George Sewell

George Sewell (died 1726) was an English physician and poet, known as a controversialist and hack writer. Life Born at Windsor, George Sewell was the eldest son of John Sewell, treasurer and chapter-clerk to the dean and canons of Windsor. He was educated at Eton College: his poem of The Favorite, a simile embodies reminiscences of his Eton life. He then went to Peterhouse, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. in 1709; for a time he studied medicine under Hermann Boerhaave at the University of Leiden, and about July 1725 he took the degree of M.D. at the University of Edinburgh. Sewell practised at first in London, but little success. He then moved to Hampstead, but encountered competition from other physicians. Under financial pressure he became a booksellers' hack, publishing numerous poems, translations, and political and other pamphlets. Sewell died of consumption at Hampstead, in poverty, on 8 February 1726. On 12 February he was given a pauper's funeral.