(ib. ii. 71). He was frequently consulted on Irish affairs and, in anticipation of a Spanish invasion in the summer of 1599, he was appointed commander of the forces in the west. He was an unsuccessful competitor with Sir Walter Ralegh for the governorship of Jersey (but cf. Edwards, Life of Sir Walter Ralegh, i. 262), and in September 1602 he had the honour of entertaining the queen at his house at Chiswick. He was created Baron Russell of Thornhaugh in Northamptonshire by James I on 21 July 1603. His last public appearance was at the funeral of Prince Henry, to whom he was much attached. He died at his seat at Northall on 9 March 1613, and was buried in the church of Thornhaugh, where there is a monument to his memory.
Russell married, about 1590, Elizabeth (d. 1611), daughter and heiress of Henry Long of Shengay, Northamptonshire. He had an only son, Francis Russell, fourth earl of Bedford [q. v.] There are full-length portraits of him and his wife at Woburn Abbey.
[Wiffen's Hist. Memoirs of the House of Russell, with extracts from Walker's Funeral Sermon, of which there is no copy in the British Museum; Collins's Peerage, i. 274; Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 380; G. E. C[ockayne]'s Peerage; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Bloxam's Reg. Magd. College, Oxford; Stow's Annals; Leycester Correspondence (Camden Soc.); Clements Markham's Fighting Veres; Lady Georgina Bertie's Five Generations of a Loyal House; Wright's Queen Elizabeth and her Times; Lloyd's State Worthies; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1547–80 p. 491, 1595–7 p. 148, and other references, chiefly in letters from John Chamberlain to Dudley Carleton, printed in full in Chamberlain's Letters (Camden Soc.); ib. Foreign xi. 294; Simancas iii. 435, 555; Ireland ii. 264, 296, 317, 319, v. vi. vii. passim; Cal. Carew MSS. containing his Journal in Ireland, iii. 260, of which there is another copy among the Russell Papers at Woburn (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. p. 2); Cal. Hatfield MSS. iii. 190, 378, 427, iv. 50, 385, 499, 616 (chiefly relating to Flushing affairs); Cal. Fiants Eliz. No. 3745; Annals of the Four Masters, ed. O'Donovan, vi. 1955, 1989, 2019; O'Sullivan-Beare's Historiæ Catholicæ Iberniæ Compendium, pp. 171, 175–7; Bagwell's Ireland under the Tudors, iii. 242–79; Shirley's Hist. of co. Monaghan, p. 100; Hist. MSS. Comm. 10th Rep. pt. ii. (Gawdy MSS.) p. 30; Egerton MS. 1694, p. 51 (protest against appointment of Sir John Norris); Cotton MSS. Galba D. i. f. 140, D. ii. ff. 13, 18, 60, 273, 284, D. iii. ff. 3, 32, 36, 40, 42, 48, 54 (letters to the Earl of Leicester on Flushing affairs), Titus B. ii. f. 317 (to the Earl of Sussex, 2 Jan. 1576), Titus B. vii. f. 94 (recommending Davison to Leicester), B. xii. f. 347b, xiii. ff. 477, 485, 497 (relative to government of Ireland); Addit. MS. 34218, f. 191b (patent of creation); Add. Ch. 6220.]
RUSSELL, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1654), treasurer of the navy, the son of William Russell of Surrey, and grandson of Maurice Russell of Yaverland, Isle of Wight, was a prominent member of several of the great trading companies. He was sworn a free brother of the East India Company on 20 Oct. 1609, ‘having formerly bought Sir Francis Cherry's adventure,’ and became a director on 5 July 1615. He was appointed a director of the Company of the Merchants of London, the discoverers of the North-West Passage, in July 1612. For many years he traded as an adventurer in the Muscovy Company, but, dissatisfied with the management, withdrew his capital. He afterwards became involved in legal proceedings with the company. In May 1618 he bought the treasurership of the navy from Sir Robert Mansell. He held this office until about 1627, when Sir Sackville Crow succeeded him. But the latter appears to have been so incompetent that Russell was reappointed in January 1630 and created a baronet. In 1632 he was appointed a commissioner to inquire into frauds on the customs; on 11 Jan. 1639 Sir Henry Vane was associated with him in the treasurership of the navy. A man of considerable wealth, Russell frequently lent money to the government of Charles I. He was one of the promoters of the Persian Company, to which he subscribed 3,000l., and took part in numerous projects for draining the Fens. He died in 1654, and was buried (3 Feb.) at Chippenham, Cambridgeshire.
Russell married, first, Elizabeth (d. 1626), daughter of Sir Francis Cherry; secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Gerard of Burnell, Cambridgeshire, by whom he had seven sons and three daughters. Of these the eldest, Sir Francis, succeeded as second baronet, and his daughter Elizabeth married Henry Cromwell; the second son, Sir William, knt., was called ‘Black’ Sir William; the third, Gerard, was father of William Russell of Fordham (d. 1701), who married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Cromwell. Thirdly, Russell married Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of Michael Smallpage of Chichester, and widow of John Wheatley of Catesfield, Sussex, by whom he had two sons. Of these, Sir William (called ‘White’ Sir William), was created a baronet on 8 Nov. 1660; the dignity became extinct on his death without male issue.
Russell must be distinguished from Sir William Russell, bart., of Strensham, high sheriff of Worcestershire in 1643 and governor of Worcester during the civil war; he took an active part on the royalist side,
