Dr. Thomas Sewall and the Corpses of Chebacco Parish

About the Book

For the last two centuries, Dr. Thomas Sewall has been miscast as a grave robber and body snatcher, after buried corpses vanished in 1818 from Chebacco Parish, Ipswich, Essex County, Massachusetts. Ever since, writers have repeated that falsehood despite his never having been charged or convicted of that crime by any legal authority. In fact, no evidence exists to show that Sewall ever robbed graves of their corpses anywhere at any time. Yet he did confess to possession of human anatomical material linked to two corpses removed from their graves by elusive unknown actors. This book provides an explanation for Sewall’s possession of that human anatomical material. In Dr. Thomas Sewall and the Corpses of Chebacco Parish, physician author Margaret R. O’Leary examines the circumstances that led to the exit of that remarkable physician from a provincial parish in Massachusetts, where he had served residents for almost a decade. Even the best among them did not recognize Sewall’s talent or promise of future eminence.

About the Author

Margaret R. O’Leary is an emergency medicine physician and the accomplished author of many professional papers and non-fiction books. She received her MD from George Washington University, founded the Suburban Emergency Management Project, and edited its award-winning book The First Seventy-Two Hours: A Community Approach to Disaster Preparedness.