He then wrote a second will, leaving the property to his brother John, and placing Elizabeth in a difficult position (ref 4).  Mr Sewell was able to act on behalf of Elizabeth to challenge the settlement and went on to act as trustee for the charity she established (Ref 5).  The case papers survive in the Sewell collection alongside Revd Darkin’s personal papers, which include attempts to establish a new Baptist Chapel at Woodstock. About this one of his correspondents wrote: ‘being well acquainted with the moral and spiritual destitution and the consequent depravity of the inhabitants of the Otmoor Villages…” (Ref 6) This was clearly a man who was very serious about his business, which makes it surprising that his notebooks include, alongside theological notes and plans for sermons, a series of quaint illustrations (Ref 7).

A story from 1859

Very few criminal incidents appear in the papers of the two offices. Two of the fines relate to the behaviour of the people of Cirencester on the same day, that is to say, Election Day in 1859. This was before the secret ballot and the franchise was restricted. John Kibblewhite was entitled to vote on the election of Cirencester’s two MPs. Unfortunately, he was waylaid and invited to an acquaintance’s home for tea and ‘plied with ale, tobacco and tea, the second cup of which was very dark and tasted very queer’ (Ref8).  He later found himself at the King’s Head Inn in Ashton Keynes with no recollection of how he got there. Upon questioning, the landlady admitted that the defendants in the case had provided her with an unlabelled bottle and instructions to add three drops into Kibblewhite’s rum; this substance was believed to have been laudanum. Fortunately, the landlady disobeyed her instructions and he was able to recover sufficiently to vote. 

A more direct approach was taken in the case of Admiral Charles Talbot who was commander of the British Fleet at Cork but arrived by train to vote in Cirencester with a few minutes to spare, bumped into a candidate’s brother at the train station and got into a fly (Ref 9).   The gate into the station was closed and the route out of the station was blocked by a mob who grabbed the horse’s head and tried to turn it around before overturning the carriage. At this point, the flyman began to use his whip on the crowd. The admiral escaped even though the carriage was broken. The defendant in the case appeared at this point, charging through the crowd shouting ‘I’ll look after the admiral’, then held Talbot in a bear hug until the clock struck four and the poll closed.

Central to town life

One of the most striking points of this collection is how firmly embedded within the society of the town the two firms became. Aside from the private clients whom the solicitors advised, they also acted for the Rural District Council (Sewell) and the Urban District Council (Mullings) and on which E.C. Sewell also served. Satires on the Local Board Election describe Joseph Sewell as ‘Jovial Joe’, while more formal records show that Mr John Mullings was the returning officer (Ref 10).  Papers relating to the establishment of various local institutions appear in the collections of both firms, including the Royal Agricultural College, for whom Edward Brownlow Haygarth acted as secretary as well as legal adviser (Ref 11).  Haygarth was also an early trustee of the Bingham Library through whose office some early papers of the Library entered the Sewell Collection (Ref 12).  Mr Mullings acted for Powell’s Charities and so was heavily involved with the running of Cirencester Yellow and Blue Schools (Ref 13).

Value of apprenticeship indentures

A fine example of this type of charitable service may be found in the apprenticeship indentures produced by the Cirencester Society in London. These provide a fascinating overview of trades in the town and warrant further study (Ref 14).  Service was also provided to the inhabitants of Cirencester at the end as Mr Mullings also sat on the committee of the Cirencester Burial Board (Ref 15).  The Sewell office was no less active in the town’s development, as evidenced by the series of railway papers and plans within the Sewell Collection, alongside records of Cirencester Swimming Bath (Ref 16),  book club (Ref 17),  and Moreton-in-Marsh Infant School (the latter via a client). (ref 18)   

Many of the affairs which passed over the solicitors’ desks were very local including a dispute relating to the organist of Cirencester Parish Church in 1837 (Ref 19),  and the construction of Cirencester Corn Hall (Ref 20),  as well as records of many property transactions and wills of local residents (Ref 21).  The people of Cirencester and the surrounding villages are seen in a different light in the surviving records of the National Registration Act (1915) which were administered by the Sewell office. While this is incomplete it provides an insight into the lives of women in the county, and it formed part of a volunteer project to support the Gloucestershire Remembers WW1 project, and so contributing to a fuller understanding of how Cirencester fits into the broader picture of Gloucestershire at war (Ref 22).

E.C. Sewell, Esq – an interest in archaeology 

In summer 1926, a Cirencester solicitor stood over a dead body and with a smile on his lips and a glint in his eye, began to make notes (Ref 23).   This was not E. C. Sewell’s first excavation and, given his long-standing interest in the Roman remains of the town, he was a sensible choice for the luckless workmen who found their work encumbered by a skeleton (Ref 24).  Various Messrs Mullings also seem to have had an interest in archaeology and on occasion assisted as a guide to the archaeology of the town (Ref 25), organised archaeological society meetings (Ref 26)  and, along with a selection of other local solicitors, were subscribers to the new Cirencester Museum when it moved to its present site in Park Street (Ref 27).  

Edward Clare Sewell wrote up these notes for the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society and appears to have corresponded widely on the subject, ultimately becoming honorary curator of the Cirencester Museum, aided and abetted by his wife (Ref 28).  He relinquished his curatorship of the museum when he retired from practice and moved to Dorset in 1932 (Ref 29).