ancestral chart | father | mother | index | home |
vital records sources
go to
Joseph Russell's
page
biography in progress
Dartmouth and New Bedford Friends records will reveal more about Judith, but this reference has already been found: In 1792 she and Meribah Howland were appointed to be Overseers of the Poor.(1)
Here is a snapshot of a remarkable event in Joseph and Judith's life that occurred in 1801:
A composite of newspaper death notices for Judith:
children of Judith Howland and Joseph Russell:
i. Barnabus, b. 26 March 1745
ii. Rebecca, b. 30 February 1746/1747
iii. Patience, b. 10 January 1748/1749
iv. Martha, b. 14 December 1751
v. Elizabeth, b. 1 August 1753
vi. Abraham, b. 25 February 1756
vii. Humphry, b. 25 May 1758
viii. Gilbert, b. 2 May 1760
ix. Mary, b. 9 November 1763
x. Judith, b. 26 November 1765
xi. Joseph, b. 13 December 1768
vital records sources: In the New Bedford vital records, Judith's death is reported as being on the 26th, 27th and 28th, depending on the source. Apparently there are several sources not names, perhaps the town records. A family Bible at the Old Dartmouth Historical Society gives the day as the 26th, but a gravestone in the Friends portion of Rural Cemetery says it was the 28th. The transcription of the Bible may be incorrect. One or more of the unnamed source says she was 73. She was 82. Three newspaper notices of her death have been found and have been composited above (New England Palladium, Boston, 3 March; Coumbian Centinel, Boston, 4 March and Farmer's Cabinet, Amherst, NH, 17 March). Only one has her correct age: "in her 83rd year," meaning she was 82 and would be 83 on her next birthday. The other notices made a mistake that is still commonly made today and assumed she died at ("AEt." - Latin for "at the age of") 83. Her family probably provided the information to a New Bedford paper (which has yet to be seen), and the other papers picked it up and abbreviated it, which was also common.
1
1. New Bedford Monthly Meeting of Friends, Women's Meeting records (?), p. 3.