Author: Russell, John
Biography:
RUSSELL, John (1792-1878: ODNB)
The future Liberal Prime Minister was born in Hertford Street, Westminster, on 18 Aug. 1792, the third son of Whig aristocrat John Russell, the Duke of Bedford, and his wife, Georgiana Elizabeth, who was a daughter of George Byng, Viscount Torrington. He was baptized nine days later at St George, Hanover Square. Russell was educated privately, in 1803 and 1804 at Westminster School, and from 1809 to 1812 at Edinburgh University where he lodged with Professor John Playfair and where he joined a famous conversazinone, the Speculative Society. In parliament from 1813 to 1861, he represented, successively, Tavistock, Huntingdonshire, Bandon Bridge, Devon, Devon South, and London. As MP, his lasting accomplishments were his 1828 motion to repeal the Test and Corporation Acts and his role in the passage of the 1832 Great Reform Bill. He was the bill’s co-drafter and its prime advocate in the House. He held various offices in several administrations, was prime minister in 1865 and 1866, and was created earl in 1861. HL attribute to him the anonymous 1819 poem Epistle to Thomas Moore, Esq. In Imitation of the Thirteenth Satire of Juvenal, but without evidence. No corroboration of the attribution has been discovered. He is of course most notable as a statesman, but he also was a prolific man of letters, the editor of Moore’s Memoirs and the author of several histories, a novel, a play, and competent essays, including contributions to the Edinburgh Review. He married twice, on 11 Apr. 1835 to Adelaide Lister (1807-1838), a widow, by whom he had two daughters; and on 20 July 1841 to Frances Elliot-Murray-Kynymound (1815-1898), a daughter of the second earl of Minto, by whom he had three sons and a daughter. He died at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park on 28 May 1878 and is entombed in St Michael’s church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire. At probate, his estate was valued under £80,000. (ODNB 10 Oct. 2024; ancestry.com 10 Oct. 2024; historyofparliamentonline.org 24 Oct. 2024) JC