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For some time I have been searching for the names of the parents of my ancestor Richard Russell, born about 1791 in Washington County, New York, perhaps in Easton. Richard married Permelia Duell/Deuel of Easton, and they settled in Ohio. Perrmelia was the granddaughter of George Duell/Deuel and daughter of Ebenezer, both of whom entered Easton very early. I have quite a bit about the Deuel family; and I have been combing through the history of the various Russell families in Easton, looking with no success for some trace of Richard, but the following notes about Charles Russell of Easton might help other researchers. I suspect that Charles is a relative to Richard Russell, but I can find no direct connection.
The following notes from a Rootsweb site outline the probable structure of the family that produced Charles Russell. Charles was born in 1744, probably in Dartmouth, and died 1794 in Easton, New York,
Father: William Russell, b. Oct 28, 1691 and died in 1756 probably in Dartmouth
Mother: Probably William’s second wife Elizabeth Wilbore
+ Elizabeth Wilbore b: 12 Sep 1720
2 Meribah Russell b: 30 Jan 1740/1741
+ Charles Arnold b: ABT 1737
2 Amy Russell b: 28 Mar 1742
+ Peleg Slocum b: 16 Jan 1740 d: ABT 1828
2 Charles Russell b: 17 Oct 1744
+ Rebecca Briggs b: ABT 1748
2 Lillis Russell b: 17 Oct 1744
+ David Beard b: ABT 1740
2 William Russell b: 16 May 1746
+ Patience Swain b: ABT 1750
2 Bathsheba Russell b: ABT 1748
+ Jonathan Soule b: ABT 1744
Apparently Charles had some half-siblings in addition to these brothers and sisters.
A LDS site reported that Charles was a twin to Lillis; and twinning is, perhaps, a Russell trait. John (1)'s son Joseph sired a set of twins in 1697. Richard Russell was grandfather to a set of twins: Albert and Delbert Russell.
Various records indicate that Lillis Russell married David Beard and that the Beard family moved to Easton. During the 1800 census of Easton, David Berd (0/0/0/0/1 // 1/2/0/0/1/0) was listed on the same page with the widow Rebecca Russell. Waterman Berd was also listed close. The elderly David Baird was also listed in the 1810 census of Easton near Russells. In the 1820 census of the same town, David Baird was listed in a household of seven people.
In 2006, Earline Houser, Easton Town Historian, worked through the Briggs Collection in the Easton Public Library and provided material about the earliest Russells in Easton: "Charles (1744-1795) with wife Rebecca Briggs from Nine Partners (Dutchess County). He was the son of William (3) of Dartmouth (1691-1756), Jonathan (2), John (1)." Houser's information about Charles’ ancestry fit without any problem into my existing Russell records, except that I think Charles came from Dartmouth, probably through Dutchess County.
Quaker records supplied by researcher James Hazard show that Charles Russell was a member of the Saratoga Monthly Meeting about 1778. At that time, Saratoga and Easton were then in the same Quaker unit. On the eleventh month and sixteenth day of 1778 Charles produced a certificate from the Dartmouth Monthly Meeting “with wife Rebecca and daughter Amy.”
"Among the other early settlers [of Easton] were . . . George Deuel . . . , Richard Davenport . . . , Charles Russell . . . , Abraham Wright, . . . and Rufus Hall and Zebulon Hoxsie. . . "(Crisfield Johnson, HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, 1878 and reprinted 1991, p. 292). Johnson placed Charles Russell and my ancestor George Deuel in a list of early settlers of Easton as through people in the list were too important to be forgotten but their motivation for settlement was left vague. I think many in this list were either Quakers and/or British sympathizers fleeing Revolutionary turmoil in Dutchess County and elsewhere. They seemed to be quiet during the Revolution.
Rufus Hall and Zebulon Hoxsie were organizers of the Quaker Church in Easton. In May of 1775, the Quakers built a church in Easton.
If Charles was born in 1744 and married in 1775, he was 31 when he married, rather old for a first marriage in these times, so PERHAPS Rebecca was a second wife for him; there is no documentation for this suspicion. A marriage date in 1775 in Dartmouth would means that he must have left Dartmouth almost immediately to settle in Easton, New York. Charles was settled, even prosperous, by the time of the tax list in 1779. George Deuel and his son Ebenezer went to Easton from Dutchess County, apparently to escape compulsory New York militia service. Perhaps the Quaker settlement in Easton was designed to be a refuge or at least a place where Quakers could avoid dealing with Patriots.
Ironically, the British ravaged the Easton area. "During the Burgoyne campaign in 1777 the town of Easton was overrun by Hessians, Tories, and Indians" (Chrisfield Johnson, History of Washington County, New York, p. 294). Many houses were burned. In 1777 Indian scouts famously spared the Quaker congregation in Easton when they discovered the Friends unarmed at their worship in church. This event occurred a year before the first record of Charles in Easton.
In 1778 Charles Russell witnessed the Quaker marriage of "Jonathan HOAG, son of Stephen and Anna his wife, White Creek, Albany County and Sarah HALL, daughter of Samuel HALL of Saratoga (Easton) and Dinah his wife, 2nd day, 6th month, 1778. . . ." There were many witnesses including most of the congregation's leaders and Micajah Covill, who was widely suspected of not supporting the Revolution (Johnson). Sarah Hall was, I think, the sister to Rufus Hall, one of the organizers of the Quaker Church in Easton. My ancestor Ebenezer Deuel also attended this marriage with Charles. ("Some Quaker Marriages, Easton, New York" at <http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywashin/easton.htm>).
In 1779 Charles Russel was listed as worth 100 pounds in real estate in the Saratoga District Tax List #1 in Albany County, New York (Transcribed by Leslie B. Potter in 2004 at <http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ny/albany/taxlists/saratoga1779-1.txt> on January 23, 2007). George Devil [Deuel], my fifth great-grandfather, was listed on the same page (p. 16) as worth 80 pounds. Charles was listed very close to George Devil (Deuel):
James Macomber 50
Elijah Brownel 80
George Devil 80
Richard Hart 100
Thomas Dennis 50
John Thomson 30
Charles Russel 100
William Hammon 40
Benjamin Hammon 20
(<http://files.usgwarchives.org/ny/albany/taxlists/saratoga1779-1.txt> on May 1, 2008) As of May in 2008, I suspect that Chartles Russel/Russell was a relative to Richard Russell, who married George Deuel/Devil's granddaughter Permelia Deuel.
Also on this tax list:
Zebelon Hawxsey 120
Abraham Hawxsey 120
Samuel Hall 20
Rufos Hall 20
Jabez Briggs 60 (Jabez was father-in-law to Seneca Duel/Deuel, the brother of Richard Russell's wife's.)
In 1779, Charles seemed to be relatively prosperous. Few men owned property worth more than 100 pounds, and many of the really big landowners were Dutch. I cannot account for Charles’ relative prosperity in a recent war zone.
In 1782 Charles witnessed the Quaker marriage of Nathaniel Browne and Abigail Collins in Saratoga, later called Easton ("Some Quaker Marriages, Easton, New York"). The Hoxsies and Rufus Hall were also witnesses. Crisfield Johnson mentioned Rufus Hall and Zebulon Hoxsie in the same paragraph with Charles Russell as "early settlers" in Easton. From the context of the paragraph on the page, I suspect that Charles, Rufus and Zebulon arrived early in the Revolution.
In 1789 Charles witnessed the Quaker marriage of Stephen Baker and Elizabeth Cornell in Easton (Ibid.)
Charles Russell (1-1-1 or 2) was listed in the 1790 census of Easton, New York, close to Abraham Russell and David? Briggs. Charles' household contained one free male of age 16 or more, who was certainly Charles; one white male under 16; and probably two women. This census is curious in that Abraham Hoxey and Zebulon Hoxey were listed first in Easton, perhaps to indicate to other Quakers that cooperation with government census takers was permissible.
During the 1790 census of Easton, David Bard (2/1/3/0/1) was listed very close to Charles Russell, only one name between them--Job with an illegible surname that an indexer read as Palmer. It looks as if Charles was living close to his twin sister Lillis who was married to David Beard/Bard. The presence of a slave in David's household indicated that David was not a Quaker. David's burial records list him under the title of captain, probably from his early days at sea.
According to a quick survey of Rootsweb sites, Job Palmer was the son of Sarah Deuel, who died in 1776. I cannot detect how Sarah was related to the other Duells/Deuels in Easton, but she undoubtedly was. Many of the old Quaker families were related in convoluted patterns.
In 1790 another Charles Russell, next to David Russell, was counted in Cambridge, then in Albany County. In 1793 a man named Charles Russell was mentioned in the militia appointments for Washington County. This Charles was the almost certainly the not the one in Easton but the other in Cambridge. (http://content.ancestry.com/Browse/BookView.aspx?dbid=11656&iid=dvm_PrimSrc000270-01444-1&sid=&gskw=&cr=1)
In 1793 Charles was one of six who witnessed the marriage of Edward Cornell and Elizabeth Hoxsie (Ibid.). Elizabeth was, I think, daughter of Zebulon Hoxie.
Charles died in 1794, at the early age of 50. He died without a will and perhaps unexpectedly. His life spanned a tumultuous time in the history and economy of New York. Records are scare for him, but Rebecca Russell, his widow and relic in the County of Washington, New York, received letters of administration for his estate on August 8, 1794. These records show that Rebecca was assisted by Benjamin Starbuck and James Cornell. Two parcels of local real estate seemed to be the main assets in his estate. In 1800 “Jonathan Mosher of the town of Easton . . . Physician and Amy, his wife, petitioned the court to divide their Charles’ real estate among Hannah Russell, Patience Russell and Amy Russell Mosher. In 1831 Patience Russell of Greenwich in the town of Easton petitioned the court to administer her mother’s estate. At that time only Patience and Amy Mosher were still alive, both living in Washington County. Gideon Cornell, Hannah Russell’s widower, deposed that Amy Mosher declined to administer her mother’s estate and that Charles Russell’s grandson Charles Mosher likewise declined this work.
A quick survey of Rootsweb sites shows a line of descent from Charles Russell through the Moshers and a smaller line through the Cornells. Charles; twin sister Lillis also seems to have a long line of descent.
I have not been able to satisfy myself about which Briggs family Charles’s wife was from. Many sites show her father as Walter Briggs without a tie to the many, many other Briggs families around her. Surviving vital statistics indicate that Rebecca Briggs, daughter of Walter, was too young to be the Rebecca Briggs Russell who died in Easton in 1830, but I will defer to others on the issue of Rebecca’s paternity because I have not been able to accomplish convincing research here.
I find no record of Charles’ or Rebecca’s burial in Easton, but Quakers often avoided the use of tombstones. Charles’ twin Lillis Baird, who died on March 23, 1831, in her 87th year, was buried in Baird-Lockwood Cemetery in Washington County, New York along with her husband Capt. David Baird. (Historical Data Services, Cemetery Records of the Town of Easton . . . , p. 2).
As of March 8, 2007, my computer says that Charles Russell and Barnabus Russell of Easton were second cousins, once removed. Charles had the same distant relationship to Thomas Russell of Easton--whom many researchers have proposed as possible ancestor to Richard Russell. In actuality, my computer might underestimate the degree of blood relationship by identifying only the closest cousin relationship and ignoring the accumulated effect of two centuries of marrying inside small Quaker congregations. (I descend from the Quaker Allen family in at least five ways.)
I appreciate corrections and additions. I am anxious to learn more about the various Russell families in Easton. Communication is welcome. 11mitchell@mchsi.com
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