Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Russell, John (1787-1863)
RUSSELL, JOHN, D.D. (1787–1863), master of the Charterhouse, born in 1787, was son of John Russell (d. 26 April 1802), rector of Helmdon, Northamptonshire, and Ilmington, Warwickshire. He was educated at the Charterhouse school, where he was gold medallist in 1801, and matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 3 May 1803. He graduated B.A. in 1806 and M.A. in 1809, took holy orders in 1810, and was appointed head master of the Charterhouse in 1811. Under his administration the school became extremely popular. In 1824 he had 480 boys under him. Among his pupils were George Grote, Sir Henry Havelock, and Thackeray, who immortalised the school as Grey Friars in the pages of ‘Vanity Fair,’ ‘The Newcomes,’ and other of his works, and outlined Russell's portrait in the stern but wise head master ‘of our time.’
In 1827 Russell was made a prebendary and afterwards canon residentiary of Canterbury, and resigned the head-mastership in 1832, on being presented to the rectory of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate. He was president of Sion College in 1845 and 1846, and was treasurer of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and a capable administrator of other societies. He held St. Botolph's rectory until his death, at the Oaks, Canterbury, on 3 June 1863. A Latin inscription to his memory, and that of two sons, is placed in the Charterhouse chapel.
By his wife, Mary Augusta, born Lloyd, a cousin of Charles Lloyd [q. v.], bishop of Oxford, Russell had four sons—John (d. 1836), Francis, William, and Arthur (d. 1828)—and two daughters: Augusta, wife of the Rev. G. Bridges More; and Mary, wife of General Hutchinson.
Although he was an admirable reader, he was not a great preacher. Besides separate sermons and school books, he published ‘The History of Sion College,’ London, 1859, 8vo, and edited for the first time ‘The Ephemerides’ of Isaac Casaubon [q. v.], with a Latin preface and notes, 2 vols. Oxford, 1850, 8vo.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886, p. 1237; Register of Charterhouse Chapel, Harl. Soc. Publ. xviii. 71, 88; Mozley's Reminiscences, i. 162, 170, &c.; Times, 5 June 1863.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.240
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 454 | i | 17 f.e. | Russell, John (1787-1863): for Mary Augusta, read Mary Augusta Lloyd (a cousin of Charles Lloyd, bishop of Oxford [q. v.]), |
| 15-14 f.e. | for one daughter, Mary. read two daughters: Augusta, wife of the Rev. G. Bridges More, and Mary, wife of General Hutchinson. |