For your information: This Henry Russell, b1818, is my Great Grandfather. He did indeed have only one arm but we had no knowledge of this forgery business; It is too much of a coincidence for there to have been two Henry Russells born in 1818! Why he wasn't transported we don't know - possibly because he was disabled? He was also a painter and my Grandmother had two paintings of his, still life, in her dining room. He was the owner of the Russell Family and Commercial Hotel in W Hartlepool and died in Greatham.
Henry had a son lso Henry (Stuart Burlingson) Russell, who died in W Hartlepool aged 2 1/2 years.
Regards
Mike Russell
Results 21 to 30 of 31
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17-04-2012, 9:30 AM #21Mike RussellGuest
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17-04-2012, 6:09 PM #22CoromandelGuest
So it really was your Henry who was the forger! I hope it hasn't come as too much of a nasty surprise for you and your sister. The ready availability of old newspapers online does seem to have this side effect of revealing all sorts of our ancestors' misdemeanours.
The consolation is that there's all sorts of wonderful detail about Henry in some of the newspaper reports. When you have got used to the idea of him being a criminal mastermind it will certainly spice up the family history. (By coincidence, one of my own ancestors also got into trouble after an incident involving some banknotes from the very same bank. He was supposed to be delivering them but took them home instead! He was transported, to Van Diemen's Land, in 1838.)
As for your Henry, I would recommend that you search Ancestry more thoroughly than I did to see if he is in their transportation index after all. He could have gone out to Australia but been released early. If he remained in this country, whether pardoned or as a prisoner in a land-based prison or on a prison hulk, he should be somewhere on the 1851 census. I haven't spotted him yet; have you? (I tried checking for anyone listed just as 'H.R.', just in case. You could try 'R.H.' too, just in case his initials have been reversed, which sometimes happened.)
A more thorough search of newspapers may reveal that he was pardoned.
You could also try looking at prison hulk registers (at Kew). It might be a good idea first to check whether there are surviving records for Durham gaol for this period (that's assuming, maybe wrongly, that he was held there immediately after the trial); if they have survived they might just say where Henry went next. If you knew the name of the prison hulk it would save searching time at Kew.
(When is your next sighting of Henry, by the way?)
Sorry again if I have been the bearer of bad tidings.
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18-04-2012, 9:16 AM #23Mike RussellGuest
Nnot to worry about bad tidings - nice to find something to remember him by!
We know, as mwentioned in a previous post, that he owned the RussellFamily & Commercial Hotel in W H'pool and this is listed in local directories. The hotel was in Mainsforth Terrace, next to the Railway Station, but failed after the station was moved to its present location. No trace remains in Mainsforth Terrace.
We have located his headstone in Greatham.
He appears in all census records - '41, '61, '71, '81 in Scranton, and '91 in Greatham, but not in 1851, which may be significant, given that he was convicted in 1844!
We are already looking at other records now. We are also trying to get a line on Old Samuel and Hannah, who may or may not be related to the Sea Captain and may explain how one of his descentants was given the name of Hannah.
Your help is much appreciated!
Mike
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27-05-2012, 3:25 PM #24Mike RussellGuest
Barque Pleiades owned by Thomas Laidler of Da
My 2xG Grandfather, Henry Russell, b 1779 we think, married Elizabeth Broom at Ripon? 1806. (Nothing in Parish Records; may be non-conformist, but nothing found yet.
Other information indicates him to have been Master of the barque Pleiades, owned by Thomas Laidler, Timber Merchant, of Darlington. Although we have quite a lot of info about his descendants, we can find nothing about Henry, except that he is thought to have died in the East Indies.
Prior to him, but with no connection so far, were Samuel and Hannah Russell. The name Hannah does feature briefy in our 19thC records, but this is a very tenuous link!
Any leads would be welcome!
Mike Russell
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07-06-2012, 2:47 PM #25Mike RussellGuest
Owing to my having been whipped off to hospital for a bit, there's a hiatus here and I've lost track of some of the information. Back at the old stand now, though, so I'll be getting back on the trail shortly.
Mike
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02-07-2012, 3:48 PM #26Mike RussellGuest
Getting to work again on this! We have now found the details of Henry and Elizabeth. This took place in Ripon Minster on 24th Dec 1806, but Elizabth's name is given as Brown, not Broom. Ripon Historical Soc has no records of any Brooms in the area.
Henry and Elizabeth are described as bachelor and spinter of this parish (by nanns). Also of interst is that their daughter, Isabella, was baptised in the Minster 10th April 1807, so this may have been a shotgun marriage.
Still no details of Henry, though.
Mike
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02-07-2012, 5:08 PM #27CoromandelGuest
It's good to hear that you've found the marriage, Mike. The date and place tie in perfectly with what Samuel said (post #13). The names Brown and Broom when hand-written can easily be mistaken for one another, too, so it's quite possible that he originally wrote 'Brown' and someone has mis-read it.
As he was spot-on about the date and place of their marriage, then it also seems worth paying attention to what he said about the dates and places of his parents' births (post #12). FamilySearch isn't co-operating at the moment so I haven't been able to check what coverage they have of Monkwearmouth. Of course Brown won't be an easy name to research: I have some of my own, from Northumberland and Durham, and haven't got back beyond the late eighteenth century with them.
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10-07-2012, 3:36 PM #28Mike RussellGuest
For your interest: I have located the David Russell, whose archived message you found in the Ancestry files and he has amassed a very large amount of information about the Russell Family, especially of his own line, from Henry 1779's son Samuel.
He has also given us Henry's parentage: His father Samuel (abt 1735) was a Sergeant of the First Regiment of Footguards, operating as a Recrruiting Sergeant for the Army. His mother was Hannah Bridgewater. Her family owned the Bridgewater Estates near Bristol. She was Mistress of the Girls' School of Industry in Stocketon.
The descendants of the migrants to Cleveland USA have done extensive research and I now have a massive amount of information about them as well as my own branch, and we are one step further back into the 18thC for news of Henry 1779 (or possibly 1790!).
Much of this is down to your efforts, especially in finding the original message from David. Your efforts are much appreciated.
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11-07-2012, 5:58 PM #29CoromandelGuest
I'm glad I was able to be of assistance and to help reunite some long-lost cousins.
It never ceases to amaze me what some people's ancestors got up to! If you made up a story about a one-armed forger people would say it was too far-fetched, but in family history you have to expect the unexpected!
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03-12-2012, 4:16 PM #30Mike RussellGuest
Hi, Coromandel, I've been off line for a bit, going through the material I received from our American cousins and we've moved the brixk wall a bit! Henry 1779 still died in the Eat Indies - don't know where but possibly Sumatra - but we know a bit about his father, Sergeant Samuel Russell of the First Regiment of Foot. He is said to have married Hannah, who was Mistress of the Stockton Girls' School of Industry, which as founded in 1803 by Grace Horsfall, about whom I have only found that she was married to George Sutton and there is a plaque to her in the Church at Stockton. (Henry's ship, Pleiades was wrecked off Sunderland apparently, mid-18thC, but Henry not aboard>)
Hannah was said to have been of the family of the owners of the Bridgewater Estate, near Bristol. But the Bridgewater Estate in in Lancashire and was founded by the Dukes of Bridgwater, notably Francis Egerton, the canal builder. I can find no Hannah in the Egerton family, though there was a Hannah Egerton (1753 - 1817) In Stockton around the relevant time. There is no information about her that I can find.
Samuel was born around 1735, it seems; I doubt if we'll get any further than that.
Best wishes.
Mike
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