Talk:Henry Sewell

Form of English
The article uses a mixture of American and British English, with more American than British. As the article's author is from NZ, that's a bit surprising. What we should do is settle on one form or the other as per ENGVAR. The options obviously are:
 * replace AE with BE, which to me would seem appropriate, as the subject of the article is a New Zealander originally from Britain and this would conform with WP:TIES, or
 * replace BE with AE, which might have been the original author's intention and would in that case conform with WP:RETAIN.

I'll post a message on the original author's talk page (although it says there that he is "more or less away from WP at the moment"), but in the meantime, I'm interested in other editors' views. Thanks!  Schwede 66  08:07, 1 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Have now replaced AE with BE.  Schwede 66  17:56, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Colonial Secretary = Premier
Much of the article is unsourced. One passage says: "He [Sewell] was appointed to the Executive Council on 18 April 1856, and became Colonial Secretary (considered to be the equivalent of Prime Minister) on 7 May." I'm afraid that's not correct. The two roles were quite separate and different. It's just that Sewell was both Premier and Colonial Secretary. The Colonial Secretary article explains what that role was. Maybe the wording in the DNZB bio didn't help the original crafter of those words: "In the second Parliament in 1856 Sewell (as sole survivor of the 'mixed ministry') was summoned at the age of 48 to form a government. He joined the Executive Council on 18 April 1856 and took office as colonial secretary on 7 May. But he was premier for only two weeks." I can see how this could give the impression that the roles are one and the same. Either way, I'll tidy it up and along the way, I shall provide some inline referencing.

Oh, and if you don't believe me, then John Hall (New Zealand politician) was the second Premier applying the above logic. But we all know that it was William Fox (New Zealand).  Schwede 66  05:00, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

Seeking to establish relations
1.  R. B. Seymour Sewell is the nephew of Henry Sewell. Link below is R.B.'s Wiki page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._B._Seymour_Sewell

The Wikipage text establishes his kinship:

"Sewell was born in 1880 in Leamington, Warwickshire. His father was the reverend Arthur Sewell, and his mother was Mary Lee (née Waring).[4] His grandfather was Robert Burleigh Sewell (1810–1872), who had a number of notable siblings, including Richard Clarke Sewell (1803–1864), William Sewell (1804–1874), Henry Sewell (1807–1879), James Edwards Sewell (1810–1903), and Elizabeth Missing Sewell (1815–1906).[5]"

2. Also, Elizabeth Sewell, the poet and writer, is Henry Sewell's great-granddaughter, R.B. Sewell's second daughter... Her Wiki page establishes her relation to her father:

Elizabeth Sewell (writer)

"Furthermore, Elizabeth Sewell (the later) is considered to have written the classic work in Nonsense Literature: The Field of Nonsense    as well as have written the equally classic work,  The Orphic Voice  . Below is but one reference bestowing the classic credential on the former work:

by PJ Lucas · 1991 — the author of the classic book on Nonsense, The Field of Nonsense. (London, 1952), considers "Nonsense Verse and the Child", in which quoting Lady Macbeth Tripfornow (talk) 22:57, 22 April 2024 (UTC)


 * You need reliable sources. Note that Wikipedia in itself isn't a reliable source. If you have reliable sources, feel free to work this into the article.  Schwede 66  23:58, 22 April 2024 (UTC)