'Jonathan Russell' (
February 27, 1771 –
February 17, 1832) was a
United States Representative from
Massachusetts and diplomat.
Born in
Providence, Rhode Island, Russell graduated from
Brown University (then Rhode Island College) in 1791. He studied law and was admitted to the bar, but did not practice. He engaged in mercantile pursuits for a numbers of years.
He appointed by President
James Madison to the Diplomatic Service in France in 1811. He transferred to
England, where he was
Chargé d’Affaires when
war was declared against the United States in 1812. He was
Minister to Sweden and
Norway from
January 18, 1814 to
October 16, 1818.
He was one of the five commissioners who negotiated the
treaty of peace at Ghent with Great Britain in 1814. He returned to the United States in 1818 and settled in
Mendon, Massachusetts.
He became member of the
Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1820 and was elected to the
Seventeenth Congress (March 4, 1821–March 3, 1823). He was chairman of the
Committee on Foreign Affairs (Seventeenth Congress).
He died in
Milton, Massachusetts and was interred in the family plot on his estate in Milton.