early 1800s through both a failed attack on the legitimacy of the Roman Catholic Church in the colony, and through control of the educational system the colonial government was responsible with delegating.

Jonathan Sewell believed that the colony of Lower Canada was in danger of being "lost to England and the Crown" around the early 1800s.

Jonathan Sewell was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Jonathan Sewall, the last British attorney general of Massachusetts and Esther Quincy.

Jonathan Sewell attended Brasenose College, Oxford and then went to New Brunswick in 1785, where he studied law with Ward Chipman.

Jonathan Sewell was named registrar of the Vice Admiralty Court for New Brunswick in 1787.

In 1793, Jonathan Sewell was named solicitor general and inspector of the king's domain and, in 1795, he became attorney general and advocate general in Lower Canada.

Jonathan Sewell was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada for William-Henry in 1796.

Jonathan Sewell helped introduce the Better Preservation Act of 1797, which allowed the suspension of habeas corpus in cases of suspected treason.

Jonathan Sewell prepared legislation which led to the establishment of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning in 1801, in an attempt to gain "control over the population" after a failed attempt to do it through the Roman Catholic Church.

Additionally, Jonathan Sewell attempted to infiltrate the Roman Catholic Church with centralized employees and leaders loyal to the Executive Council to control their "ignorant" and "superstitious" followers.

Jonathan Sewell expressed to Colonial Administrator, Lieutenant Governor Sir Robert Shore Milnes that "given the independence of the church and the ignorance and superstition of the population, the influence exerted over the inhabitants by the clergy and the bishop was immense and highly dangerous ".

Jonathan Sewell resigned from the Executive Council in 1830 after the assembly requested that judges to be excluded from serving on the council.

Jonathan Sewell resigned from his position of chief justice in 1838 for ill health.

Jonathan Sewell was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1830.

Jonathan Sewell died on November 11,1839, in Quebec City.

When it came to civil suits Jonathan Sewell tended to favour the Crown, especially if government political interests were involved.

Jonathan Sewell led an amateur orchestra and performed violin in a quartet at Quebec City and opened the Theatre Royal there in 1832.

Jonathan Sewell helped found the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec and served as its president from 1830 to 1831.

Jonathan Sewell was a member of the Barons' Club and an active shareholder in the Union Company of Quebec.

Some time in the 1820s "for many years", Jonathan Sewell presided over the Quebec branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and was a leading member within the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity.

Jonathan Sewell had offered to build a new chapel in 1824 as the cathedral was "too small" on the condition that he and his heirs could name the incumbent.

Bishop Jacob Mountain accepter the offer and Jonathan Sewell named his son Edmund Willoughby as incumbent.

Jonathan Sewell then purchased a lot on Rue Saint-Stanislas and constructed a building there based on a model of Ranelagh Chapel in London, called Holy Trinity Chapel.

Jonathan Sewell spent more than 3500 Pound Sterling on the building and it opened in November of 1825.

Jonathan Sewell promoted the theatre and tried to get the Catholic Bishop in Lower Canada, Joseph-Octave Plessis, to repeal the prohibition on theatre for Catholics - Jonathan Sewell's efforts were not successful and could possibly have been an attempt at anglicizing the French Canadian population because of his previous attempts to control the Catholic Church in Canada by attacking its legitimacy in legislature.

In October 1818, Jonathan Sewell was appointed to the board of the Royal Institution and headed a meeting of the managers of the Quebec Dispensary.

In 1819, Jonathan Sewell donated "a fine imported cow and her bull calf" to the Agriculture Society, as it is noted that Jonathan Sewell was "long a subscriber" to the society.

Jonathan Sewell's brother Stephen was a member of the Legislative Assembly and served as solicitor general for Lower Canada.

Jonathan Sewell was responsible with "helping to introduce Palladian architecture into Quebec, then popular in Britain and the US" when he moved his family into a mansion of that style located inside the Porte Saint-Louis in 1805.

Jonathan Sewell believed, following the orthodoxy of the time, that "any fundamentally dishonest or immoral act was a misdemeanor, even though not covered by law," and that serious crime was "on the rise" in Canada due to those acts, and to places like coffee houses, taverns, gambling dens, and brothels.