Biography

Samuel Sweezey Seward was born on December 5, 1768 to John Seward and Mary Seward (née Jennings) in Newfoundland, NJ. He was the second youngest of either nine or ten children. His confirmed siblings were Polly Edsall (née Seward), Obadiah Seward, Nancy Seward (who died as a child), Elisabeth Swayze (née Seward), Hester Seward (who died in infancy), John Seward, and Israel Seward.

 

There is discrepancy whether Samuel’s parents had one or two more daughters between 1756 and 1759. Sources agree Samuel’s parents had at least one daughter at that time who died young. There is also confusion regarding the name Helia, which might have been the name of that deceased daughter or the suspected other sister.

 

Samuel married Mary Jennings on June 2, 1792. The couple had six children, Benjamin Jennings Seward, Elisabeth Seward (who died as a child), Edwin Polydore Seward, William Henry Seward, Louisa Cornelia Canfield (née Seward), and George Washington Seward.

 

Around the 1800’s, Samuel and his wife settled in Florida, NY where he practiced medicine and established a mercantile business. In 1804, Samuel served as a member of the New York State Assembly and in 1815, he became an Orange County Court judge, a position he held for seventeen years. Samuel established the S. S. Seward Institute, a free public school in Florida in 1846. He died three years later on August 24, 1849 in Florida.