Sewell, George
, an English poet and physician,
was born at Windsor, where his father was treasurer and
chapter-clerk of the college; received his education at
Eton-school, and Peter-house, Cambridge; where having
taken the degree of B. M. he went to Leyden, to study
under Boerhaave, and on his return practised physic in
the metropolis with reputation. In the latter part of his
life he retired to Hampstead, where he pursued his profession with some degree of success, till three other physicians came to settle at the same place, when his practice
so far declined as to yield him very little advantage. He
kept no house, but was a boarder. He was much esteemed,
and so frequently invited to the tables of gentlemen in the
neighbourhood., that he had seldom occasion to dine at
home. He died Feb. 8, 1726; and was supposed to be
very indigent at the time of his death, as he was interred
on the 12th of the same month in the meanest manner, his
coffin being little better than those allotted by the parish
to the poor who are buried from the workhouse; neither
did a single friend or relation attend him to the grave. No
memorial was placed over his remains; but they lie just
under a hollow tree which formed a part of a hedge-row
that was once the boundary of the church-yard. He was
greatly esteemed for his amiable disposition; and is represented by some writers as a Tory in his political principles,
but of this there is no other proof given than his writing
some pamphlets against bishop Burnet. It is certain, that
a true spirit of liberty breathes in many of his works; and
he expresses, on many occasions, a warm attachment to
the Hanover succession. Besides seven controversial
pamphlets, he wrote, 1. “The Life of John Philips.” 2,
“A vindication of the English Stage, exemplified in the
Cato of Mr. Addison, 1716;” 3. “Sir Walter Raleigh, a
tragedy, acted at Lincoln’s-inn-fields, 1719;” and part
of another play, intended to be called “Richard the First,”
the fragments of which were published in 1718, with “Two
moral Essays on the Government of the Thoughts, and on
Death,” and a collection of “Several poems published in
his life-time^” Dr. Sewell was an occasional assistant
to Harrison in the fifth volume of “The Tatler; was a,
Cibber's Lives; Nichols’s Poems,