Russell Sturgis (1805-1887)

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Russell Sturgis (1805-1887) was a Boston merchant active in the China trade, and later head of Baring Brothers, London.

Sturgis was born in Boston in 1805, a grandson of the noted merchant Russell Sturgis (1750-1826), went to Harvard College at twelve, and in 1828 first sailed abroad. For a time he practiced law in Boston, but in 1833 sailed for Canton on behalf of the opium smuggler John Perkins Cushing. In Asia he entered succession of family firms (Russell & Sturgis of Manila; Russell, Sturgis & Co. of Canton; Russell & Co.), and in 1842 he became a full partner.

In 1844 Sturgis retired to Boston to rejoin his children, sent there to school after their mother died in 1837 in Manila. He remarried, to Julia A. Boit, but then decided to return with his family to China. The steamer on which they crossed the Atlantic arrived too late to catch the onward ship from London. In their interval there, Sturgis was asked by the senior member of Baring Brothers to become a partner. He accepted, ultimately becoming head of the firm.

Sturgis never returned to the United States, and died in England in 1887.