Joseph Russell was an American merchant and ship-owner. He was also a manufacturer.
Background
Joseph Russell was born in the township of Dartmouth, Massachussets, the son of Joseph and Mary (Tucker) Russell. His great-grandfather, John Russell, is counted as his first American ancestor, although tradition has it that John Russell was the son of Ralph Russell of Pontypool, Monmouthshire, who emigrated to New England and is said to have established the first iron works in America at Raynham, Massachussets, in 1652. The part of Dartmouth in which Joseph Russell was born has since become the city of New Bedford, and the village out of which the city grew originated on his farm.
Education
In 1760 Russell sold an acre of land to one John Loudon, who was by trade a caulker and probably supported himself by work on Russell's vessels. Other workers followed Loudon in purchasing lots and building dwellings on them, and in 1765 Joseph Rotch, attracted by the deep water and other advantages for shipping, bought ten acres for business and dwelling houses. The resulting village was called Bedford (later New Bedford) because the family name of the English dukes of that title was Russell, and Joseph Russell was nicknamed "the Duke" as a consequence.
Russell was also prominent in the development of the whaling industry. Capturing whales by posting lookouts on shore and sending boats after those seen was practised early in Southampton, L. I, and from there spread to New England settlements, though operations conducted from shore were gradually paralleled and finally supplanted by deep-sea whaling, in which vessels that constantly grew in size and made increasingly long voyages served as a base. As early as 1755 Russell owned ships that made whaling voyages or traded with the West Indies; he kept a store for the sale of imported goods, and he produced spermaceti candles, paying a Captain Chaffee, who had been in the business in Lisbon, the then very large salary of $100 a year to superintend the process.
In the Revolution (in which his sentiments are indicated by his naming one of his vessels No Duty on Tea) he not only lost his capital through the cessation of American maritime commerce but had most of his ships and buildings burned by the British when they raided New Bedford in 1778.
After the Revolution, however, he rapidly recovered. His prominence and initiative are shown by his engaging George Claghorn, the builder of the frigate Constitution, to construct a ship for him of the extraordinary burden, for that day, of 175 tons; it was this vessel, the Rebecca, that in 1791-93 made the first whaling voyage around Cape Horn to the Pacific hunting grounds.
He was a Quaker and strict in adhering to Quaker practices, but he did not lack independence. Though he refused to allow his famous ship Rebecca to be launched with a figure-head, he had also refused in 1772 the demand of his sect that he free his two Negro slaves. Of slender build and medium height, he nevertheless was physically equal to the rough life of his period and gave many evidences of his endurance and resourcefulness.
Career
Russell was considered as the founder of the whaling industry in New Bedford. He was also a pioneer in the manufacture of spermaceti candles.
Connections
In 1744 Russell married Judith Howland, who was also of an old Dartmouth Quaker family. They had five sons and six daughters, several of the sons being partners in their father's business and prominent citizens of New Bedford.
