“Capt. Daniel Adams gave me a kind offer to go with him and laid me in a Venture which don’t at present seem to succeed so well as I would wish. However, I shall bring you home something for yourself and hope to see you soon. I desire if any person should make any inquiry where we are, you would answer at the Eastwd. for I don’t know whether the trade is opened among you or not. However, we are not the only vessel that’s here from the Thirteen States.
“We are treated very politely by his Excellency, and the Inhabitants, and I’ve a number of old friends here, and shall give you an acct. of them on my return.”
During the summer of 1783, William Russell returned to Cambridge, broken in health, with a scanty reward from his trading venture. He tried to gather together enough pupils to form a small school in his living quarters at the “Light House Tavern,” Cambridge. This endeavor was short-lived, for he was fast wasting with consumption. He died in the spring following his return from the sea whereon he had suffered greatly for his Country. He was no more than thirty-five years old when his untimely end came, but his life was exceedingly worth while even though it was his lot rather to endure than to achieve. Nor could he have desired any more worthy obituary, nor wished to preach a more inspiring doctrine to later generations of free-born Americans than was voiced in these words sent to his wife from Old Mill Prison, England, one hundred and twenty-six years ago:
“I think many in the Yard will enter into the King’s service. And I should myself, was it not that (by so doing) I must sell my Country, and that which is much more dearer to me, yourself and my children, but I rely wholly on God, knowing He will deliver me in His own good time.”
FOOTNOTES:
[19] “Mr. Laurens having been constituted one of the five Commissioners to negotiate a Peace, the New Administration consulted with Mr. Laurens, and after the first conference he was released from his Parole, as well as his securities. Earl Cornwallis was released from his parole in consideration of the favors granted Mr. Laurens.” (From a London Newspaper of May 8th, 1782.)
In a letter from Sir Guy Carelton and Admiral Digby to General Washington, dated at New York August 2, 1782, they stated:
“With respect to Mr. Laurens we are to acquaint you that he has been discharged from all engagements without any conditions whatever; after which he declared of his own accord, that he considered Lord Cornwallis as free from his Parole.”
[20] “In the month of July, 1782, four privateers, two of them, the Hero and the Hope of Salem, attacked Lunenburg in Nova Scotia. They landed ninety men who marched to the town against a heavy discharge of musketry, burnt the commander’s dwelling and a blockhouse. Their opponents retreated to another blockhouse upon which one of the privateers brought her guns to bear and forced them to surrender. The captors carried a considerable quantity of merchandise to their vessel and ransomed the town for one thousand pounds sterling. The Americans had three wounded.” (From Felt’s “Annals of Salem.”)
[21] The following is the text of the parole issued, granted to William Russell: