Herbert F. Seawell

Herbert Floyd Seawell (August 8, 1869 – February 15, 1949) was a North Carolina lawyer and politician who served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina from 1910 to 1914, and judge of the United States Board of Tax Appeals (later the United States Tax Court) from 1929 to 1936.

Early life, education, and career Born in Duplin County, North Carolina, to Dr. Virgil Newton Seawell and Ella Croom, Seawell attended Wake Forest College and received his law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law. He gained admission to the bar in the state in 1892, and entered the private practice of law in Carthage, North Carolina. Seawell was ruled by a three-to-two vote of the Board of State Canvassers to have lost the contest, in part because a large number of ballots were returned for "Herbert L. Seawell", and were discounted. A court voided the election outcome, but Seawell declined a temporary appointment to the position offered by Governor Elias Carr, preferring to seek a judgment of entitlement to hold the office for the full four-year term. Seawell ultimately prevailed, holding the office from 1894 to 1898. Seawell served in this office until 1914, and afterwards was a delegate to the 1916 Republican National Convention.

In July 1929, North Carolina Republican leaders put Seawell and Irvin B. Tucker forward to President Herbert Hoover as candidates for an open seat on the United States Court of Claims, but neither was selected for the seat. Hoover then nominated Seawell for a seat on the United States Board of Tax Appeals in Washington, D.C., to which Seawell was confirmed, serving from 1929 to 1936.

Seawell retired from the practice of law around 1946 due to illness, and died at his home in Carthage in 1949, at the age of 79.