Russell Ramblings: The Russell Family Name

For Christmas this year my wife received a set of coasters that contain the Russell family coat of arms (*1). On the back was written “The name Russell has been known in Ireland since the Middle Ages, and although of English origin it is now found in many parts of the country. There was never a Russell clan as such, but many individual Russells have left their mark on Irish history.” This got me thinking about the spread of the Russell family across many countries – including France, England, Ireland, Scotland, and the United States.

My mother’s family name, Pierpont, is not as widespread as the Russell name. In France, it began as de Pierrepont (literally “of the stone bridge”) in the late 900s and the family still exists under that name (*2). In England it became Pierrepont, but many of the family lines “daughtered out” (*3). Thus, while many of the individuals with that name were quite well known and even were royalty, it was not widespread. There were also variations of the spelling in some of the family lines. The only individuals who emigrated to the US (the British colonies at the time) were two brothers, John and Robert Pierpont who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s and Henry Perpoynt/Pierpoint who came to the Virginia/Maryland colony in 1623 (*4).

The Russell family name began around the same time in Normandy when Hugh Bertrand (b. 1012) became the baron of the villages of Barneville and le Rozel, thus making himself Hugh de Rozel (or de Roussel) (*5). Hugh went to England with William the Conqueror in 1066, however I have not found that he left any family behind, so while the town still remains, there are no individuals with that family name. In England, Hugh anglicized his name to Russell.

Interestingly, many websites record that the name Russell was “probably” derived from “rous” meaning red and that early bearers may have had red hair (*6). But my own research indicates the association is more likely to the village of that name rather than the hair of Hugh (*7).

Unlike the Pierrepont family who remained in England for the next several centuries, the Russell family initially settled on the south coast in Dorset, but then began to spread to other parts of the British Isles. By the year 1164, there were members of the Russell family found in Scotland (*6, *7), as well as in Ireland in the 1200s (*8). As the information on the back of the coasters mentioned above indicates, there was no Russell clan in Ireland. But in Scotland, there is an armigerous clan (*9) with the Russell name (*10). There is even an official Russell tartan (*11).

When the British colonies began to be settled in what is now the US, there were members of the Russell family from all over the British Isles who left for America. Some of the immigrants from Scotland are listed in (*1), including individuals who settled in both Virginia and Boston in 1620-1640 as well as others who migrated later both to those locations as well as to Canada.

Because there were so many different individuals from different lines of the family who came to the US, two people with the last name of Russell may be nearly impossible to connect. My Russell last name is from Robert Russell who came from Scotland around 1750, but I also have other Russells on my mother’s side of the family tree who came from England (*12). And I made a little attempt at tracing the family trees of a few others who share my Russell last name, not finding any connections to my own ancestors (*13).

But whether we have a documented connection or not, we can all be proud of our family heritage! As the motto on the family crest (*1) notes, “che sara sara” (what will be will be).