Jonathan Sewell (born Jonathan Sewall; June 6, 1766 – November 11, 1839) was a lawyer, judge, defensive spymaster and political figure in Lower Canada. Sewell utilized the idea of substantive law (shaping how people should act through distilling punishment) over procedural law (outright punishing the guilty for what was committed) 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. In civil suits, Sewell "likely did more than anyone to professionalize the administration of civil justice (in Lower Canada and Montreal) prior to the codification of civil laws in 1866."
Before being highly successful in politics, Sewell proved to be an extremely adept law student, performed as a violinist, and an orchestral composer, who once was selectively placed in "the lead position of an amateur orchestra" by the first member of the British royal family to live in British North America during any term longer than a visit (1791-1800), Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (at the time known as Prince Edward Augustus).
Sewell had attempted to influence the French-Canadian population in Montreal and Quebec (at the time Montreal and the colony of Lower Canada) 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. The latter could be argued as successful as the institution created under the "mind control to Anglicize" guidelines later became McGill University, but the parameters of Canadian and Quebec education changed with the ever-mutable nature of the colonial (the colony would become "united" multiple times with the rest of the British North American colonies and change systems of government until 1867) and federal education guidelines and government recommendations.
It is noted that Sewell's "extreme faith" in his attendance and due to his varying roles within his life caused him to be "easily the most powerful official (in Lower Canada and Montreal) under the Governor in the colony."
Sewell believed that the colony of Lower Canada was in danger of being "lost to England and the Crown" around the early 1800s. Sewell was retained by the Governor of Lower Canada at the time (Sir Craig) to "analyze the political ills of the colony." Sewell believed and mentioned in this report that "the great links of connection between a Government and its subjects are religious, Laws and Language," and he was under the impression that "those links did not exist in the colony." Sewell claimed that the British and the Canadians (used to refer generally to people of British and/or French descent at this time) nurtured a "national antipathy" and that because "no incorporation of two such Extremes (as British and French mannerisms) can ever be effected." Sewell concluded that "the province (of Lower Canada) must be converted to an English Colony, or, it will ultimately be lost to England." Finally, Sewell spoke on why he thought these political ills arose in the colony in the first place: 1) "From the French predilections in the great Mass of the Inhabitants" (a fancy way of saying "to prefer the political traditions that many of the French colonists have within them for political rioting and revolution over loyalism) and 2) "From want of Influence and power in the Executive Government." This is also why Sewell sought out to control institutions that would influence the French population of Lower Canada at the time like the Roman Catholic Church and (when that failed) the education system through the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning (later McGill University) to increase the colonial anglicization of the colony.
Early life He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Jonathan Sewall, the last British attorney general of Massachusetts and Esther Quincy. After a group of patriots attacked the family's residence, the Sewalls moved to Bristol, England; they adopted the spelling Sewell for the family name at this time. He attended Brasenose College, Oxford and then went to New Brunswick in 1785, where he studied law with Ward Chipman. He was named registrar of the Vice Admiralty Court for New Brunswick in 1787. In 1788, he was called to the bar and set up practice.
From 1799-1800 Sewell had conducted updated verses for "God Save the King" which caused somewhat of a sensation in 1800 when they were sung on stage in London by actor Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan, after an assassination attempt on King George III.
Career In 1789, he moved to Quebec City from New Brunswick and qualified as a lawyer there. In 1790, he served as interim attorney general for the province, which after went to James Monk. In 1793, 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. In 1796, he was appointed judge in the Vice-Admiralty Court at Quebec. On September 24 that same year, he married Henrietta, daughter of chief justice William Smith. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada for William-Henry (later Sorel) in 1796. In the house, he was often called on to draft bills, but with regard to government business, he normally played a role secondary to that of leaders of the English party such as John Young and Pierre-Amable de Bonne. He supported the party, except on two controversial issues — the financing of prisons in 1805 and the expulsion of Ezekiel Hart, a Jew — in which his legal opinions obliged him to break rank. He remained in the assembly until 1808.
Some time within 1796-1797, Sewell established an intelligence network within Lower Canada (alongside others like Montreal magistrate and merchant John Richardson) that "would function for more than a decade with relative effectiveness".
Sewell helped introduce the Better Preservation Act of 1797, which allowed the suspension of habeas corpus in cases of suspected treason. In 1797, he prosecuted David McLane for treason, who was executed. He prepared legislation which led to the establishment of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning (later McGill College) in 1801, in an attempt to gain "control over the population" after a failed attempt to do it through the Roman Catholic Church.
In the early 1800s, Sewell crossed "his opinions based in law and his opinions based in (government) policy preference" with legal cases involving the Church of England (the Anglican Church), which was not something that he normally liked to do, as he "considered that the Church of England in the colony lacked in law certain rights essential to its functioning (such as the legal existence of parishes), but Sewell still believed it to be an established church (aka state religion) and took on cases for them. However, when it came to a religion that Sewell was not directly involved with legally or personally (such as the Roman Catholic Church in this case), Sewell "asserted that (government) policy dictated the exercise of a royal supremacy (that Sewell) believed was sanctioned in law, and (Sewell) argued that a supposed lack of legal recognition of the (Roman Catholic) church by British law should be exploited to oblige it to accept royal supremacy." That is evidence of both crossing opinions and hypocrisy on the part of Sewell, as "by 1801 Sewell had come to fear 'with too much certainty' that it (royal supremacy for the Roman Catholic church) had, in fact, been established by the Quebec Act of 1774."
Additionally, 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. 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 (both) immense and highly dangerous (in opposing the government's will)". Sewell also commented that “to direct [the bishop - a man name Denaut] is to direct all,” and that "since the root of the executive (council)’s problems in the colony was (Sewell felt) a lack of sway over the people, (Sewell commented to Milnes the opinion) that the method to the control of the church was the best means to obtain it (the sway of the people)." Finally, Sewell threw in his legal opinion for how they could accomplish this without upset or alarm on behalf of the people recognizing this infiltration as he stated that the "right of nominating the Bishop, the Coadjutor and the Parish priest which (the British government) assumed by the conquest of Canada but has never yet exercised." Later, in 1805, (Head Bishop) Denaut decided to petition the king for legal recognition of his office in the form of letters patent under conditions to be determined by the crown - Sewell saw that as "a tactical victory." However, Sewell was ultimately not successful in that goal as the Bishop died in 1806, and Sewell was not able to stop the Colonial Administrator Thomas Dunn from appointing a man not under Sewell's control (Plessis) as Bishop until after the deceased Bishop's petition for legal recognition from the King of England was decided upon.
When that scheme for control over the population failed, Sewell provided a back up plan that "executive influence over the Canadian population could also be obtained through control of education." Therefore, Sewell (along with Jacob Mountain and Sir Milnes) "worked out the details of a scheme for government-financed and -directed elementary schools in the countryside staffed by loyal Canadian teachers who would instruct habitant children in the English language and the blessings of British rule." Sewell would be the one to draft the legislative bill for this plan which "amended by the assembly to impotence with respect to the education of Canadians, established the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning" in 1801 - this Royal Institution later became McGill University.
In 1808, he was named Chief Justice for Lower Canada and became a member of the Executive Council of Lower Canada. Later in 1808, he was appointed to the Legislative Council and was named speaker in 1809. Sewell supported a union of Upper and Lower Canada. However, in 1822, he opposed a legislative union because of the strong opposition in the province. In 1809, he published rules of practice for the Quebec Court of King's Bench and the Court of Appeals; James Monk published similar rules at Montreal, Lower Canada.
In 1814, the Legislative Assembly voted to impeach Sewell and Monk on the grounds that some of their rules of practice were actually legislation, the responsibility of the legislature. Sewell successfully defended himself against the charges in London. On the bench, he endorsed the use of civil law based on French traditions and criminal law modelled after English norms. Sewell resigned from the Executive Council in 1830 after the assembly requested that judges to be excluded from serving on the council. He resigned from his position of chief justice in 1838 for ill health.
Sewell was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1830.
He died on November 11, 1839, in Quebec City. His residence, at 87 Saint-Louis Street, Quebec City, was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1969.