David Russell

Biography

David Russell carried his household from Lexington to Concord and then to Littleton, all northwest of Boston in Massachusetts, where he became a deacon. He and Abigail Winter were the parents of John Russell, born in 1702, and of other children whose later land transactions help trace the family's establishment in Littleton.

David took part in a consequential dispute over the town's ministry. In May 1730 he was one of five men appointed to confer with the Reverend Benjamin Shattuck about his dismissal. The ensuing negotiations involved both church and town, including whether a council would be called and how long the minister's salary would continue. David's place on the committee shows him participating directly in the management of the community's religious and financial affairs.

His later records concern the disposition of family property. In December 1740 David and Abigail conveyed two Littleton parcels, described as twelve and twenty acres, to Nathaniel Russell for forty pounds. By October 1744 David was dead, and several of his heirs quitclaimed their interests in his estate to Amos Russell. The sequence reveals a household arranging land across generations, alongside David's more public work as a church officer.

The family record identifies David’s parents as John Russell and Elizabeth Fiske.