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Mr Bourn RUSSELL (1794 - 1880)

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Date of Birth: 01/12/1794
Place of Birth: Rye, Sussex, England
Date of Death: 04/07/1880
Place of Death: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Parliamentary Service
Position Start End Period Notes
Member of the NSW Legislative Council 03 Sep 1861 04 Jul 1880 18 years 10 months 2 days Life Appointment under the Constitution Act. Date of Writ of Summons 24 June 1861
Member of the NSW Legislative Council 20 Aug 1858 13 May 1861 2 years 8 months 24 days First (Quinquennial) Appointments under the Constitution Act. Date of Writ of Summons 17 August 1858.
Member for Northumberland Boroughs 28 Mar 1856 05 Aug 1856 4 months 9 days Election voided on the Report of the Elections and Qualifications Committee, on a petition lodged against his election.
Member of the NSW Legislative Assembly 28 Mar 1856 05 Aug 1856 4 months 9 days
Political Party Activity
Community Activity
Qualifications, occupations and interests
Retired factory owner of independent means. Educated at Free Grammar School in Rye and then at Edmonton and then under Reverend William Fuller in Sussex. Apprenticed to sea in 1810; by 21 was a ships commander. Soon after became captain and then part owner of a vessel trading chiefly in China and South Seas from 1815 until 1824. Went into whaling. Brought wife and children to New South Wales in 1834; settled at Maitland in 1844 and lost everything in the depression. Operated boiling down works at Stoney Creek in 1846; venture prospered and he sold out having acquired independent means. Father of New South Wales government astronomer.
Military Service
Honours Received
Membership of other Parliaments & Offices Held
Local Government Activity
Personal
Son of Bourn Russell, commander of merchant ship, and Hannah Russell. Married Jane Macreth in 1815 in England and had issue, 2 daughters and 5 sons. Congregationalist.
Additional Information
Personal papers in the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales: Bourn Russell - journal, 1830 - 1832, with later annotations 1839 - 1846, along with incidental papers, 1820 - 1829 (MLMSS 3532); photographs in the PICMAN Database. Warwick Hirst, "Bourn to be Wild", The Bulletin, 11 July 1995, pp. 34 - 35.

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