Born in Salem, Massachusetts, he was the son of Stephen Sewall, the clerk of court at the Salem witchcraft trials, and a nephew of Chief Justice Samuel Sewall, who presided at the witchcraft trials.
[1] Although never formally trained as a lawyer or admitted to the bar, he was appointed first as an associate justice, and then as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature, the highest court in the colony.
James Otis, Jr. believed that his father, James Otis, Sr., had been promised the office of chief justice, but Governor Francis Bernard appointed Crown supporter Thomas Hutchinson instead, creating a political rift that would have important implications in the development of the American Revolution.
While Sewall had expressed doubts about the legality of writs of assistance, which were controversial general search warrants, Hutchinson authorized them—over the objections of Otis—in the famous "writs of assistance case" of 1761.
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