Samuel Russell (August 25, 1789 – May 5, 1862), was an American entrepreneur and trader, and founder of
Russell & Company
Russell & Company () was the largest American trading house of the mid-19th century in China. The firm specialised in trading tea, silk and opium and was eventually involved in the shipping trade.
Foundation
In 1818, Samuel Russell was approached ...
, the largest and most important American trading house in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
from 1842 to its closing in 1891.
Early life
Russell was born on August 25, 1789, in
Middletown, Connecticut
Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States, Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, it is south of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated by English settler ...
. He was a son of Capt. John Russell and Abigail (
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Warner) Russell.
He was a cousin of
William Huntington Russell
William Huntington Russell (12 August 180919 May 1885) was an American businessman, educator, and politician. Notably, he was a co-founder of the Yale University secret society Skull and Bones, along with Alphonso Taft.
Early life
Russell was ...
, a co-founder of the
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones, also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death, is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior class society at the university, Skull and Bone ...
Secret Society at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
.
At the age of 12, Russell was orphaned and did not receive any significant
inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, Title (property), titles, debts, entitlements, Privilege (law), privileges, rights, and Law of obligations, obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ ...
, and did not attend college. Instead, he began his career as
apprentice
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
clerk for a maritime trade merchant, Whittlesley & Alsop, in Middletown.
It is there that Russell began learning his skills as a trader.
Career
![Samuel Wadsworth Russell](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Samuel_Wadsworth_Russell.jpg)
In 1810, after his apprenticeship with Whittlesley & Alsop ended, he moved to New York where he hoped to prosper. In 1812, he joined Hull & Griswold, a merchant house, based in New York but established by investors with family ties in Connecticut. He began traveling on company ships as
supercargo
A supercargo (from Spanish ''sobrecargo'') is a person employed on board a vessel by the owner of cargo carried on the ship. The duties of a supercargo are defined by admiralty law and include managing the cargo owner's trade, selling the merchandi ...
and soon began trading on a commission basis which enabled him to found his first company,
Russell & Company
Russell & Company () was the largest American trading house of the mid-19th century in China. The firm specialised in trading tea, silk and opium and was eventually involved in the shipping trade.
Foundation
In 1818, Samuel Russell was approached ...
, a commission trader for Hull & Griswold, in his hometown of Middletown.
China
Attracted by financial prospects, Russell set out for China, an assured profitable venture. He arrived in
Canton, China
Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kong ...
, in 1819, engaging in trade on behalf of the Providence firm of Edward Carrington & Company in various goods and products including
opium
Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
, an extremely profitable activity despite being outlawed-yet protected by foreign forces.
The profits made by Russell enabled him to found Russell & Company in Canton, China, in 1824. Dealing mostly in
silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...
s,
tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...
s and
opium
Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
, Russell & Company prospered, and by 1842, it had become the largest American trading house in China. It kept its dominance until its closing in 1891. Russell withdrew from the company in 1836. He returned to America, and lived in his mansion in his hometown of Middletown, Connecticut, until his death in 1862. The mansion, now bearing the name of
Samuel Wadsworth Russell House, (his son's name, Samuel had no middle name) had an elaborately-decorated interior; Russell had brought back many souvenirs and antiques from China, as well as gifts from his Chinese trade partner,
Howqua
Wu Bingjian (; 17694 September 1843), trading as "Houqua" and better known in the West as "Howqua", was a hong merchant in the Thirteen Factories, head of the '' E-wo hong'' and leader of the Canton Cohong. He was once the richest man in the wor ...
.
Personal life
![Mrs](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Mrs._Samuel_Russell_%28Frances_Ann_Osborne_%29_MET_APS6697.jpg)
On October 6, 1815, Russell was first married to Mary Cotton Osborne, with whom he had two sons, George Osborne Russell and John Augustus Russell, neither of whom lived beyond the "age of early manhood."
Mary was the daughter of David and Mary (née Cotton) Osborne.
Mary died on September 4, 1819, aged 23, while he was in China and the children were cared for by her sister Frances Ann Osborne (1789–1862).
When Samuel returned from China, he and Frances were married on October 26, 1825, and had one child, Samuel Wadsworth Russell.
[Alain Munkittrick, "Samuel Wadsworth Russell (1789 1862): A Study in Ordered Investment," Honors Thesis, ]Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...
, 1973.
Russell died on May 5, 1862 in Middletown, Connecticut.
His widow founded the
Russell Library, a Gothic Revival building near the
Church of the Holy Trinity and Rectory in Middletown.
References
External links
*
Russell & Co. records, 1812-1894at the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russel, Samuel
1789 births
1862 deaths
People from Middletown, Connecticut
American merchants
American expatriates in China
19th-century American businesspeople