Ralph Russell - Iron Forge Worker

My interest in finding out more about Ralph Russell, my ninth great-grandfather, piqued when I noticed he had originally settled in Lynn, Massachusetts, which is close to the town of Beverly, where I attended college and first heard the following poem. 

Lynn, Lynn the city of sin
You never come out, the way you came in

You ask for water, but they give you gin
The girls say no, yet they always give in

If you’re not bad, they won’t let you in
It’s the damndest city I’ve ever lived in

Lynn, Lynn the city of sin
You never come out, the way you came in.

Author: unknown

I am not sure of the exact date of Ralph Russell’s arrival which was probably sometime between 1643 and 1647,  but I do know he settled in Lynn, which is located about ten miles north of Boston.   

 I have not been able to verify where Ralph Russell was born or whom his ancestors were, but I believe the following to be the most probable connection to his ancestors.

Ralph Russell was most likely descended from French iron workers who immigrated to England in the 1500’s to occupy available iron works jobs. (Bowman) I have found no definitive documentation of Ralph Russell’s parentage, but the Russell name, traced back to France, was associated with the iron works industry since around 1450, when it was common practice for skilled tradesmen, such as iron workers, to pass down their skills within families for several generations.  

Taking the above information into consideration, I believe that Ralph Russell was born in England, between 1607 and 1625, most likely in Sussex, where there was a large settlement of iron workers.  The discrepancy in his birth date relates to the fact that I do not know his parentage, even though many have recorded William Russell, who settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts as Ralph’s father, I have found nothing to substantiate a relationship, especially since I could find no connection between William Russell and the iron works.

There is a question that I had not been able to answer about Ralph Russell for quite some time.  Could the Ralph Russell who showed up in Lynn and Braintree be the same man as the Ralph Russell mentioned at the Taunton Iron Works and the same man who ended up in New Haven?  I believe so since the common thread linking Ralph Russell to all of these places was iron.

John Winthrop, the younger

 Ralph shows up in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1647 listed as one of the iron workers who emigrated from England to America between 1643 and 1650.  John Winthrop, the younger, the son of the Governor of Massachusetts, John Winthrop, conjured up the notion of building an Iron Works Forge in New England in order to produce greatly needed and in demand iron products, such as nails, to the developing colonies. 

When John Winthrop, the younger went to England to recruit highly skilled workers for his iron forge, I imagine that Ralph Russell as a young worker, thought the opportunity of starting out in a new world sounded like a promising and hopefully prosperous venture.

In the 1640’s the inhabitants and governing bodies of the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies were mostly Puritans who believed the Church of England needed to be reformed.  Encarta Dictionary defines a Puritan as “a member of a group of Protestants in 16th- and 17th-century England and 17th-century America who believed in strict religious discipline and called for the simplification of acts of worship.”   The lifestyle of the immigrant iron workers was vastly different from the majority of the colonists.  Iron workers were far from being Puritan!

Needless to say, the Puritans did not look upon the iron workers and their families, a rowdy and unlawful group, favorably. The scandalous behavior of these new immigrant iron workers was pretty shocking even by today’s standards.

Ralph Russell does not appear to be the worst of the bunch, but he did associate with the worst and shows up in court records as witness to some unpleasant activities as well as a participant, as the excerpts below show. 

Nicholas Penyon (also, Pynyon) presented for absence from meeting four Lord’s days together, spending his time drinking and profanely. His wife was bound to good behavior, but having broken her bond is to be severely whipped. [Witnesses: John Chacksell and Ralphe Russell. – Files.]

George Darline and wife Kate deposed that last winter all Sabbath day there were several persons sitting and drinking at Mr. Jnº Hathorn’s house. They saw Jnº Divan of ye Iron works and Ralph Russell in ye house overgone with drink. Mr. Bridgewater was also seen drunk in ye house sometimes. Sworn to as above.

Oliver Purchis, clerk at ye Iron works, deposed March 31, 1657, that he has seen several persons in the house of Mr. Jnº Hathorne of Lynn, drinking; and not able to speak or go. Sworn to in Ipswich court.

In the early 1650's several of the iron workers left Saugus and Braintree to set up new iron forges throughout New England. Ralph Russell left Lynn but continued to work in at least two iron forges in both Plymouth Colony and New Haven.  In 1652, he apparently proceeded to help establish an iron furnace in Taunton, Massachusetts with James Leonard along the Two Mile River.

Ralph Russell did not stay in Taunton for very long and shows up in New Haven, Connecticut by 1653 along with other men from Braintree and Lynn, to work in a new iron forge which John Winthrop, the younger started.  The iron workers from Lynn continued their wicked ways in Connecticut where their families show up in court records for a variety of offenses. Ralph Russell went on to marry Mary Hitchcock, raise a family and die in 1679, presumably in an accident at the New Haven iron forge.

Here is a link to an interesting video about the history of the Saugus Iron Works.

 Iron Works on the Saugus - Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site

A link to my post about my visit to the Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site
Thrifty Thursday-A Visit to the Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site 

 



Sources

Bowman, Robert E. “Glimpses into the English and Continental Ancestry of Certain Braintree and Saugus Ironworkers of about 1650: Vinton, Leonard, Pray, Pinion, Tyler and Russell,” TEG 20 (May 2000):63–77

Hartley, E.N.(Edward Neal). Ironworks on the Saugus the Lynn and Braintree Ventures of the Company of Undertakers of the Ironworks in New England. University of Oklahoma Press, 1957. Print.

 Norton, Mary Beth. Founding Mothers & Fathers Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society. 1st Ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. Print.

 Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County Massachusetts Volume I 1636-1656. Salem, Massachusetts: Essex Institute, 1911. Web. 1 Nov. 2012.