Bought several thousand acres of land adjoining Lord Delamere's farm at Njoro where he grew wheat and later went in for mixed farming. Caused a stir in the district by employing Chinese servants, but they proved very efficient and loyal.

Midday Sun - 'The most opulent of our guests was an American, Billy Sewell, who had commissioned Kenya's leading architect, Jan Hoogterp, to build him a palace near Njoro. And a palace it was by local standards, in neo-Spanish style, with patios and marble-tiled verandas and a red-tiled roof and beautiful furniture, mainly French, kept beautifully polished, and Persian rugs strewn about. Billy loved his furniture and feared that the dry atmosphere of the highlands would warp it, and that it needed periodic refreshment; so once a year - or so the story went - he sent it to the Coast to be restored to health by the high humidity.

Billy had spent part of his early life in China, and had brought with him to Njoro two Chinese servants. When we arrived for dinner they greeted us clad in handsome silk kimonos, and Billy affected one too. He had something of a Chinese look himself, being shortish with a wrinkled face and slightly slanting eyes, and at first glance we were in danger of confusing our host with his manservants. The meals matched up to the very highest gastronomic standards, in marked contrast to our usual tough mutton or scrawny fowl. I remember, even 50 years later, a pudding heaped high with threads of spun sugar, each thread as fine as a spider's web, that shone and glittered in the light of the silver candelabra like a great golden fairy-tale wig. It seemed a crime to plunge a spoon into that crown of filaments and destroy it.

Billy Sewell was a Bostonian, very precise, and with a reputation for stinginess spread, I think, mainly by his wife who, citing that as one of her reasons, had left him for a handsome rancher with a less luxurious way of life. Billy's earlier years had been much less epicurean. He had been one of three partners in a most adventurous little enterprise called the Boma Trading Company, whose object had been to open up trade between Abyssinia and the EA Protectorate across the 350 miles or so of the desert that was to become the NFD. This was a bold idea in 1907 when the company was formed with £1000 of capital, and with Winston Churchill's blessing. The moving spirit was Captain Jack Riddell, who had done some surveying in this dangerous borderland not as yet in the grip of Pax Britannica, and totally without roads, towns or even villages, where wells and water-holes were few and far between. ............... (more) Other partners were Jack Riddell and Freddie Ward.       

KFA - Like most of the well-to-do settlers of those days - came to hunt and stayed to farm. Before Billy Sewell, a Bostonian educated at Harvard, decided to settle at Njoro he visited many countries to hunt, shoot, fish and generally exterminate animals, as rich young bachelors did in those days. He was famous for his Chinese servants, who kept their coffins on his farm in case they should die away from their ancestors; but they outlived their master, accumulated fortunes and returned, their coffins empty - or perhaps full, but not of corpses - to their own land. Mr Sewell won first place for wheat at the 1913 Nakuru Show.  

KFA - Original shareholder in Unga Ltd 1908.

KFA - Present at first meeting of Wheat Growers' Association - June 1911

Playne - The Hon. R.B. Cole - ' ........ Wheat is grown on the plains at Njoro farm, and it is hoped to have some 5000 acres in shortly. (Since this work was planned Mr Cole has sold these plain lands to Mr W.G. Sewall). ......…

Playne - Mr Sewall [sic] hails from Boston, USA, where he was born. His Puritan ancestors went out to America in 1635, and the family turned its attention to banking. He is a BA (Harvard) 1907, FAGS, FRGS and has written several articles on shooting, and delivered lectures before the American Geographical Societies, and other societies interested in travel. He was at one time connected with the Diplomatic Service of the United States. Mr Sewall has shot and fished in and about the following countries: Labrador, Newfoundland, British Columbia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Alaska, Western plains of USA, Ceylon, India, Burma, China, Japan, overland from Djibouti, and through Abyssinia, British and Italian Somaliland to BEA, Uganda, the Congo, German East Africa, and North West Rhodesia. He has shot for 3 years in and about BEA, and each time he has visited it he likes it the more, and has finally decided to settle. He has taken 13,000 acres of land adjoining Lord Delamere, at Njoro, and his intention is to grow wheat. Mr Sewall hopes soon to have tenants growing wheat on a co-operative system. For this purpose he has already had 2 applications.

Land - W.G. Sewall [sic] leased 10000 acres at Njoro

Red 22 - W.G. Sewall, Njoro

Into Africa - Riddell formed a raffish outfit with two other men for the risky but profitable business of running ponies down from Abyssinia. '1908 witnessed the arrival, at Diredawa Railhead of three accredited representatives of the Boma Trading Company, Major H.F. Ward, Mr W. Sewall, and [Jack Riddell]'. Boma turned Riddell's individual management of safaris into part of a larger business. 'Captain Riddell, MVO, an experienced sportsman …… has charge of [this line of business]'. ……….. For much of Boma's short life, however, Riddell preferred running ponies while Sewall and Ward set up outposts at Moyale, Marsabit, and Dolo

Land - 1911 - W.G. Sewall - Grazing and agricultural, 4560 acres - Naivasha District - 20/11/07 - Under Occupation Licence for 2 to 99 years from 1/8/10 - Registered 26/1/11

Pioneers - Nakuru - Nellie Grant - In another direction a rich American from Boston, Billy Sewall, had a large house built in the Californian style by the fashionable architect of the day, a pupil of Sir Herbert Baker's called Hoogterp. With its patios and large verandahs, at 7000 feet it proved bitterly cold. But the house, full of beautiful furniture, was impeccably maintained by two Chinese servants Billy had installed. They seemed to speak no English, had no families with them and were wonderful servants. All three of them, Billy and the two Chinese, dressed for dinner in rich silk kimonos, and looked rather alike, so sometimes it was hard to know who was greeting you on arrival. The Chinese had brought their coffins with them in order to be sent back to China should they die abroad.

Racing - Owner of 'Modesty' by Gentleman of France-Cameo Ring - 1929 - Winner of The Spey Royal Cup 1929

Racing - Owner of 'Miss Cerval' by 'Cerval' - 'Miss Miss' - 1929

Racing - Owner of 'Beau Geste' - 1930

Racing - Owner of 'Cambella' - Winner of the Kenya Derby 1924, Winner of the Produce Stakes in 1923

Rift Valley - Member of the Rift Valley Sports Club - Jan 1929 - Elected - 1914 - W.G. Sewall

Red Book 1912 - W.G. Sewall - Naivasha

Gazette - 3/12/1919 - Register of Voters - Rift Valley Area - W.G. Sewall - Farmer - Njoro