---
aliases:
- Samuel Russell
- Samuel Wadsworth Russell
- Samuel W. Russell
born: 1789-08-25
category: Business & Finance
created: 2026-10-26
died: 1862-05-05
location: Middletown, Connecticut
relations:
- fn: 10
  role: founder at Canton; the Library of Congress dates the house to 1819, Hunter
    to a Samuel Russell and Company from December 26, 1818
  start: 1819-01-01
  type: founded
  with: '[[Russell and Company]]'
- fn: 12
  role: co-founder with Samuel D. Hubbard; incorporated June 1834 according to the
    National Register nomination for the Upper Mill
  start: 1834-06-01
  type: founded
  with: '[[Russell Manufacturing Company]]'
- end: 1830-06-30
  fn: 11
  role: partners at Canton; Hunter lists them as the sole partners of the house until
    the middle of 1830
  start: 1824-01-01
  type: partner_of
  with: '[[Philip Ammidon]]'
- fn: 7
  role: second cousin through the Rev. William Russell (born 1690); Hamlin genealogy
  type: relative_of
  with: '[[William Huntington Russell]]'
- fn: 18
  role: second wife, sister of his first wife Mary Cotton Osborn
  start: 1827-01-01
  type: spouse_of
  with: '[[Frances Ann Osborn]]'
- end: 1839-03-31
  fn: 36
  role: donation printed among Middletown contributions to the society
  start: 1839-02-25
  type: funded
  with: '[[American Colonization Society]]'
summary: Middletown, Connecticut merchant who founded the Canton commission house
  Russell and Company, returned to Middletown in 1831, and built the Greek Revival
  house now owned by Wesleyan University.
tags:
- Person
- SamuelRussell
- RussellAndCompany
- RussellManufacturingCompany
- ChinaTrade
- OpiumTrade
- Canton
- MiddletownConnecticut
- RussellHouse
- RussellLibrary
- SkullAndBones
- WilliamHuntingtonRussell
- PhilipAmmidon
- Houqua
- AmericanColonizationSociety
title: Samuel Russell
updated: 2026-10-26
---

Samuel Russell (August 25, 1789 to 1862) was a merchant of Middletown, Connecticut who founded the commission house [Russell and Company](/organizations/russell-and-company/) at Canton, [China](/places/china/), in 1819, according to the account of the National Park Service nomination for his Middletown house. The nomination calls the firm "the largest and most successful American firm involved in the China trade throughout the nineteenth century."[^1] He returned to Middletown in 1831, withdrew from the Canton house in 1836, and reinvested his profits in the Russell Manufacturing Company, in banking, and in western railroad stock.[^2] The house he commissioned from Ithiel Town between 1827 and 1830 is now the Samuel Russell House, part of Wesleyan University.

### Birth and the death of his father

Samuel Russell was born in Middletown on August 25, 1789, the eldest child of Capt. John Russell and Abigail Warner.[^3] John Russell, born August 19, 1765, married Abigail Warner at Middletown on June 29, 1788, and died there on December 7, 1801.[^3] The nomination says that he died insolvent.[^4] Abigail Russell outlived her husband by more than forty years and died at Middletown on July 11, 1846, at age 87.[^3] The Hamlin genealogy records three younger children: Lucy Warner Russell, born December 29, 1791; Julia Russell, born June 23, 1794; and Augustus Edward Russell, born June 10, 1797.[^3] The Library of Congress finding aid for the Canton records calls the last of these "Edward Augustus Russell," a New York businessman "involved in real estate investments and the East India trade."[^5]

The nomination traces the line from William Russell (1612 to 1664), one of the founders of the Saybrook and New Haven colonies, through the Rev. Noadiah Russell (1659 to 1713), second pastor of the Congregational church at Middletown from 1698 and one of the founders of [Yale University](/organizations/yale-university/), to the Rev. William Russell (born 1690) and then to Capt. Samuel Russell (born July 7, 1727), who was Samuel Russell's grandfather.[^6] The Hamlin genealogy gives the same line and records Capt. Samuel Russell as a Middletown merchant who died on March 14, 1794.[^7] The Yale sketch of the Rev. William Russell gives his birth as November 20, 1690, names him the eldest child of the Rev. Noadiah Russell and Mary Hamlin, and records four sons and five daughters.[^8]

His middle name came from his great uncle, Jeremiah Wadsworth of Hartford, who had married the Rev. William Russell's daughter Mehitable. The nomination describes Wadsworth as Commissary General of the Continental Army and says that he died when Samuel was fifteen.[^4]

### Apprenticeship and the New York years

The nomination says that Russell and Wadsworth were both "orphaned at an early age," and that Russell was twelve when his father died.[^4] After his marriage in 1815 he lived with his widowed mother in the old family house on High Street.[^9] He was apprenticed as a clerk to Whittlesey and Alsop, Middletown merchants in the maritime trade, and the apprenticeship ended in 1810 when he came of age. The nomination spells the firm "Whittlesley & Alsop." In the same year Samuel Wetmore, a relative on his mother's side, was appointed guardian of the younger children.[^4]

Russell then went to New York and joined Hull and Griswold, a merchant house founded by Connecticut men that handled a range of goods. In 1812 the house sent him as supercargo on a ship bound for Spain, carrying flour worth $25,000. He was instructed to convert the proceeds into Spanish silver dollars, since the war with Great Britain was expected to cut foreign trade and leave the country short of hard currency.[^4] The voyage ended in 1813. Afterward he bought and sold goods on commission for Hull and Griswold in Middletown, and the first Russell and Company was founded in a building he had leased there before he sailed.[^4]

Russell married Mary Cotton Osborn in New York in 1815. The nomination describes her as the daughter of a respectable Hartford family, with no dowry and no connection to the merchant trade.[^9] The Hamlin genealogy gives her parents as David Osborn and Polly (Cotton) Osborn, "of Middletown and Stratford, Ct."[^3] The couple returned to Middletown and lived in his mother's house, and by 1816 they had a son.[^9] Samuel Wetmore, who held an interest in the Providence firms Hoppins and Company and Edward Carrington and Company, recommended Russell as supercargo on a ship owned by both houses. The ship carried Chinese tea and dishware to Savannah, exchanged them there for rice, tobacco and cotton, and went on to Hamburg.[^9]

### The Providence contract and the first Canton venture

Edward Carrington had been the American consul at Canton in 1802 to 1804, and by the nomination's account he carried on a commission business there until he left in 1811.[^9] The contract the Providence partners drew up for Russell in 1819 put $20,000 of capital into the venture. They paid his living costs in China and $500 a year to his family, and allowed him a commission of two percent on the import and export business of their vessels. At the end of the five-year contract he was to receive an equal share of the profits.[^10]

Russell sailed in the ship Fame, carrying Indian cotton for sale at Le Havre or Amsterdam before going on to China around the Cape of Good Hope. The Fame left Gibraltar in late June 1819 and reached Macao in September. She anchored at Whampoa, and Russell went upriver in a Chinese riverboat to the foreign compound at Canton.[^10]

Hunter dates the earlier firm to the period "from December 26, 1818, to December 26, 1823," as Samuel Russell and Company.[^11] The Library of Congress describes the house as "founded in 1819 by Samuel Russell."[^5] The National Register nomination for the Upper Mill says that Russell "established his own trading station in Canton in 1818."[^12]

The first venture returned about $15,000 to each of its five partners in 1823.[^13] The partners had little faith in his management and refused to increase the trading fund. The nomination says there is no evidence that Russell took part in the opium trade during this venture. His letters to the Providence partners, which the nomination quotes, describe opium as "the only article" which "of late can be said to have a profit."[^13] The nomination places the "Emily Affair" of 1821, when the Hong merchants found opium on an American ship and sent vessels off in ballast, in the background of the partners' caution. Its citation for the firm's position is a letter of June 30, 1821, from Russell and Company to Carrington and Company in the Library of Congress collection.[^14]

Three friendships from this period mattered to the later house, according to the nomination. The first was with John Perkins Cushing, also orphaned young and a cousin of the Boston brothers [Thomas Handasyd Perkins](/people/perkins-family/) and James Perkins, who had left him in charge of the Canton office at sixteen. The second was with Philip Ammidon, agent for Brown and Ives of Providence, who shared Russell's office and quarters. The third was with Houqua, the leading Hong merchant, who remained a lifelong friend.[^15]

### Samuel Russell and Company, and the partnership with Philip Ammidon

Hunter gives the house's constitution as January 1, 1824, in succession to Samuel Russell and Company. "It is known amongst the Chinese as 'Kee-Chang-Hong.' It confined itself strictly to agency business." Hunter also records that the sole partners from January 1, 1824, to the middle of 1830 were Russell and Ammidon.[^11] Forbes gives the same succession in his own memoir, saying that the house "was first formed by Messrs. Samuel Russell and Philip Ammidon, and after a few years was changed to the present firm of Russell & Co."[^16]

The nomination says that Cushing proposed a partnership with Ammidon and Russell, whom he regarded as "one of the best men in the country." Ammidon left for India with letters from Cushing and Houqua and made profitable deals with the Parsi opium growers there. The partnership was renewed in November 1826 for another four years, from January 1, 1828, which gave Russell time to return home.[^17] Russell was back at Canton by October 1827, after a spring and summer in Middletown in which he married Frances Ann Osborn. The nomination also says that he gained the commission business of the only two merchant houses in Manila and bought out smaller competitors in Canton.[^18]

Ammidon did not return to Canton, and the nomination says that he sent William H. Low, "a very capable replacement with business connections in Philadelphia and Salem," who arrived in September 1829. In 1830 Augustine Heard of Boston was recommended as a further replacement. Russell and Low accepted him, and Ammidon was then terminated from the partnership.[^11][^18] The nomination describes Ammidon's dealings in India as having "made Russell & Company one of the most important American sellers of the opium in Canton, second or third in the trade behind the British firms of Jardine Matheson & Company and Dent & Company."[^19]

### Houqua, the Perkins merger and the return from Canton

Thomas Tunno Forbes, a cousin of the Perkins brothers, drowned in a typhoon on August 9, 1829, with S. H. Monson, the bookkeeper of Russell and Company. Among his papers was a sealed letter asking the firm, in case of accident, to take charge of his local business and that of J. and T. H. Perkins.[^20] Cushing returned to Canton in August 1830, and the arrangement was then concluded: "Russell & Co. were officially appointed sole agents for the Boston house, that of Perkins & Co. being wound up, while the important foreign business of Houqua was then also definitely secured to them."[^20]

The nomination gives a different chronology. It dates Forbes's death to 1827 and says that Cushing, eager to retire and lacking a suitable heir, arranged to dissolve Perkins and Company, with Russell delaying his own departure to set up the management of the combined houses.[^18] The Library of Congress says that in 1831 the China trading operations of John P. Cushing, William Perkins and Company of Boston, and Houqua "merged with Russell & Company."[^5]

The nomination describes the two houses as complementary. Perkins and Company had been primarily a buyer and shipper of China cargoes, while Russell and Company was "exclusively a commission house" that did not necessarily own the goods it handled.[^21] Under Cushing's direction, Augustine Heard became the representative of the Perkins houses, [Robert Bennet Forbes](/people/forbes-family/) took charge of the storeship business at the Lintin station, and [John Murray Forbes](/people/forbes-family/) joined the firm as an assistant in line for partnership.[^18] Russell and Cushing left Canton together in the ship Bashaw on February 27, 1831.[^22] The nomination says that both returned to America after completing their work in March 1831.[^18]

Houqua wrote to Russell after hearing of his retirement. The nomination quotes Houqua's letter of January 14, 1837, in the Library of Congress collection, which says that Russell's name had been associated with the house "during the whole course of its existence," and expresses Houqua's "sincere wish that you may live long to enjoy the fruit of your industry."[^19] The nomination adds that Houqua acknowledged Russell's "competent fortune," and that the Middletown mansion, known as the "China palace," held gifts from Houqua.[^19] In 1836 Russell had asked the manager to close his China affairs and to invest his profits "in teas or bills of exchange on London."[^19]

### Opium

In letters to his Providence partners, Samuel Russell wrote that opium "is the only article" which "of late can be said to have a profit" in the depressed China market. The nomination for his house says that during the first venture (1819 to 1823) there is no evidence that he took part in the trade, that he "was quite conversant with all the details of the opium trade," and that "with single drug cargoes selling for as much as $50,000, smuggling would have solved his cash problems."[^23][^24]

From January 1, 1824, the house was Russell and Company, which Hunter describes as having "confined itself strictly to agency business."[^11] The nomination says that the firm's services included "marketing of imports (including opium which it sold for Perkins & Company on their storeship)," that John Perkins Cushing had begun to turn his commission business over to Russell and Company and other Canton houses in 1818 and "This included Cushing's opium shipments," and that Ammidon "made some successful deals with the Parsi opium growers in India" on the trip that preceded the 1826 renewal of the partnership.[^17][^18][^21] On his visit to Middletown in 1827 Russell solicited consignment business in the United States, "including most notably the sale of opium for John Jacob Astor."[^25] By the time Ammidon left the firm, the nomination says, his dealings "had made Russell & Company one of the most important American sellers of the opium in Canton, second or third in the trade behind the British firms of Jardine Matheson & Company and Dent & Company."[^19] Forbes wrote that Russell and Company "had for some time done business at Canton previous to Mr. Cushing's leaving, and, in fact, had transacted a part of his business."[^26]

The Library of Congress finding aid says that the house's correspondence after 1818 "contains much information on the daily operation of the Canton trading company, the Turkish opium trade," and that an account book for 1816 to 1829 carries the manuscript "Notes on the Chinese Method of Preparing Opium for Smoking."[^5] The nomination says that Americans, largely excluded from the Indian and Persian markets, were for a time restricted to Turkish opium, transshipped through American ports, and that the Perkins brothers of Boston, in the Turkish trade since the 1780s, organized a Smyrna house in 1816.[^27] Robert Bennet Forbes wrote that in March 1828 the ship Danube was fitted out at New York by Sturgis and Perkins for Smyrna, with a credit on the Barings of about 60,000 pounds, "the principal object being to procure Turkey opium for China." He wrote that at Gibraltar in 1829 he "waited for sundry shipments of drug" before taking command of the Bashaw.[^28][^29] Hunter, who lived at Canton from 1825, set the agent's commission on opium sales at five, afterward three, per cent.[^30]

The memorial of the American merchants at Canton, printed as House Document 40 of the 26th Congress, gives sales of opium at Canton by season: 5,822 chests for $7,988,930 in 1822 to 1823, 9,535 chests for $10,425,075 in 1827 to 1828, and 23,670 chests for $15,332,759 in 1832 to 1833. It says that the receiving vessels moved from Whampoa to Lintin about 1821, and that officials took "a fee or duty varying from twenty to seventy dollars per chest."[^31] Forbes wrote that the officials encouraged the drug's introduction "from India and Turkey, not only by levying a duty on it for their own benefit, but by consuming it."[^32]

After Russell left, the nomination says that the house "continued to prosper as a major marketer of opium," that its Indian trade was at first about half its Turkish trade, and that the firm held its position in the Turkish trade and became the third largest purveyor from India.[^33] At the surrender of the opium at Canton in 1839 Hunter writes that the Americans "had not delivered any American-owned opium, of which we held at the time of surrender about fifty cases of Turkey." He adds that the English "placed theirs in charge of the American houses," and that "A large share of it fell under the control of Russell & Co."[^34]

The memorial, dated at Canton on May 25, 1839, was signed by Russell Sturgis, A. A. Low, W. Delano, Jr., Edward King, Gideon Nye, Jr., S. B. Rawle, R. B. Forbes and James Ryan. It states, "We have no wish to see a revival of the opium trade," and says that the drug "has been productive of much evil and of scarcely a single good to the Chinese."[^31] Russell left Canton on February 27, 1831, and withdrew from the house in 1836.[^19][^22]

Forbes wrote that the price of the surrendered drug was disputed, with one side arguing that it had cost $400 or $500 a chest and the other that it had sold for $250 or $300 at the time of seizure. He wrote that "most of the smaller holders of scrip were great losers, and that the large agents, who sold mostly on commission, turned their attention to speculation in scrip and in the drug itself, and made large fortunes."[^35] The firm's handling of Houqua's shipments in 1840 is set out on the Russell and Company page.

### Return to Middletown and his investments

The Library of Congress finding aid says that after Russell's return to Middletown in 1831 he founded the Russell Manufacturing Company for the manufacture of elastic webbing, and that as his interests in the China company diminished he "became increasingly active in real estate speculation in Chicago and Milwaukee as well as in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and New Jersey."[^5] The finding aid's subject index adds Wisconsin.

The National Register nomination for the company's Upper Mill gives a different founding date. It says that the company was "founded in 1834 by Samuel T. Russell and Samuel D. Hubbard." The Library of Congress finding aid credits Samuel Russell of the Canton house with founding the company. The nomination says that the company was incorporated in June 1834, capitalized at $200,000, after a letter of understanding that February.[^12] The company bought the machinery of the defunct Spaulding and Collins factory, took Spaulding in as treasurer, and within two years built a brick mill on a site owned by Hubbard. Henry G. Hubbard, Samuel D. Hubbard's nephew, was brought in as manager.[^12] The nomination says that Russell's China profits went into "Simeon North's fledgling arms factory" and later into land speculation in the West, and it credits him with giving land for the first Roman Catholic church in Middletown.[^12]

Company records cited in the same nomination show a bank loan of $12,000 from the Middletown Savings Bank in October 1840, "secured by Samuel Russell," at the time the company was preparing to make elastic suspenders.[^12] The National Historic Landmark nomination says that after his 1836 retirement Russell "reinvested his enormous profits in industry, banking, and Western railroad stock."[^2]

The Library of Congress finding aid says that some letters for 1838 and 1839 concern his "financial support" of the American Colonization Society.[^5] The society's monthly, The African Repository, printed the Middletown contributions for February 25 to March 31, 1839. Richard Hubbard of Middletown is followed by "Samuel Russell, do.," with the same amount.[^36]

### The Samuel Russell House

Ithiel Town designed the house, and the New Haven firm of Hoadley and Curtis built it. Russell wrote from Canton on October 26, 1827, to his friend Samuel Hubbard in Middletown, who was to buy the lot and supervise construction. The instructions described "a brick house, 44 feet square," with unadorned plaster walls and fireproof construction, and called for a separate bathhouse. The nomination says that Russell "was sure that 'a Mason and Carpenter could build the house for $5000.'"[^37]

The Canton correspondence confirms that Town's design was complete before Alexander Jackson Davis became his partner on February 1, 1829. The plans went to Hubbard on June 26, 1828, and Hoadley and Curtis's estimate of $7,000, including $1,000 for the west portico, was recommended in Town's letter of September 1828.[^38] The nomination calls the house "the premier domestic example of the Corinthian Greek Revival style in the Northeast." Painted panels in the parlors frame portraits of Samuel Russell and his wife, Frances, on the chimney breasts.[^39]

Russell lived in the house until his death in 1862. It passed to his son, Samuel Wadsworth Russell Jr., and remained in the family until 1937, when Thomas MacDonough Russell Jr., his great-grandson, deeded it to Wesleyan University.[^40] The university's finding aid for the Honors College and Russell House records gives the 1828 construction date, the 1937 gift, the Honors College years until 1996, the National Register listing in 1970 and the National Historic Landmark designation in 2001.[^41]

### Family

Mary Cotton Osborn died in childbirth soon after Russell first sailed for Canton, leaving two sons in the care of her sister, Frances Ann Osborn.[^18] Russell married Frances Ann Osborn during his visit to Middletown in 1827, and she became the mother of his third son, Samuel Wadsworth Russell Jr.[^18] The Hamlin genealogy lists George Osborn Russell and John Augustus Russell as the children of the first marriage, and Samuel Wadsworth Russell as the child of the second.[^7]

The Hamlin genealogy records George Osborn Russell as married twice, first to Augusta Harriet Mather and then to her sister Amelia Charlotte Mather. It records John Augustus Russell as the husband of Helena E. Webster and as an officer of the United States Navy.[^42] Samuel Wadsworth Russell Jr. married Clara Alsop Casey, according to the same entry. The entry says he had died some years earlier and that his widow remarried, and it lists three children: William Wadsworth, Mary and Cornelia.[^42]

The Library of Congress family correspondence includes letters from George O. Russell for 1837 to 1845 and from John A. Russell for 1838 to 1846. A separate group of letters concerns the health of a son named John Russell and illustrates nineteenth-century medical practice in the control of epilepsy.[^5]

The nomination calls Samuel Wadsworth Russell Jr. his "sole surviving son" and says that the estate went to his widow and to him.[^43] The Hamlin genealogy lists George Osborn and John Augustus among the sons of the first marriage.[^3]

Frances Ann Russell, the widow, established the Russell Library in Middletown in memory of her husband. The Hamlin genealogy says that she "founded the Russell Library, Middletown."[^3] The library's own history says that she bought the Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity at the corner of Broad and Court Streets in 1873, remodeled it as a library, and opened it as Middletown's public library on April 5, 1876.[^44]

### Kinship with William Huntington Russell

[William Huntington Russell](/people/william-huntington-russell/), the Yale graduate of 1833 and co-founder of [Skull and Bones](/organizations/skull-and-bones/), was Samuel Russell's second cousin. Their common great-grandfather was the Rev. William Russell (born 1690), eldest child of the Rev. Noadiah Russell and Mary Hamlin. The Hamlin genealogy traces Samuel's line through Capt. John Russell and Capt. Samuel Russell (1727), and William Huntington Russell's through Matthew Talcott Russell and the Rev. Noadiah Russell of Thompson, Connecticut.[^7] John Russell and Matthew Talcott Russell were therefore first cousins, and their sons were second cousins.

Kris Millegan gives three relationships in his book on the society. The opening article describes "His cousin Samuel Russell's family enterprise." A China-trade passage calls William Huntington Russell "Samuel's cousin," and a later essay gives "Samuel Russell, second cousin to Bones founder William H."[^45] A third passage refers to Samuel Russell as the "uncle" of the society's founder.[^46] The Hamlin genealogy gives the second-cousin relationship.

### Skull and Bones and the Russell name

The Connecticut act of 1856 that incorporated the Russell Trust Association, the body through which the society conducts its corporate affairs, names William H. Russell first among its incorporators, followed by John S. Beach, Henry B. Harrison, [Daniel C. Gilman](/people/daniel-coit-gilman/), Henry T. Blake and Henry D. White.[^47]

In "Reflecting on the Yale Succession," an account of a conversation with his father, Millegan writes that William Huntington Russell "had founded Skull and Bones with drug money provided by his uncle, Samuel Russell."[^48]

A letter to the Yale Alumni Magazine in 2015 from Bruce L. Reynolds attributed the money for the society's 1856 building to Russell and Company, citing James Bradley's book on the China trade.[^49]

### Death and estate

The New York Society Library's City Readers entry gives Samuel Wadsworth Russell's dates as August 25, 1789 to May 5, 1862, and describes him as a Middletown-born trader and the founder of Russell and Company.[^50] The Library of Congress gives his dates as "1789-approximately 1862."[^5] The Hamlin genealogy describes him as a merchant "for many years in the China trade" and member of the firm of Russell and Company who "left a large estate."[^3] The nomination says that at the time of his death in 1862 his estate was valued at $630,000, and that he left it to his widow and his sole surviving son, with large bequests to grandchildren and other relatives. The nomination adds that much of his fortune went to philanthropies during his lifetime.[^43]

### The papers

The records of Russell and Company are held by the Library of Congress Manuscript Division as MSS38562, "Russell & Co., Guangzhou, China, Records," with inclusive dates of 1812 to 1894 and bulk dates of 1819 to 1840. The collection occupies 12 containers and 4 oversize boxes, about 3,900 items, and 10 microfilm reels. Thomas Macdonough Russell gave it to the library in 1931, it was processed in 1980, and the finding aid was revised in 2024. The index includes the entry "Russell, Samuel, 1789-approximately 1862. Samuel Russell papers."[^5]

The finding aid arranges the records in four series: family correspondence (1816 to 1848), general correspondence (1827 to 1881), business records (1812 to 1894), and oversize letterbooks and invoice books (1819 to 1827). The general correspondence includes letters on the construction of the Middletown house from 1827 to 1830 and letters from Ithiel Town. The business records include partnership agreements dated 1813 to 1843 and 1874, and wills of business associates dated 1832 to 1840.[^5] The nomination's author worked from typed transcriptions of the house correspondence held in the Russell Library in Middletown, made from the Library of Congress originals.[^51] The nomination also cites a 1973 Wesleyan honors thesis by Alain Munkittrick, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell (1789-1862): A Study in Ordered Investment," as the basis for its account of the business records.[^52]

After Russell's departure the house's partners included [Warren Delano Jr.](/people/warren-delano-jr/), who was admitted for the term beginning in 1840. Hunter says that Delano was formerly of Russell, Sturgis and Company at Canton and Manila.[^11] Members of the [Forbes family](/people/forbes-family/) were partners in the house in the same decades.[^11]

[^1]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 8. Statement of Significance, calling the firm "the largest and most successful American firm involved in the China trade throughout the nineteenth century." https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^2]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, pp. 8 and 15. The 1836 retirement from the Canton house and the reinvestment of profits "in industry, banking, and Western railroad stock" (p. 15). The 1831 return is in the Library of Congress finding aid. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^3]: *The Hamlin Family: A Genealogy of Capt. Giles Hamlin of Middletown, Connecticut, 1654-1900* (1900), entry [302] for Capt. John Russell (pp. 118-119: the marriage to Abigail Warner on June 29, 1788, the children, and Abigail's death on July 11, 1846, at 87) and entry [638] for Samuel Russell, born Middletown August 25, 1789 (p. 166: first marriage to Mary, daughter of David and Polly (Cotton) Osborn, "of Middletown and Stratford, Ct."; second marriage to Frances Ann Osborn; "his widow, Frances, founded the Russell Library, Middletown"; "he left a large estate"). https://archive.org/details/hamlinfamilygene00andr
[^4]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 9. The father's death in 1801 and insolvency; the boys "orphaned at an early age"; Wadsworth as Commissary General and his death when Samuel was fifteen; apprenticeship to Whittlesley & Alsop; Samuel Wetmore as guardian in 1810; Hull & Griswold and the 1812 supercargo voyage with proceeds in Spanish silver dollars; the first Russell & Company in Middletown. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^5]: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, "Russell & Co., Guangzhou, China, Records," MSS38562, finding aid revised February 2024 (collection summary, scope and content note, subject and name index, series and container list). https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms010075
[^6]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, pp. 8 to 9. Ancestry from William Russell (1612 to 1664) through the Rev. Noadiah Russell (1659 to 1713) and the Rev. William Russell (born 1690) to Capt. Samuel Russell (born 1727). https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^7]: *The Hamlin Family: A Genealogy of Capt. Giles Hamlin of Middletown, Connecticut, 1654-1900* (1900), entries [97] (Rev. William Russell), [98] (Capt. Samuel Russell, b. Middletown July 7, 1727, merchant, d. March 14, 1794, p. 88), [99] (Rev. Noadiah Russell, of Thompson), [302] (Capt. John Russell, pp. 118-119), [307] (Matthew Talcott Russell, p. 119) and [638] (Samuel Russell, p. 166). https://archive.org/details/hamlinfamilygene00andr
[^8]: Franklin Bowditch Dexter, *Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College*, vol. I (1701-1745), sketch of the Rev. William Russell of Middletown, class of 1709, p. 90. https://archive.org/details/biographicalske01dextuoft
[^9]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 10. Carrington as American consul at Canton, 1802 to 1804, and his commission business until 1811; the 1815 marriage to Mary Cotton Osborn; the widowed mother's house on High Street; the son of 1816; the Savannah ship recommended by Samuel Wetmore. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^10]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 12. Terms of the Providence contract of 1819 ($20,000 capital, two percent commission, $500 a year to the family, equal share after five years); the Fame, Gibraltar in late June 1819, Macao in September, Whampoa and the riverboat to the factories. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^11]: W. C. Hunter, *The "Fan Kwae" at Canton before Treaty Days, 1825-1844* (London, 1882), pp. 156-157 (the constitution of Russell & Co. on January 1, 1824, succeeding Samuel Russell & Co., which "had existed from December 26, 1818, to December 26, 1823"; "Kee-Chang-Hong"; "confined itself strictly to agency business"; the sole partners Russell and Ammidon to 1830; Low, Heard, Forbes and Delano admitted; Delano "formerly of the house of Russell, Sturgis, & Co."). https://archive.org/details/fankwaeatcanton00huntgoog
[^12]: National Register of Historic Places nomination, "Russell Company Upper Mill," Middletown, Connecticut (1986), "History" section. https://www.middletownct.gov/DocumentCenter/View/5448 Cited for the 1818 Canton station ("established his own trading station in Canton in 1818"), the June 1834 incorporation, the October 1840 bank loan, and the Simeon North investment.
[^13]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 13. The first venture returned about $15,000 to each of five partners in 1823; no evidence of Russell's participation in the opium trade in that venture; Russell's letters to the Providence partners on opium as "the only article" that "of late can be said to have a profit." https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^14]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 13, notes 16 and 17. The 1821 Emily affair; "Russell & Company to Carrington & Company, June 30, 1821, Russell & Company Collection, Library of Congress." https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^15]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 13. Cushing as an orphan and cousin of the Perkins brothers; Ammidon as agent for Brown and Ives; Houqua as a lifelong friend. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^16]: Robert Bennet Forbes, *Personal Reminiscences* (Boston, 1882), addenda, p. 386 ("which was first formed by Messrs. Samuel Russell and Philip Ammidon, and after a few years was changed to the present firm of Russell & Co."). https://archive.org/details/personalreminis01forbgoog
[^17]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, pp. 13 to 14. Cushing's proposal of a partnership with Ammidon and Russell, "one of the best men in the country"; Ammidon's trip to India with letters from Cushing and Houqua; the November 1826 renewal for four years from January 1, 1828, to allow Russell to return home. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^18]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 14. Russell back at Canton by October 1827; the Manila commission business and the Canton competitors; Ammidon replaced by William H. Low and Augustine Heard, and Ammidon terminated; Cushing's direction of the merger, the storeship business and John Murray Forbes; Forbes's death dated to 1827; Mary Cotton Osborn's death in childbirth and the two sons left with her sister; the 1827 marriage to Frances Ann Osborn; Russell and Cushing's return in March 1831. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^19]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 15. "Made Russell & Company one of the most important American sellers of the opium in Canton"; Houqua's letter of January 14, 1837, in the Library of Congress, with "during the whole course of its existence" and "sincere wish that you may live long to enjoy the fruit of your industry"; the "competent fortune" and the "China palace"; the 1836 withdrawal and the instruction to invest profits "in teas or bills of exchange on London"; the Canton house's later decades. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^20]: W. C. Hunter, *The "Fan Kwae" at Canton before Treaty Days, 1825-1844* (London, 1882), pp. 118-119 (the death of Thomas T. Forbes and S. H. Monson on August 9, 1829; the sealed letter; Cushing's return in August 1830; "Russell & Co. were officially appointed sole agents for the Boston house", p. 119). https://archive.org/details/fankwaeatcanton00huntgoog
[^21]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, pp. 14 to 15. Perkins and Company as buyer and shipper; Russell and Company as "exclusively a commission house" that did not necessarily own the goods it handled. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^22]: W. C. Hunter, *The "Fan Kwae" at Canton before Treaty Days, 1825-1844* (London, 1882), p. 122 (Mr. Russell and Mr. Cushing take their final leave of Canton in the Bashaw on February 27, 1831). https://archive.org/details/fankwaeatcanton00huntgoog
[^23]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 11. "The Hong merchants of Canton only occasionally enforced the ban on opium." https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^24]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 13. "Russell was quite conversant with all the details of the opium trade"; "smuggling would have solved his cash problems," with single drug cargoes selling for as much as $50,000. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^25]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 14. The 1827 visit to Middletown and the solicitation of consignment business "including most notably the sale of opium for John Jacob Astor." https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^26]: Robert Bennet Forbes, *Personal Reminiscences* (Boston, 1882), p. 134 (Russell & Co. "had for some time done business at Canton previous to Mr. Cushing's leaving, and, in fact, had transacted a part of his business"). https://archive.org/details/personalreminis01forbgoog
[^27]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 12. Americans restricted to Turkish opium; the Perkins brothers' Turkish trade from the 1780s and their Smyrna house of 1816. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^28]: Robert Bennet Forbes, *Personal Reminiscences* (Boston, 1882), pp. 123-124 (the Danube voyage to Smyrna; "the principal object being to procure Turkey opium for China"). https://archive.org/details/personalreminis01forbgoog
[^29]: Robert Bennet Forbes, *Personal Reminiscences* (Boston, 1882), pp. 123-126 (the Danube "fitted out at New York, by Messrs. Sturgis & Perkins," destined for Smyrna, March 1828; at Gibraltar "I waited for sundry shipments of drug, and the arrival of the ship Bashaw"). https://archive.org/details/personalreminis01forbgoog
[^30]: W. C. Hunter, *The "Fan Kwae" at Canton before Treaty Days, 1825-1844* (London, 1882), p. 65 ("The Canton agent received five, afterwards reduced to three, per cent, commission on sales"). https://archive.org/details/fankwaeatcanton00huntgoog
[^31]: U.S. House of Representatives, 26th Congress, 1st session, H. Doc. 40, "Merchants of the United States at Canton, China. Memorial of R. B. Forbes and others," January 9, 1840, referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs (Serial Set vol. 364), pp. 1-4 (dated Canton, May 25, 1839; signatures; sales by season; the Lintin receiving vessels and the fees; "We have no wish to see a revival of the opium trade"). https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/SERIALSET-00364_00_00-030-0040-0000
[^32]: Robert Bennet Forbes, *Personal Reminiscences* (Boston, 1882), p. 144 (the officials' encouragement of opium "from India and Turkey, not only by levying a duty on it for their own benefit, but by consuming it"). https://archive.org/details/personalreminis01forbgoog
[^33]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 15. "Russell & Company continued to prosper as a major marketer of opium"; the Indian trade at first about half the Turkish trade; the third largest purveyor of the drug from India. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^34]: W. C. Hunter, *The "Fan Kwae" at Canton before Treaty Days, 1825-1844* (London, 1882), p. 146 ("about fifty cases of Turkey"; the English "placed theirs in charge of the American houses"; "A large share of it fell under the control of Russell & Co."). https://archive.org/details/fankwaeatcanton00huntgoog
[^35]: Robert Bennet Forbes, *Personal Reminiscences* (Boston, 1882), pp. 160-161 (the dispute over the price of the surrendered opium; "most of the smaller holders of scrip were great losers"). https://archive.org/details/personalreminis01forbgoog
[^36]: *The African Repository*, vol. XV (Washington, 1839), "Contributions to the American Colonization Society from Feb. 25 to March 31, 1839," Donations, Middletown, Conn. (Richard Hubbard, then "Samuel Russell, do."). https://archive.org/details/africanreposito44socigoog
[^37]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 16. Russell to Hubbard, October 26, 1827 (Russell House Correspondence); instructions for a brick house 44 feet square; "a Mason and Carpenter could build the house for $5000." https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^38]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, pp. 17 to 18. Plans transmitted to Hubbard on June 26, 1828; Hoadley and Curtis estimate of $7,000 including $1,000 for the west portico, recommended in Town's letter of September 1828; Davis partner from February 1, 1829. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^39]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, pp. 6 and 8. Painted panels with portraits of Samuel Russell and his wife Frances (p. 6); "the premier domestic example of the Corinthian Greek Revival style in the Northeast" (p. 8). https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^40]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 15. The house inherited by Samuel W. Russell Jr., which remained in the family until 1937 and was deeded to Wesleyan University by Thomas MacDonough Russell, Jr., described as the great-grandson. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^41]: Wesleyan University Honors College and Russell House records, 2000-025, Special Collections and Archives, Wesleyan University, biographical note (house built 1828; given to Wesleyan 1937; Honors College until 1996; National Register 1970; National Historic Landmark 2001). https://archives.wesleyan.edu/repositories/2/resources/205
[^42]: *The Hamlin Family: A Genealogy of Capt. Giles Hamlin of Middletown, Connecticut, 1654-1900* (1900), entries [1141] (George Osborn Russell, married first Augusta Harriet Mather and second Amelia Charlotte Mather), [1142] (John Augustus Russell, married Helena E. Webster, "An officer U.S. Navy") and [1143] (Samuel Wadsworth Russell, married Clara Alsop Casey; he died and his widow remarried; children William Wadsworth, Mary and Cornelia). https://archive.org/details/hamlinfamilygene00andr
[^43]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 8. Estate valued at $630,000 at the time of death in 1862, left to the widow and "sole surviving son Samuel Wadsworth Russell, Jr." https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^44]: Russell Library, "Russell Library History" (Frances Russell's purchase of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity at Broad and Court Streets in 1873; opening as Middletown's public library on April 5, 1876). https://russelllibrary.org/history/
[^45]: Kris Millegan (ed.), *Fleshing Out Skull & Bones* (Trine Day, 2003), opening article ("His cousin Samuel Russell's family enterprise"); pp. 151-152 ("Samuel's cousin"); p. 313 ("Samuel Russell, second cousin to Bones founder William H."). https://archive.org/details/fleshing_out_skull_and_bones
[^46]: Kris Millegan (ed.), *Fleshing Out Skull & Bones* (Trine Day, 2003), p. 52 ("drug money provided by his uncle, Samuel Russell"). https://archive.org/details/fleshing_out_skull_and_bones
[^47]: Connecticut Secretary of the State, certified copies (March 28, 2001) of "An Act incorporating Russell Trust Association" (1856). The act names William H. Russell first among the body corporate, with John S. Beach, Henry B. Harrison, Daniel C. Gilman, Henry T. Blake and Henry D. White.
[^48]: Kris Millegan (ed.), *Fleshing Out Skull & Bones* (Trine Day, 2003), "Reflecting on the Yale Succession," p. 52. https://archive.org/details/fleshing_out_skull_and_bones
[^49]: Bruce L. Reynolds '66, letter, "More secrets of the Tomb," *Yale Alumni Magazine*, responding to the May/June 2015 article, citing James Bradley, *The China Mirage* (Little, Brown, 2015). https://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/4127-more-secrets-of-the-tomb
[^50]: New York Society Library, City Readers, entity record "Samuel Wadsworth Russell" (dates "8/25/1789 - 5/5/1862"; "founder of Russell & Company"). https://cityreaders.nysoclib.org/Detail/entities/1013
[^51]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 16. Typed transcriptions in the Russell Library, Middletown, made from the Library of Congress originals, relied on by the nomination's author. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text
[^52]: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Nomination, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell House," Middletown, Connecticut (designated 2001), section 8, p. 8, note 2. Alain Munkittrick, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell (1789-1862): A Study in Ordered Investment," Wesleyan University honors thesis, 1973, cited as the basis of the nomination's account of the firm's business records. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000688_text


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