Jason Russell

1716-1775

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from William Russell Family by Louise Currier, and Dianne Schmidt Hurley,

edited & updated by J. Leppo

 

Jason was baptized at Medford on April 14, 1717. When Jason was only ten years old, his father, Hubbard died. Three years later, his mother, Elizabeth, remarried which relinquished her rights in Hubbard’s estate, and it reverted entirely to Hubbard’s parents (Jason’s grandparents). Jason and his sisters had their grandfather, Jason, appointed as guardian, and went to live in his house.

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When Jason, their grandfather, died, the house was divided with Jason and his sisters receiving the west chamber and garret, half of the cellar and half the kitchen. Portions of his land was left to his wife, Jason and his sisters. Fifteen acres of it were given to Mary, his grandmother, but when she died, it went to Jason and ten acres went to his sister, but it appears that he must have bought it from her later. ‘The Great Pasture’ of forty-one acres is where the famous ‘Jason Russell house’ is located. When the meetinghouse was being located, it is referred to as ‘Jason Russell’s pasture’.

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It has been said that the house was built by Martha Russell, his great grandmother, in 1680, but there was no mention or documentation before of having a house on the “Jason Russell’s pasture”. When Jason married Elizabeth Winship in 1740, he had inherited the land just two years before that. There is speculation that it was then that he built the famous house.

Jason Russell was the first resident of Menotomy on the southerly side of the main street, a few rods west of the church.

Jason Russell was a farmer and “a thrifty man,” but he was not as active in the precinct affairs as his grandfather had been. On May 12th, 1740, he sold an acre of land to Samuel Cooke, the first minister in Menotomy, to build a house on. It is said that he did not hesitate to share his supplies to help Parson Cooke get his house finished and furnished.

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A month later, Jason was admitted in full communion to the church, one of the first people to be so admitted after its organization. His wife had also been one of the original members of 1739.    

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His negro child, Kate, was baptized there in 1754, at the age of 3 months. The Reverend Cooke recorded in his journal that she was a gift to Jason. On March 23, 1878, Russell Teel (Jason’s and Elizabeth’s great grandson) wrote an interesting letter to a Mr. Damon, a son of a former minister of the parish, “to prove the mild condition of Slavery that our New England Fore Fathers had among them.” He wrote about a free black man from Boston who came courting Katy. “Mr. Russell told Katy she could do as she pleased. She could leave him and have her freedom and marry the man. Or stay at home with her old master.”

“Katy said, ‘Master I am not going to leave you, but shall stay with you and die with you’, and she did. A few years later she died.” The incident happened, Mr. Teel wrote “long before the Revolution.”  We don't know the complete details of this happening since there were so little documents about Negros and slaves, but this incident is a story that was handed down through the family.

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Some years later, Jason was one of the Precinct Committeemen (a representative from Menotomy to Cambridge Selectmen) for four years, and Precinct Assessor for the same period (1758; 1761-1763).

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It seems that there was some rift between relatives, mainly his aunt, Martha Dunster, over religious matters which he tried several times to make a conciliation. But did not resolve it.

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Jason’s original house started out as a simple, two rooms, one above the other with a chimney and stairs. As his family increased, he made additions. He turned his house into a characteristic New England farmhouse with five windows in the front and the door in the center.

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Jason Russell was reportedly a fairly prosperous farmer. He was not wealthy according to the inventory of the house at the time of his death, but they lived comfortably.

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“Jason (1716-1775) was the famous Jason Russell, an invalid (from palsy), who was barbarously butchered in his own house by the British troops on their retreat from Lexington and Concord on the 19th of April 1775.”

Earlier that day, Paul Revere came riding down the street (on which Jason’s house is situated) towards Lexington crying, “the British are coming, the British are coming.”         

 

Many people ran for safety. Jason’s wife and little ones went to safety in the cellar out back. It was on this same street that the British came down to battle in Lexington, then back down the same street in retreat.      

                                                            

Jason had refused to flee, exclaiming, “An Englishman’s house is his castle.” I think he just didn’t believe that the British would hurt him in his own house. There were others there with him in front of the house ready to defend themselves. But when the British were fleeing from Lexington going past his house, they attacked Jason and his friends. Their plan was to run for the cellar in back if they needed to. They hadn’t counted on another group of the British to be coming up from behind the house. A few made it to the cellar. Jason was lame on his feet with palsy and could not run so he tried to make it to his house. He was shot on the porch before he could make it inside. Two bullets and eleven bayonet stabs were found on his body. His wife, Elizabeth, said that her kitchen was running with so much blood, inches deep.

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So urgent were their country's needs, that the village people had no time for funeral rites; and the carpenter was too busy to make the coffins, so these martyrs were committed to a common grave with their clothes for shrouds. The citizens of Arlington have since erected a handsome granite monument to mark the resting place of this early martyr of American liberty and his slaughtered companions.

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A simple slate gravestone in the old burying ground contains the inscription apparently composed by the Reverend Samuel Cooke;

“Mr. Jason Russell was barbarously murdered in his own house by Gage’s bloody troops, on the 19th of April 1775 aetatis 59. His body is quietly resting in this grave with eleven of our friends, who in like manner, with many others, were cruelly slain, on that fatal day. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.”    

 

The Jason House in Arlington is now a historical site and every year, the battle is enacted out to remind us of the beginning and how people gave their lives in the Revolution.         

 

Jason and Elizabeth had nine children, but three died in infancy. Four of his children moved to the new town of Mason, New Hampshire, where they were listed in the first grant. Jason, Jr. married Elizabeth Lock in 1762. They moved to Mason about four years later, but came back to visit occasionally to have their children baptized by Parson Cooke. John married Ruhamah Frost in 1769; Hubbard moved to Mason in 1772 where he married, and John joined his brothers there in 1774.  Elizabeth married Deacon Webber and they too moved to Mason. These four children were included in the first grant of the town of Mason, New Hampshire.  They were already grown and moved on when their father was killed.

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Thomas had moved across the street to establish a grocery store in 1773. He was the first to establish a store in Menotomy. It was well established as the only merchant of that village at the opening of the Revolution. The following year, he married Anna Whittemore. After his father died in the bloody battle of Lexington, he left his home and merchandise to shoulder the “King’s arm," and serve as a friend of the colonial cause. On returning to this place of business, Thomas found that the British soldiers had entered the store, helped themselves to what they wanted and destroyed much. Stories are that the soldiers left the molasses kegs running. The store recovered and survives to this day.

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Mary and Noah were the youngest. Little Mary died at only one year old. Since Noah was the only son left at home at the time of his father’s death, the house and land were divided between him and his mother, Elizabeth. She received the seventeen acres that the house was standing on and half the house. Noah received the other half of the house, half the barn and some lands. The rest of the children got other parts of the estate. Elizabeth lived there until she died at sixty-five years old in 1786.

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