Thomas Russell (1762-July 31, 1788) was an English poet born at Beaminster early in 1762. He was the son of John Russell, an attorney at

Bridport Bridport is a market town and civil parish in Dorset, England, inland from the English Channel near the confluence of the River Brit and its tributary the River Asker, Asker. Its origins are Anglo-Saxons, Saxon and it has a long history as a ...

, in

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

shire, and his mother was Miss Virtue Brickle, of

Shaftesbury Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, Wiltshire, Salisbury and north-northeast of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hi ...

. He was educated at the grammar school of Bridport and in 1777 proceeded to

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

, where he stayed three years under Dr. Joseph Warton, and Thomas Warton the professor of poetry. In 1780 Russell became a member of New College, Oxford. He graduated with a B.A. in 1784 and was ordained a priest in 1786. During his residence at the university, he devoted himself to French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Provençal, and even German literature. His health, however, broke down, and he retired to Bristol Hotwells to drink the waters, but in vain, for he died there from consumption on the 31st of July 1788. He was buried in Powerstock churchyard,

. In 1789 was published a thin volume, containing his s''onnets, and Miscellaneous Poems'', now a very rare book. It contained twenty-three

sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...

s, of regular form and a few paraphrases and original lyrics. The sonnets are the best, and it is by right of these that Russell takes his place as one of the most interesting precursors of the romantic school. War, Love, the Wizard, and the Fay he sung in other words, he rejected entirely the narrow circle of subjects laid down for 18th century poets. In this he was certainly influenced both by Chatterton and by Coffins. But he was still more clearly the disciple of

Petrarch Francis Petrarch (; 20 July 1304 – 19 July 1374; ; modern ), born Francesco di Petracco, was a scholar from Arezzo and poet of the early Italian Renaissance, as well as one of the earliest Renaissance humanism, humanists. Petrarch's redis ...

, of

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio ( , ; ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was s ...

and of Camoens, each of whom he had carefully and enthusiastically studied. His ''Sonnet Suppos'd to be Written at Lemnos'', is his masterpiece, and is unquestionably the greatest English sonnet of the 18th century. The anonymous editor of Russell's solitary volume is said to have been

William Howley William Howley (12 February 1766 – 11 February 1848) was a clergyman in the Church of England. He served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1828 to 1848. Early life, education, and interests Howley was born in 1766 at Ropley, Hampshire, wher ...

(1766–1848), long afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, who was a youthful bachelor of New College when Russell, who had been his tutor, died. His memoir of the poet is very perfunctory, and the fullest account of Russell is that published in 1897 by Thomas Seccombe.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Thomas 1762 births 1788 deaths 18th-century English clergy 18th-century English poets 18th-century deaths from tuberculosis English male poets People from Beaminster Alumni of New College, Oxford 18th-century English male writers Tuberculosis deaths in England