Nathaniel RUSSELL was a servant in the household of Robert George DOBBINS-YATE in Bromsberrow.

Nathaniel died in Gloucester aged 32. When buried, at St Mary de Crypt in Gloucester, Nathaniel was given as being from St Nicholas which was being used as a hospital and where he may have been taken if ill or injured.

On his wedding documents he is listed as being from Quedgeley, however no baptismal record has been found. Other possible local baptisms include:

• Nathaniel, son of Nathaniel RUSSEL, at Newnham on 28 Oct 1746

Other information

Almost certainly unrelated, but in 1779 a Nathaniel RUSSELL was listed as a prisoner of war in Dinan, in Britany, France, likely following capture during the American War of Independence. By all accounts the treatment of English prisoners was poor. A letter from Fougreres Castle, Ille-et-Vilaine, dated August 16th 1779 says: "In the first place we have a pound and a half of bread, such as is the cause of all the sickness, beef is but just enough for dogs, sometimes it amounts to half a pound a day, but more often to six ounces, sometimes we have peas, and those so bad that one half of them are as hard when they come out of the furnace as when first put in. The worst of usage in England for the prisoners is absolutely too good. The great havock it made in Dinan last winter [1778/1779] is astonishing! Thirty died of a day, in the whole about 1600. They were put into a cart, a pit dug, and were thrown in like dogs. We have nothing to lie on but straw full of vermin, which deprives us of rest. The beds we had at first are taken away, and we are now treated as if we were horses. We dread the thought of another winter, and expect nothing but to fall victimes to death." A Nathaniel RUSSEL was drawing a Royal Navy pension in 1814, so most likely this was the prisoner.