1731

Samuel Russell, Rev

Death of Samuel Russell — Branford, Connecticut

• Description: Samuel Russell dies on June 24, 1731 in Branford, Connecticut, at the age of seventy-one. He has served the Branford congregation for over forty-three years without interruption, never relocating. He has been a Yale trustee for thirty years. At his death, the institution whose founding tradition centers on his study has been renamed Yale College for thirteen years and is firmly established in New Haven. His physical legacy endures materially: the doors of his Branford parsonage are eventually removed and preserved within the 1742 Room of Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University, where they remain accessible to scholars and visitors today as the closest tangible relic of the founding meeting tradition.
• Source: Totoket Historical Society, Northford, The Athens of Connecticut, p. 1 — https://thetotokethistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/northford_-_the_athens_of_connecticut.pdf; WikiTree, Samuel Russell (1660–1731), Russell-1096 — https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Russell-1096
• Quote: "After a pastorate of more than forty-three years, 'Mr. Russell died on June 25, 1731 at the age of seventy one.'" — Totoket Historical Society, Northford, The Athens of Connecticut, p. 1