Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Sewell, Elizabeth Missing
SEWELL, ELIZABETH MISSING (1815–1906), author, born at High Street, Newport, Isle of Wight, on 19 Feb. 1815, was third daughter in a family of seven sons and five daughters of Thomas Sewell (1775-1842), soficitor, of Newport, and his wife Jane Edwards (1773–1848). She was sister of Henry Sewell [q. v.], of James Edwards Sewell [q. v. Suppl. II], warden of New College, Oxford, of Richard Clarke Sewell [q. v.], and of William Sewell (1804-1874) [q. v.]. Elizabeth was educated first at Miss Crooke's school at Newport, and afterwards at the Misses Aldridge's school, Bath. At the age of fifteen she went home, and joined her sister Ellen, two years her senior, in teaching her younger sisters.
About 1840 her brother William introduced her to some of the leaders of the Oxford movement, among others, Keble, Newman, and Henry Wilberforce. Influenced by the religious stir of the period, she published in 1840, in 'The Cottage Monthly,' 'Stories illustrative of the Lord's Prayer,' which appeared in book form in 1843. Like all her early works these 'stories' were represented to have been edited by her brother William.
The family experienced money difficulties through the failure of two local banks, and the father died in 1842 deep in debt. Elizabeth and the other children undertook to pay off the creditors, and set aside each year, from her literary earnings, a certain sum until all was liquidated. Until 1844 the family lived at Pidford or Ventnor, but in that year Mrs. Sewell and her daughters settled at Sea View, Bonchurch. Elizabeth bought the house, enlarged it in 1854, and later changed the name to Ashcliff.
In 1844 Miss Sewell published 'Amy Herbert,' a well written tale for girls, embodying Anglican views. It has been many times reprinted and has enjoyed great success both in England and in America. In 1846 there followed two of the three parts of 'Laneton Parsonage,' a tale for children on the practical use of a portion of the Church Catechism. She interrupted her work on this book to pubhsh 'Margaret Perceval' (1847), in which at the suggestion of her brother William she urged on young people, in view of the current secessions to Rome, the claims of the English church. The third part of 'Laneton Parsonage' appeared in 1848.
Her mother died in 1847, and in 1849 Miss Sewell made an expedition to the Lakes with her Bonchurch neighbours Captain and Lady Jane Swinburne and their son Algernon, the poet, then a boy of twelve. They visited Wordsworth at Rydal Mount. In 1852 she published 'The Experience of Life,' a novel largely based on her own experience and observations; her most notable literary production. Miss Sewell had now assumed responsibility for the financial affairs of the family, and finding that her writing was not sufficiently lucrative, she and her sister Ellen (1813-1905) decided to take pupils. They never regarded their venture as a school, but as a 'family home,' which they conducted till 1891. They began with six girls, including their nieces. Seven was the customary number. Miss Sewell defined her methods of education in her 'Principles of Education, drawn from Nature and Revelation, and applied to Female Education in the Upper Classes' (1865). Good accounts of the life at Ashcliff are given in Miss Whitehead's 'Recollections of Miss Elizabeth Sewell and her Sisters' (1910, pp. 15-26 and pp. 33-42) and in Mrs. Hugh Fraser's 'A Diplomatist's Life in Many Lands' (1910, pp. 220-32); both the writers were pupils. Miss Sewell defied the demands of examinations, and made her pupils read widely, and take an interest in the questions of the day (cf. her article 'The Reign of Pedantry in Girls' Schools' in Nineteenth Century, 1888). She herself gave admirable lessons in general history. The holidays were often passed abroad, and in 1860 Miss Sewell spent five months in Italy and Germany, the outcome of which was a volume entitled 'Impressions of Rome, Florence, and Turin' (1862). She was in Germany again at the outbreak of the war of 1870 (cf. Autobiography, pp. 185-9). On visits to London and Oxford she met among others Miss Yonge, Dean Stanley, and Robert Browning. She had made Tennyson's acquaintance in the Isle of Wight in 1857.
In 1866 Miss Sewell, convinced of the need of better education for girls of the middle class, founded at Ventnor St. Boniface School, which came to have a building of its own and to be known as St. Boniface Diocesan School. Its many years' prosperity was gradually checked by the High Schools which came into being in 1872. The death of her sister Emma in 1897 caused deep depression, and her brain became gradually clouded. She died at Ashcliff, Bonchurch, on 17 Aug. 1906, and was buried in the churchyard there. A prayer desk was put up in memory of her by pupils and friends in Bonchurch church, where there is also a tablet commemorating Miss Sewell and her two sisters. Miss Sewell's influence over young people was helped by her dry humour. Despite her firm Anglican convictions, she won the ear of those who held other views. She was an accomplished letter writer. Of small stature, with well-marked features, and fine brown eyes, she was painted by Miss Porter in 1890. That portrait and some sketches of her by her sister Ellen are in possession of Miss Eleanor Sewell at Ashcliff. Between 1847 and 1868 Miss Sewell published, besides those already mentioned, seven tales, of which 'Ursula' (1858) is the most important. She wrote also many devotional works and schoolbooks. Of the former 'Thoughts for Holy Week' (1857) and 'Preparation for the Holy Communion' (1864) have been often reprinted, as late as 1907 and 1910 respectively. Her schoolbooks chiefly deal with history, and two volumes of 'Historical Selections' (1868) were written in collaboration with Miss Yonge. Miss Sewell contributed to the 'Monthly Packet.' Her autobiography appeared in 1907.
[The Times, 18 Aug. 1906; Autobiography of Elizabeth M. Sewell, ed. Eleanor L. Sewell, 1907; C. M. W[hitehead]'s Recollections of Miss Elizabeth Sewell and her Sisters, 1910; Mountague Charles Owen's The Sewells of the Isle of Wight; Brit. Mus. Cat.; private information.]