Samuel Russell (1733-~1801)

Today is the 283rd  anniversary of the birth of Samuel Russell. Born on 17 May 1733, he was already the third generation of his family to be born in America. Yes, our family definitely has some deep roots here. Samuel’s great-grandfather had been an immigrant from England as part of the Great Migration and his grandfather had moved the family from Massachusetts to Connecticut.

Samuel Russell was the second child of Jonathan Russell and Mehitable Wolcott. He had seven siblings, namely: Elijah, Martha, Daniel, Abigail, Soloman, Elisha, and Sarah. He was baptized on 20 May 1733 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut.

When he was 22, Samuel married Esther Wolcott, daughter of Joshua Wolcott and Esther Belden, in 1756 in Canaan, Litchfield, Connecticut.

Samuel Russell and Esther Wolcott had the following children:

1. Elizabeth Russell was born on 27 Oct 1757 in Litchfield, Litchfield, Connecticut.
2. Mary Russell was born about 1759 in Litchfield, Litchfield, Connecticut.
3. Abraham Russell was born about 1763 in Litchfield, Litchfield, Connecticut.
4. Mehitable Russell was born in 1765 in Litchfield, Connecticut.
5. Jonathan Russell was born in 1768 in Canaan, Litchfield, Connecticut. He married Priscilla in 1789 in Dutchess County, New York. He died on 02 Dec 1825 in Frankfort, Herkimer, New York.
6. Cynthia Russell was born on 02 Sep 1770. She married Moses Averill in 1786. They had thirteen children. Moses was killed while felling a tree in 1811. He left Cynthia the care of a large farm that was still unpaid for as well as a large family of young children. She died on 07 Aug 1823 in Salina, Onondaga, New York at age 52.

The American Revolution surely affected Samuel Russell, who was about 42 years at its outbreak. His sons were not quite old enough to serve and it doesn’t appear that Samuel was a soldier. But, living in Connecticut, the family was certainly surrounded by the war.

Samuel Russell died about 1801 in Canaan, Litchfield, Connecticut when he was about 67 years old.

Where is he in the tree?

Sources:

Ancestry.com, Connecticut, Church Record Abstracts, 1630-1920 (Online publication – Provo, UT, USA: 2013.Original data – Connecticut. Church Records Index. Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Connecticut..Original data: Connecticut. Church Records Index. Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Connecticut.)

Ancestry.com, North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016), Ancestry.com, Book Title: The Averell-Averill-Avery family : a record of the descendants of William and Abigail Averell of Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Wolcott Immigrants and Their Early Descendants (The First Six Generations), John Benjamin Wolcott, Waid, Charles Vance (2002); online archive, Internet Archive.