Prior to the Boston Tea Party, William Russell was a teacher and a Freemason in Boston, Massachusetts.
After his participation in the “destruction of the tea” at Griffin’s Wharf on December 16, 1773, Russell was noted to have dusted his shoes over the fire to remove all signs of tea.
Russell may have also participated the following month in the tarring and feathering of loyalist John Malcom in January 1774 with more radical Sons of Liberty, including fellow tea party participant George Robert Twelves Hewes, who was badly injured in the confrontation.
William Russell went on to military service during the Revolutionary War, having served under fellow tea party participant Thomas Crafts Jr. for a time. However, he found himself captured and imprisoned, first in Plymouth, England, and then on the infamous prison ship Jersey in New York Harbor.
William Russell died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on March 4th or 7th, 1784, and is buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts.
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