Jack, David Russell

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Peter J. Larocque, “JACK, DAVID RUSSELL,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/jack_david_russell_14E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Author, editor, publisher, and politician; b. 5 May 1864 in Saint John, one of the six children of Henry Jack and Annie Carmichael Johnston; great-grandson of Thomas Millidge and grandson of Hugh Johnston; d. unmarried 2 Dec. 1913 in Clifton Springs, N.Y.
    • Russell Jack first achieved acclaim in 1883 with his award-winning Centennial prize essay on the history of the city and county of St. John. Completed just two years after his graduation from the Saint John Grammar School, it presaged his career as a respected historian and author. Jack’s interest in history stemmed in part from the reminiscences of relatives such as his maternal grandmother, Harriet Maria Millidge Johnston, the daughter of planters and loyalists at Saint John. His paternal ancestry included loyalists who had settled at St Andrews.
    • After the untimely death of his father in 1884, and as the only son who had survived to adulthood, Jack was compelled to take over the family insurance business; at the same time he assumed his father’s duties as Spanish vice-consul. Public-spirited, Jack served Saint John as a member of the Common Council in the 1890s. Although he pushed for the preservation and promotion of the heritage of the city, he was also an avid supporter of progress and was instrumental in achieving the introduction of electrical street lighting. 
    • Throughout his life Jack assiduously cultivated his literary and historical connections. To this end, he was corresponding secretary for the New Brunswick Historical Society and a corresponding member of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society and the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. He also held the position of historian with the New Brunswick Loyalist Society. Membership in the Canadian Club, the St Andrew’s Society, and the Saint John Art Club figured prominently in his public activities as well.
    • In 1913 Jack published History of Saint Andrew’s Church, Saint John, N.B., an account of the Presbyterian church in which he had long been active. That year he was awarded membership in the Royal Colonial Institute of London. At the time of his death, he was preparing a history of the New Brunswick loyalists and their descendants. 
  • Great grandson of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=5894
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18034340/david-russell-jack