Jonathan RUSSELL, Congress, MA (1771-1832)

RUSSELL, Jonathan, a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Providence, R.I., February 27, 1771; was graduated from Brown University (then Rhode Island College), Providence, R.I., in 1791; studied law; was admitted to the bar, but did not practice; engaged in mercantile pursuits; appointed by President Madison to the Diplomatic Service in France in 1811; transferred to England, where he was Chargé d’Affaires when war was declared against the United States in 1812; Minister to Norway and Sweden from January 18, 1814, to October 16, 1818; one of the five commissioners that negotiated the treaty of peace at Ghent with Great Britain in 1814; returned to the United States in 1818 and settled in Mendon, Mass.; writer and orator; member of the state house of representatives in 1820; elected as a Republican to the Seventeenth Congress (March 4, 1821-March 3, 1823); chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs (Seventeenth Congress); died in Milton, Norfolk County, Mass., February 17, 1832; interment in the family plot on his estate in Milton.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present