Anna Sewell old Lammas Quaker meeting house. Anna Sewell Anna Sewell (; 30 March 1820 – 25 April 1878) was an English novelist. She is well known as the author of the 1877 novel "Black Beauty," one of the top ten best selling novels for children ever created. Sewell was born on 30 March 1820 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, into a devoutly Quaker family. Her father was Isaac Phillip Sewell (1793–1879), and her mother, Mary Wright Sewell (1798–1884), was a successful author of children's books. She had one sibling, a younger brother named Philip. The children were largely educated at home by
Anna Sewell Sewell assisted her mother, for example, to establish a working men's club, and worked with her on temperance and abolitionist campaigns. In 1845, the family moved to Lancing, and Sewell's health began to deteriorate. She travelled to Europe the following year to seek treatments. On her return, the family continued to relocate – to Wick in 1858, and to Bath in 1864. In 1866, Philip's wife died, leaving him with seven young children to care for, and the following year the Sewells moved to Old Catton, a village outside the city of Norwich in Norfolk, to support him. While living