The Russell Family
Tracing my Russell ancestors, I again go back to the work done by my mother, Leora Atkinson Parsons, eldest child of Georgia Eunice Russell. She found that our earliest Russell progenitor in this country was Bryce Russell, who immigrated to Virginia from either Scotland or County Antrim, Ireland. Bryce was the son of George Russell, and he had three brothers: James, Andrew, and George. A family tradition, repeated by several accounts, says that the four young men came to this country together, but they then separated, and Bryce never saw his brothers again.
An account by Mrs. Robert E. Russell, Cedar Bluff, Alabama, in Cherokee County Heritage 4, no. 2 (April 1975) states that Bryce Russell (spelled "Brice") was born in Scotland. Much of the account, though, seems anecdotal and hearsay, and I have seen no firm evidence to prove that he and his brothers did not come from Ireland.
Bryce first appears in the records of Augusta County, Georgia, which in the 1750s was a huge area comprising nearly the western half of Virginia (including all of what is now West Virginia). He is mentioned in Chalk's Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia, Vol. 1, Augusta County Court Records, Order Book III, Sept. 4, 1751, in the following item: "(197) Called Court on Jane London--not guilty of the felony, but bound to the peace toward Bryce Russell and Alexr. Walker." The record doesn't say what felony Jane London was accused of, or why she had a grudge against Russell and Walker.
Nine years later, the Chronicles, Order Book VI, May 20, 1760, reported: "(355) Hugh Thompson has lost his reason, and Bryce Russell and Andrew Leeper are appointed to take care of his estate." Both Bryce Russell and Andrew Leeper were sons-in-law of Hugh Thompson. Bryce had married Jane Thompson about 1748.
Hugh Thompson's will, written April 26, 1757, and probated in 1762, is extremely useful because it mentions several of his grandchildren, including children of Bryce and Jane. The names are Hugh, George, Rachel, and Isabella (or Isabelana) Helena. Names of their other children not mentioned in the will are Bryce Jr., Jane, Andrew, Joseph, Mary (known as Polly), and James R. The only one for whom we have a firm birthdate is James R., who was born November 2, 1771. Hugh Thompson's will and other Russell wills are abstracted at http://files.usgwarchives.org/va/augusta/wills/willbk3.txt.
Bryce and Jane moved to the Watauga Valley, in the region that is now northeastern Tennessee, about the beginning of the Revolution. At the time, that country was still part of the westward extension of North Carolina. It was rugged country, mountainous with rapid rivers, but the narrow valleys were fertile and appealed to the fiercely independent frontier people. It was dangerous country, too, for during the Revolution a number of Indian tribes, including the Cherokees, allied themselves with the British and attacked the Colonial settlers, trying to drive them back east of the mountains.
Could one of Bryce's sons, George, have preceded them there? A George "Rusel" was one of the signers of the Watauga Association's petition to the State of North Carolina to be included in the state government, dated July 5, 1776.
For defense against the Indians, the Tennessee settlers built forts and blockhouses near their homes. In times of trouble they would gather their families at the forts, where, with the help of militiamen, their numbers could keep the Indians at a distance. Bryce Russell became one of the leaders of the settlers in the area of the Watauga and Holston Rivers. In 1774 he wrote a letter to Colonel Preston, the Continental commander for the region, asking for support:
Sr July 2th 1774 Holston River
We are oblidg to you for your advice to Stand our ground and to buld forts for our defene but our Scattered Sittuation
makes it very deficualt as we are but 85 in number in Captain Lury's company of which 30 have listed Volunteers
we ly open to the enimy about 12 = miles on one Sid 14 on the other and 8 on another we are all very willing to
Stand our ground but if we get not a Suply of men and amunition on I think it will be impossible for us to Stand
it if our enimies Should atacth us as I make no doubt they will a timely Suply I think would be very necessary
A disorder prevented is worth two Cures. I ame the Corner house next to the island and I ame very un willing to
give any ground to the enimy if I posably can help it Some of the people was for moving in March on account of
the rumor that was then but I encouraged them to Stay as the Governor had promised asistanc to the frontiers no
more at present but remains your friend and humble Servant
Bryce Russell
To Coln Preston
Throughout the Revolution the settlers west of the Great Smokies continued to suffer from Indian raids. Two of Bryce's sons, Hugh and George, were reportedly killed by Indians, possibly in 1778. One Russell researcher, Lucile W. Bates, wrote Leora Atkinson Parsons: "This is given this way by some descendants. There were at least two George Russells in East Tenn. at the same time. I do not know whether both George & Hugh [Russell] were killed at the same time or at different times."
Bryce Russell's family is mentioned in part of a letter from Col. William Christian, Mahanaim, to Col. William Preston, October 22, 1779:
Dear Sir
. . .
Jamey Thompson, tells me that Logan and another Indian were lately at Bryce Russell's, near Amos
Eatons, and took off two of his daughters, and a Negro Wench. The Indian talked good English and
answered to the Description given of Logan. He talked to the Old Woman, knocked her down, and
left her, so that she can tell of him. Six Persons were also killed on Clinch. Captain Thompson who says
that the commissioners when they stopped in Carter's Valley, they found, that they had then encroached
2 1/2 miles upon Carolina, but affirmed they had been right at Jamey Young's Place; which mav be about
ten miles from Wolf hill, towards the South. He was saying also that a Number of Cherokees left the
Commissioners in Disgust for their Treatment particularly in refusing them some small Quantity of Powder.
Captain Martin, I hear, is afraid since that happened. Adieu good Sir
Wm Christian
Note that Col. Christian's letter does not mention that any of Bryce Russell's family were killed when Jane Thompson Russell was knocked down and the two daughters were taken by the Indian Logan. Yet it does mention six people killed on the Clinch River about that time, and it seems likely that if George and Hugh had been killed when their mother was attacked and their sisters abducted, Christian would have said so.
In spite of the dangers to his family and neighbors, Bryce Russell stayed on as one of the earliest citizens of Tennessee. North Carolina Warrant 1521, 1790, awarded a land grant of 150 acres in Tennessee to Brice Russell. The land was in Sullivan County on the north side of the Holston. Sullivan County Deed Book 1, p. 50 (reprinted in Watauga Association Vol. 1, no. 2 [1972], p. 40) states that on October 23, 1782, Bryce Russell received Land Grant 110 of 640 acres on the north side of the Holston beginning at Joseph Copeland's line, adjacent to land of James Byth (Blythe?), and cornered by Joseph Rogers's land.
Bryce Russell, Sr., Bryce Russell, Jr., and William Craige (sic) were among the settlers of eastern Tennessee who signed a petition, about 1790, requesting that the North Carolina government allow them to establish their own state, to be called the State of Franklin.
Most of their children of Bryce and Jane have left a historical record that reflects the westward migration and settlement of the times.