Francis Russell (1740 – 1 September 1795)Taylor, Pat. (1997) ''Hadley Wood: The Story of a Golf Club''. Hadley Wood: Hadley Wood Golf Club, p. 4. was an English lawyer, official and author.

Life

Russell was the youngest son of an attorney, town clerk in

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is a town in Hampshire, situated in south-central England across a valley at the source of the River Loddon on the western edge of the North Downs. It is the largest settlement in Hampshire without city status in the United King ...

, Hampshire, and a younger brother of the Rev. Sambro(o)ke Russell, the antiquarian. He was articled to his father, and then practised as a solicitor on his own. Around 1762

James Smith-Stanley, Lord Strange James Smith-Stanley, Lord Strange (1716–1771) was commonly known by that title, though neither he nor his father had any claim to it. He was the eldest son of Edward Stanley, 11th Earl of Derby, whose predecessor's heirs had used that courtesy ...

as its

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

brought him in to do legal work for the

Duchy of Lancaster The Duchy of Lancaster is an estate of the British sovereign. The estate has its origins in the lands held by the medieval Dukes of Lancaster, which came under the direct control of the monarch when Henry Bolingbroke, the then duke of Lancast ...

. Russell strived to put the records in order, and gave up other work. He held the title "His Majesty's Surveyor for the South part of the Duchy" (of Lancaster) when Enfield Chace was broken up in 1777. As part of the break-up, Russell was allowed to buy the freehold of 152 acres of land bordering on Beech Hill and Cockfosters Road in

Hadley Wood Hadley Wood is suburb of north London, close to the border with Hertfordshire. It is part of the London Borough of Enfield, north of Charing Cross, close to Chipping Barnet. History The area in which Hadley Wood is situated is part of ...

. On this land he built Russell Mansion, later known as Beech Hill Park, and now used as the club house for Hadley Wood Golf Club.Clark, 1978, pp. 28-29. Subsequently, Russell was brought in to reorganise affairs of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

, through

Thomas Orde Poulet Thomas Orde-Powlett, 1st Baron Bolton (30 August 1746 – 30 July 1807) was an English politician. He was also an amateur etcher, and a cartoonist. Life Born Thomas Orde, he was son of John Orde of Morpeth, Northumberland, Morpeth, Northumberl ...

. He was Secretary to the India Board, and a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

and

Society of Antiquaries of London The Society of Antiquaries of London (SAL) is a learned society of historians and archaeologists in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1707, received its royal charter in 1751 and is a Charitable organization, registered charity. It is based ...

Works

Russell wrote ''A Short History of the East India Company'' (1793), which was published anonymously.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Francis 1740 births 1795 deaths English solicitors English landowners 18th-century English historians Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Hadley Wood