Frances Russell, Countess Russell
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Frances Anna Maria Russell, Countess Russell (
née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound; 1815–1898), was the second wife of two-time
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and a ...
. Between 1841 and 1861 she was known as Lady John Russell.


Life

Frances was born in Minto,
Roxburghshire Roxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh ( gd, Siorrachd Rosbroig) is a historic county and registration county in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It borders Dumfriesshire to the west, Selkirkshire and Midlothian to the north-west, and Be ...
, the second daughter of the
Earl Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant " chieftain", particu ...
and Countess of Minto. She spent her early years at the family home of Minto House before moving to Berlin in 1832 when her father was made Minister to
Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
. In September 1835 her father was made
First Lord of the Admiralty The First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible for the di ...
in the government of
Lord Melbourne William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, (15 March 177924 November 1848), in some sources called Henry William Lamb, was a British Whig politician who served as Home Secretary (1830–1834) and Prime Minister (1834 and 1835–1841). His first pr ...
, which saw the family move to London. In 1840, at the age of 24, Frances received an offer of marriage from her father's cabinet colleague, Lord John Russell, who had been widowed two years previously. She initially rejected Lord John's proposal, before reconsidering and accepting. They were married on 20 July 1841 in the drawing room at Minto House. Upon marriage Frances became stepmother to Lord John's two daughters from his first marriage, Georgiana and Victoria, as well as to his four stepchildren (the orphaned children of his first wife Adelaide and her first husband). They had four children of their own: * John Russell, later Viscount Amberley (10 December 1842 – 9 January 1876) * George Gilbert William Russell (14 April 1848 – 27 January 1933) *
Francis Albert Rollo Russell Francis Albert Rollo Russell (11 July 1849 – 30 March 1914) was an English meteorologist and scientific writer. Russell was also an alternative cancer treatment advocate who promoted the idea that cancer is caused by excessive consumption of ...
, known as Rollo (11 July 1849 – 30 March 1914) * Mary Agatha Russell, known as Agatha (1853 – 23 April 1933) In 1847, during Lord John's first term as Prime Minister, the Russells were granted the use of
Pembroke Lodge Pembroke Lodge is an initial, mainstream category listed (Grade II) Georgian two-storey large house in Richmond Park in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It sits on high ground with views across the Thames valley to Windsor, the Ch ...
,
Richmond Park Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is the largest of London's Royal Parks, and is of national and international importance for wildlife conservation. It was created by Charles I in the 17th century as a deer park ...
by
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
. It would remain the Russells' family home until Frances died in 1898. In 1861 Lord John Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell and Frances henceforth became known as Countess Russell. In 1876 the Russells' eldest son, Viscount Amberley, died from bronchitis, leaving two orphaned sons (their mother, Katharine Russell, Viscountess Amberley having died in 1874). They were John ("Frank") Russell (aged 10), who became 2nd Earl Russell, upon the death of his grandfather in 1878, and the future philosopher
Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, a ...
(aged 3). In his will, Amberley had named Douglas Spalding and T. J. Cobden-Sanderson as Frank and Bertrand's guardians, not wishing his children to be raised as Christians, but Lord and Lady Russell successfully contested the stipulation and assumed full guardianship of their grandsons. The deeply pious Lady Russell, notwithstanding her undoubted disapproval of some of its content, made sure that her son's book ''An Analysis of Religious Belief'' (which took a critical view of Christianity and other religions) was published a month after his death. Two years later Earl Russell died, leaving Lady Russell as Frank and Bertrand's sole guardian. In later life Bertrand Russell recalled his grandmother as: ''"the most important person to me throughout my childhood. She was a Scotch Presbyterian, Liberal in politics and religion...but extremely strict in matters of morality."'' Countess Russell died at Pembroke Lodge on 17 January 1898 at the age of 82, having survived her husband by almost twenty years. She was buried alongside her husband in the Russell family chapel at St. Michael's Church,
Chenies Chenies is a village and civil parish in south-east Buckinghamshire, England. It is on the border with Hertfordshire, east of Amersham and north of Chorleywood. History Until the 13th century, the village name was Isenhampstead. There were two ...
.


Character

Lady Russell was a woman of strong religious and political convictions. She was raised as a
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
before becoming a Unitarian in later life. The daughter of a Whig peer, she took an interest in politics from an early age. She was a supporter of liberal causes such as
Italian Unification The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...
and
Irish Home Rule The Irish Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government (or "home rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the e ...
and supported the
North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...
in the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
out of an abhorrence of slavery. Bertrand Russell, recalling his grandmother in later life, wrote that she was "completely unworldly" and "despised those who thought anything of worldly honours." According to Russell his grandmother lived austerely, disliked wine, hated tobacco, ate only the plainest food and "was always on the verge of becoming a vegetarian." While he found her strict Victorian morality excessive, Russell recalled Lady Russell as an affectionate grandmother and admired what he described as "her fearlessness, her public spirit, her contempt for convention, and her indifference to the opinion of the majority." Frances was fluent in French, German and Italian. She was well-versed in classic English and European literature but, according to Bertrand Russell, she had no interest in modern European literature. From the age of 15 she kept a diary, which she discontinued on the death of her husband forty-eight years later. After her death portions of the diary were edited and published by her daughter Agatha.


Honours

A ship ''The Countess Russell'' was named in Lady Russell's honour in 1861. It ran aground and was lost off the coast of
Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...
on 13 August 1873.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Countess Russell, Frances 1815 births 1898 deaths Russell Women of the Victorian era Russell Daughters of British earls Wives of knights Residents of Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park