Elizabeth Russell (1754-1823) was a Gibraltarian-born English diarist who settled in Upper Canada, with her half-brother, Peter Russell, the Province's first receiver general.[1][2]
Elizabeth Russell | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 26, 1754 |
| Died | February 19, 1822 (aged 67) |
| Nationality | British |
| Known for | Being a notable diarist |
Early life
editRussell was born into a disrupted family. Her father Richard Russell was cashiered over a scandal, and, according to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, the stress drove her mother "violently insane".[1] While her father was able to secure employment with the Royal Navy in Harwich, the Dictionary reported "Elizabeth grew up with little education, in an atmosphere darkened by her mother’s insanity and her father’s debts, extravagance, ill health, and lawsuits."
Elizabeth’s father was alienated from her much older half-brother Peter, so she did not meet him until she was 17 years old, and he was 38.[1] Russell cared for her elderly parents until her father died in 1786, when she moved in with Peter, at 31 years old. Neither ever married. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography suggestively described them as a "devoted couple for the rest of their lives." It would have been more appropriate to describe them as a "devoted pair".
In 1791, Peter was appointed Receiver General of Upper Canada.[1] When his superior John Graves Simcoe fell ill, Russell was appointed the temporary administrator of Upper Canada, his title "President", while Simcoe returned to England. Peter had hoped to be appointed Simcoe's replacement, but he continued to be merely the administrator for three years. Peter continued to be part of the Provincial administration when Peter Hunter was appointed the second lieutenant governor in 1799.
While Peter's role in the Provincial administration faded,[colloquialism] he had acquired ownership of 45,000 acres (18,000 hectares), making him wealthy, on paper.[1] He would have liked to have liquidated his landholdings, and retired to England as he became older and his health failed, but there was little market for property in an era when the Crown was granting free land to amyone deemed worthy.
Peter died in 1808.[1] He left his entire estate to Elizabeth.
Peter and Elizabeth were slave owners, owning Peggy Pompadour, and her children Amy, Milly and Jupiter. It is not known when they purchased Peggy and her children, but most likely from Loyalists while living in Niagara during the first years of the Upper Canadian government.[3][4] Simcoe's act to limit slavery prohibited importing new slaves; it did not affect the slavery of individuals in captivity from prior to its imposition. They tried, several times, to sell the Pompadour family, due to their troubled relations with them, without success. Amy is said to have been given to John Denison's wife or daughter.[1][5][6]
According to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, after Peter's death, Elizabeth relied on the family of Dr. William Warren Baldwin.[1] She found the War of 1812 troubling, and she began to show signs of mental instability. By 1814, members of the Baldwin family moved in with her, to help care for her.
She would leave her considerable estate to her cousins Maria Willcocks (spinster) and Phoebe Willcocks, wife of Dr. Baldwin. After Maria's death the entire estate ended up in Baldwin's control, and eventually in the hands of his heirs.
In late 2018[month needed] Afua Cooper published excerpts from Russell's diary, in which she described Peggy and her children.[7]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h
Edith G. First (1979–2016). "Russell, Elizabeth, gentlewoman and diarist". Dictionary of Canadian Biography (online ed.). University of Toronto Press. Archived from the original on 2019-03-18. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
It was not until 1771 that Peter visited Harwich. Elizabeth was charmed with her unknown, unmarried brother, who was more than 20 years older than she was, while Peter was delighted to help with advice, instruction, and encouragement. He returned from the American colonies in 1782, and after their father's death in 1786 he and Elizabeth lived together in Ipswich; they were to be a devoted couple for the rest of their lives.
- ^ Elizabeth Jane Errington (1995). "Wives and Mothers, School Mistresses and Scullery Maids: Working Women in Upper Canada, 1790-1840". McGill-Queen's Press. pp. 131–132, 255. ISBN 9780773513099. Retrieved 2019-06-14.
- ^
"Peggy: Difficult Property". Archives of Ontario. Archived from the original on 2019-02-08. Retrieved 2019-06-14.
Elizabeth Russell's diary describes the "insolent", "pilfering", and "lying" behaviour of the Russells' slaves – Peggy and her children. Peter Russell's letters and newspaper ads reveal the extent of his efforts to get rid of them.
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"FREEDOM-SEEKERS". Toronto Public Library. Archived from the original on 2019-05-06. Retrieved 2019-08-10.
The Pompadour family courageously resisted their enslaved condition. On more than one occasion, Peter Russell sought to sell Peggy and her son, Jupiter, in order to punish her by separating her from her family. In 1808, Russell bequeathed his property, including Peggy and her children, to his sister, Elizabeth Russell.
- ^ William Renwick Riddell (July 1920). "Upper Canada-Early Period" (PDF). The Journal of Negro History. 5 (3): 324. doi:10.2307/2713625. JSTOR 2713625. Retrieved 2021-02-20.
- ^ Peggy Bristow; Dionne Brand (1994). Peggy Bristow (ed.). We're Rooted Here and They Can't Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian Women's History. University of Toronto Press. p. 73. ISBN 9780802068811. Retrieved 2021-02-20.
- ^
Afua Cooper (Fall 2018). "Elizabeth Russell Speaks of her Slave Peggy Pompadour*". Atlantic Books Today. Archived from the original on 2019-08-11. Retrieved 2019-08-10.
Peter really wishes to be rid of Peggy I for one do not want her ever again in this house I hate the very sight of her after she smashed the fine China I crossed the sea with from Ireland.