Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Seawell, Molly Elliot

SEAWELL, Molly Elliot (sow-ell), author, b. in Gloucester county, Va., 23 Oct., 1860. Her family settled at Seawell's Point, near Old Point Comfort, in 1627, and five years later established themselves in Gloucester county. Gen. Washington Seawell (q. v.) is a member of the family. She was educated chiefly at home, where she had the use of an old-fashioned library, and early adopted literature as a profession. Miss Seawell's first achievement was in 1890, when she was successful in gaining a prize for a short story, winning, five years later, three thousand dollars for a New York “Herald” prize story. Her publications are “Midshipman Paulding” (New York, 1891); “Paul Jones” (1892); “Decatur and Somers” (1893); “The Berkeleys and their Neighbors” (1894); “A Strange, Sad Comedy” (1895); “The Sprightly Romance of Marsac” (1896); “The History of Lady Betty Stair's Suitors” (1897); “A Virginian Cavalier,” “The Rock of the Line” (1898); and “The Loves of the Lady Arabella” (1899).