Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 2.djvu/90

74 BEDFORD III. 1550. Russell, Dorset, (d. 1509), by his ist wife, Alice, da. and h. of John Wyse, of Sydenham, Devon, was b. about 1485, at Kingston Russell, and having {y.p.) in Jan. 1 506, made himself of service to Philip of Austria and Juana his wife (King and Queen of Castile), when wrecked off Weymouth, was by them introduced to the Court, and was made Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Henry VII in 1507, and to Henry VIII in 1509. In 1513 he attended the King at the taking of Therouenne and Tournay, at which latter place he obtained (in 15 17) certain lands, and was in 15 14 deputy thereof. He was knighted by the Earl of Surrey, 2 July 1522, for his services at the taking of Morlaix in Brittany; was on several important missions to Italy, Germany, i^c; in 1523 was made Knight-Marshal; was at the battle of Pavia 24 Feb. 1524/5; Sheriff of Dorset and Somerset, 1528; M.P. for Bucks, 1529-36; attended the King in 1532 to Boulogne; was Comptroller of the House- hold, 1537-39; P.C. 1538, and again 1547 and 1553. On 9 Mar. 1538/9, he was cr. BARON RUSSELL.(^) In that year he had a grant of the manor of Agmondesham [now Amersham], Bucks, being part of the estates of Edward Stafford, the attainted Duke of Buckingham. President of the Council for Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset, Apr. 1539; nom. K.G. 24 Apr., and inst. 18 May 1539. In July 1539 he was made High Steward of Cornwall, Warden of the Stannaries, i^c; Lord High Admiral, 1540-42; Privy Seal, Oct. 1542-55; High Steward of the Univ. of Oxford 1543 till his death; Capt. Gen. of the Vanguard of the army for the attack on Boulogne, 1 545 ; one of the executors (Dec. 1 546), and one of the 16 counsellors during the minority of Edward VI, appointed by Henry VIII. Besides the Cistercian Abbey at Dunkeswell, Devon, he, in 1540, on the dissolution of the greater monasteries, obtained for himself and the heirs of his body the whole of the rich Abbey of Tavistock, Devon, also the town of Tavistock with above thirty manors, several advowsons, fife, belonging thereto in Devon and Cornwall, also other lands in Devon, Somerset and Bucks, some belonging to the dissolved Abbey of St. Albans, i^c. Other grants followed. From Edward VI he obtained the preceptory of Knights Hospitallers at Mitchelburn, Beds, the Cistercian Abbey at Woburn, Beds, the Benedictine Abbey at Thorney, co. Cambridge (1549), the Dominican Priory (afterwards called Bedford House) at Exeter, dffc. Finally, on 4 May 1552, he obtained the grant of seven acres called "Long Acre," Midx., (forfeited by the Duke of Somerset) which, being the garden of a suppressed convent, comprises the site of the present " Covent Garden-^") (') This Barony was cr. the same day as that of " St. John," and is enrolled immediately subsequent thereto. Neither of them is described as of any locality, the titles conferred being (merely) "Baron Seint John " and "Baron Russell." C") On this site was afterwards built " Bedford House " on the north side of the Strand, now (19 10) the site of Southampton Str., which house was taken down in 1704, when the family removed (for 100 years) to Bedford House, Bloomsbury. Great as may have been the deserts of the first Earl there is little doubt but they were more than rewarded by the honours and estates that were lavished on him. See the eloquent speech of Edmund Burke (1796), brought forth by an attack on his (well earned) pension made by the Duke of Bedford, in Collins, vol. i, p. 270.