Russell Sturgis (1750 - 1826) was the second son of Thomas Sturgis, Jr. (1722-1785), and Sarah Paine, of Barnstable, Massachusetts. He married Elizabeth Perkins (1756-1843), daughter of James Perkins (d. 1773), on November 11, 1773. Her grandfather was the Boston merchant and fur trader Thomas Handasyd Perkins, with whom Sturgis apprenticed at age sixteen, then worked as a hatter and furrier. Sturgis served as lieutenant of the Boston regiment of the Massachusetts militia in August and September 1778, and from 1787-1792 served under John Johnston as first lieutenant in Boston. Sturgis's brothers-in-law, James Perkins (1761-1822) and Thomas Handasyd Perkins (1765-1854), were notable China traders. In 1795 Sturgis joined them in ownership of a new ship, the Grand Turk, which was sent to Canton in March 1796. When the Perkins brothers opened a branch office in Canton (now Guangzhou) in 1803, Sturgis invested substantially, and three of Sturgis's sons subsequently voyaged to China. In 1818