author
Rufus King Sewall
1814–1903
A 19th-century Maine writer and historian, he explored the region’s earliest settlements, Native history, and colonial-era voyages with the curiosity of both a local chronicler and a storyteller. His books help preserve an older vision of Maine, especially the Sagadahoc, Sheepscot, and Pemaquid coast.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1814 and living until 1903, Rufus King Sewall was an American author and historian closely associated with Maine. Records of his published work show a lasting interest in the state’s early past, especially the first European voyages, frontier settlements, and the historical life of coastal communities.
Sewall is best known for books including Ancient Dominions of Maine (1859) and Ancient Voyages to the Western Continent (1895). He also wrote Sketches of St. Augustine (1848), showing that his interests extended beyond Maine to travel and place-based history. His writing often gathered local tradition, early colonial material, and regional memory into narratives meant for general readers.
Today, Sewall is remembered mainly through these historical works, which remain accessible in major library collections and digital archives. For listeners interested in early New England, local history, and the way 19th-century writers interpreted America’s past, his work offers a vivid window into another era.