Author: Russell, John Miller
Biography:
RUSSELL, John Miller (1768-1840: ancestry.com)
He was born in Boston, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Russell. He graduated from Harvard (AM 1785) and seems to have gone into business with his father, who wrote to officials in Washington in 1794 to recommend him for the post of American Consul in Russia, since the young man would be in Russia anyway. The appointment was made and announced publicly, but when the new Consul arrived in St. Petersburg in 1795, Catherine II refused to see him or to confirm the appointment. He returned to the US and in the next few years published a number of short patriotic works: an oration for the 4th of July (1797), a poem on the same subject (1798), and a funeral oration for George Washington (1800). His translations of Virgil, accompanied by some original poems, appeared in 1799. If he was angling for public office, however, he seems to have failed. His father, who had been president of the National Bank in Boston and of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, had died in 1796. After 1800 John Miller Russell lived quietly attending to business. No record of marriage or family has been discovered, and his death notices do not mention them. He died at home in Boston, "son of the late Hon. Thomas Russell." (ancestry.com 15 Aug. 2020; John Warren, "An Eulogy on the Honourable Thomas Russell" [1796]; "From George Washington to the U.S. Senate, 21 November 1794," Founders Online 15 Aug. 2020)