—publicly enrolled himself as a member of the Birmingham Political Union, under the leadership of Thomas Attwood. On the institution of the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons, he was in 1843 selected as a fellow.
He died suddenly on 24 Dec. 1851, and was buried in the vault of his family, under the old meeting-house, on 31 Dec. On 5 May 1817 he married Sarah Hawkes of Birmingham, and by her was the father of three children, of whom the eldest, James Russell (d. 1885), was for many years physician to the Birmingham General Hospital.
An oil portrait is inthe possession of Mr. James Russell at Edgbaston, Birmingham; it was engraved.
[Lancet, 10 Jan. 1852; Gent. Mag. 1852; Churchill's Medical Directory; private information.]
RUSSELL, JAMES (1790–1861), law reporter, born in 1790, was the eldest son of James Russell, esq., of Stirling. After graduating with distinction at Glasgow University, he was called to the English bar from the Inner Temple in June 1822. Having been introduced by Henry Lascelles, second earl of Harewood, to Lord Eldon, he was appointed in the following year a reporter in the courts of the lord chancellor and master of the rolls. In 1824 he became sole authorised reporter. He gradually acquired a large chancery and bankruptcy practice, and took silk in 1841. He had ceased reporting in 1834. He ultimately became leader of Vice-chancellor Knight Bruce's court, but overwork destroyed his eyesight, and for some years before his death he was blind. He was on four occasions asked to become a candidate for parliament, but declined each invitation. While not a brilliant pleader, Russell held a high position at the bar, owing to his learning and acuteness.
Besides contributing to the ‘Quarterly Review,’ Russell, together with his younger brother, John Russell (see below) of the Scots bar, was for some years editor of the ‘Annual Register.’ James Russell died at Roxeth House, near Harrow, on 6 Jan. 1861, and was buried at Kensal Green. He married, in April 1839, Maria, eldest daughter of the Rev. Robert Cholmeley, rector of Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, by whom he had issue three sons and five daughters.
Russell published: 1. ‘Reports in Chancery,’ 1826–8, 4 vols. 8vo, and 2 parts, vol. v. 1827–30. 2. With George J. Turner, ‘Reports in Chancery, 1822–4,’ 1832. 3. With James W. Mylne, ‘Reports in Chancery, 1829–31, with particular cases in 1832–3,’ 2 vols. 8vo, 1832–7. All these volumes were reprinted in America.
The reporter's brother, John Russell, published in 1824 an account of ‘A Tour in Germany and some of the Southern Provinces of the Austrian Empire,’ which was highly praised by Christopher North in ‘Noctes Ambrosianæ’ (August 1824), and by Chancellor Kent. A second edition appeared in 1825, in 2 vols., and an American edition at Boston the same year. In 1828 a reprint, with additions, formed vols. xix. and xxx. of ‘Constable's Miscellany.’ He was called by Lord Robertson ‘the Globe and Traveller,’ on account of his round bald head. His friend Jerdan says he was ‘exceedingly well informed, and a most agreeable companion.’
[Solicitors' Journal and Reporter, 12 Jan. 1861; Law Times, 16 Feb. 1861; Ann. Reg. 1861, Append. to Chron. p. 488; Wallace's Reporters; Marvin's Legal Bibl. (which gives christian name wrongly); Sweet's Cat. of Modern Law Books; Catalogues of Brit. Mus., Edinburgh Advocates' Libr. and Incorp. Law Society; Allibone's Dict. Engl. Lit. ii. 1897–9; Jerdan's Autobiogr. iv. 180.]
RUSSELL, JOHN (fl. 1450), author of a ‘Book of Nurture,’ was usher in chamber and marshal in hall to Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, and evidently took great interest in his various duties. He made his experience serve as the basis of a handbook of contemporary manners and domestic management, which he entitled a ‘Book of Nurture.’ He probably derived much from an earlier work with like views, which is preserved at the British Museum as Sloane MS. 2027. The copy of his work in Sloane MS. 1315 seems to represent it in its original shape, while that in the Harleian MS. 4011 embodies a later revision. The ‘Book of Nurture’ has been edited from Harleian MS. 4011 by Dr. Furnivall for the Roxburghe Club, London, 1867, 4to, and for the Early English Text Society in ‘The Babees Book,’ 8vo, 1868. It gives a complete picture of the household life of a noble from a servant's point of view; setting out the duties of a butler, the way to lay a table, the art of carving, and other particulars. The manuscript has no title. Parts of Russell's work are to be found in the ‘Boke of Keruynge,’ printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1513.
[Edition of Russell's Book of Nurture in the Roxburghe Club.]
RUSSELL, Sir JOHN (fl. 1440–1470), speaker of the House of Commons, was son of Sir Henry Russell, a west of England knight who had fought in France in the
