Jonathan Russell
| Jonathan Russell | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 11th district |
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In office March 4, 1821 – March 3, 1823 |
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| Preceded by | Benjamin Adams |
| Succeeded by | Aaron Hobart |
| Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives | |
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In office 1820 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | February 27, 1771 Providence, Rhode Island |
| Died | February 17, 1832 (aged 60) Milton, Massachusetts |
| Resting place | Russell Family Cemetery (Milton, Massachusetts) |
| Political party | Democratic-Republican Party |
| Spouse(s) | Sylvia Ammidon (1773-1811) (M. 1796) Lydia Smith (1786-1859) (M. 1817) |
| Alma mater | Rhode Island College |
| Profession | Merchant, Politician, Diplomat |
Jonathan Russell (February 27, 1771 – February 17, 1832) was a United States Representative from Massachusetts and diplomat.
Born in Providence, Rhode Island on February 27, 1771, Russell graduated from Brown University (then Rhode Island College) in 1791. He studied law and was admitted to the bar, but did not practice. He engaged in mercantile pursuits for a number of years. In 1808 he was appointed Collector of the Port of Bristol.
He was appointed by President James Madison to the Diplomatic Service in France in 1811. He transferred to England, where he was Chargé d'Affaires when war was declared by the United States in 1812. He was Minister to Sweden and Norway from January 18, 1814 to October 16, 1818.
"Jonathan Russell and the Capture of the Guerriere," by Lawrence S. Kaplan in The William and Mary Quarterly,Third Series, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Apr., 1967), published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, discusses the circumstances of Russell's authorship of a patriotic poem about the famous sea battle found in Russell's private papers (now mainly at Brown University's Library). The article quotes the entirety of the poem, dates it to approximately 1812, and speculates that Russell was motivated to write this anti-British work by the humiliation he had suffered while at the Court of St. James.
Russell was one of the five commissioners who negotiated the Treaty of Ghent with Great Britain in 1814, ending the War of 1812. He returned to the United States in 1818 and settled in Mendon, Massachusetts.
He became a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1820 and was elected to the Seventeenth Congress (March 4, 1821 – March 3, 1823). He was chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (Seventeenth Congress).
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