Portrait of Abigail Russell Curwen (Mrs. Samuel Curwen, 1725-1793)

Abigail Russell was the youngest daughter and the eighth of nine children born to Daniel and Rebecca (Chambers) Russell. Early settlers of Charlestown, Massachusetts, the Russell family were respected merchants and landowners, Daniel serving as treasurer of Middlesex County for over fifty years. In 1750 Abigail married Samuel Curwen of Salem, a match that has been characterized as a “diplomatic alliance between the aristocracies of the towns.” Evidence suggests it was not entirely a happy union. Samuel (1715-1802) was a merchant who served as Judge of the Admiralty Court in Boston. As tensions mounted between Britain and the colonies, Curwen maintained his loyalist sympathies, attracting the enmity of Samuel Adams. When he was threatened by a mob, he fled to England where he lived from 1775-1784. Whether Abigail disagreed with Samuel’s views or welcomed a separation, she refused to accompany him and remained in Salem. While in England, Samuel recorded his life in exile, keeping a diary that was published in the nineteenth century. He returned to Salem as an elderly man in 1785, but finding his old life much changed and relations with his wife irreconcilable, he soon departed for England a second time. He remained there for another nine years, only to return to Salem in 1794 after Abigail had died.

Joseph Blackburn was an English portrait painter who maintained a studio in Boston from 1750 until 1765. During that time he painted many important early American families. During his career he was admired for his skill at rendering fine textiles such as silk and lace and is most often remebered today as John Singleton Copley's teacher.

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