Author: Russell, William
Biography:
RUSSELL, William (1740-1793: ancestry.com)
The poet was the eldest son of Alexander Russell of Windydoors farm, Selkirk, and his wife, Christian Ballantyne. Born 17 Nov. 1740 (not 1746), he was baptized eleven days later at nearby Stow. He was educated at a school at Innerleithen, Peebleshire, and then, beginning in 1756, at Edinburgh for about ten months. From then through 1761 he was apprenticed to booksellers and printers Martin and Wotherspoon of Edinburgh. In 1763 he joined a literary collective, the Miscellaneous Society. When in 1765 he gained the patronage of Patrick, lord Elibank, he determined to become a man of letters. That object proved insufficiently lucrative, however, so in May 1767 or 1768 (sources differ) he moved to London to become a corrector of the press for Strachan. In the following year, he gained employment as printing overseer at Brown and Adlard. In 1780, he voyaged to Jamaica to recover money left by his deceased brother James. In Sept. 1787 at Conobie, Dumfries, he married Isabella (or Isobel) Scott, by whom he had a single child, a daughter, Christian (b 1 Dec. 1789 in Aberdeenshire). He retired with his family to a farm, Knottyholm near Langholm, where he spent the remainder of this days. The poet died at Knottyholm on Christmas Day 1793 and was buried in Westerkirk parish church where there is a monument to his memory. Besides poetry, he authored prose fiction, translations, and commercially successful histories of America and modern Europe. His other work was soon forgotten, but his histories were reprinted well into the nineteenth century. There is no indication that he was a bencher or, for that matter, that he ever studied law, yet in 1777 he styled himself “William Russell, Esq; of Gray’s Inn” and he dated his preface to The Tragic Muse “Gray’s Inn, January 20, 1783.” When in 1782 St Andrews awarded him the honorary LL.D., presumably it was in recognition of his success as an historian. (findmypast.com 25 Oct. 2024; ODNB 30 Oct. 2024; Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine 3:13 [1818], 398-401; A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen [1854] 4: 215-216) JC
Other Names:
- W. Russell