Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/494

 ,’ 1772. 5. ‘Essay on the Character, Manners, and Genius of Women,’ 1772, from the French of M. Thomas. 6. ‘Julia, a Poetical Romance,’ 1774, an ambitious failure. 7. ‘Tragic Music,’ 1783, a spirited tribute to Mrs. Siddons.  RUSSELL, WILLIAM (1777–1813), organist and composer, son of William Russell, organ-builder, was born in London on 6 Oct. 1777. From his eighth year Russell's instructors were the organists Cope, Shrubsole, and Groombridge. Between 1789 and 1793 he was deputy to his father, who was organist to St. Mary's, Aldermanbury. In 1793 Russell was appointed organist to the Great Queen Street chapel; cathedral services were performed there until 1798, when the chapel became a Wesleyan meeting-house. On 2 Sept. 1798 he was elected organist at St. Anne's, Limehouse. In 1801 he was elected to a similar post at the Foundling Hospital. About the same time he resumed his musical studies under Dr. Samuel Arnold [q. v.], through whose influence he obtained employment as composer and accompanist at theatres. In 1808 he graduated Mus. Bac. at Oxford. He died on 21 Nov. 1813 at Cobham Row, Coldbath-fields.

Russell was a clever, even powerful, executant, and a facile if not very original writer of scores. His organ voluntaries, in suite form, ‘generally contain a melodious fugue, with clever modulation and climax’. Besides many songs, Russell wrote overtures or incidental music for theatrical entertainments. For Sadler's Wells he composed an overture to the ‘Highland Camp’ (1800); music to ‘Old Sadler's Ghost,’ to the ‘Great Devil’ (with Broad), to ‘Harlequin Greenlander,’ to ‘St. George,’ to ‘Zoa,’ and to ‘Wizard's Wake’ in 1802. For Covent Garden he wrote a dance in Busby's ‘Rugantino’ (1805), a new overture to ‘Wild Islanders,’ and music for ‘Adrian and Orilla’ (1806). For the Royal Circus he prepared music for pieces entitled respectively ‘Harlequin and Time’ and ‘False Friend’ (1806). He also composed music to Christopher Smart's ‘Ode on St. Cecilia's Day’ (1800) and the ‘Redemption of Israel,’ both of which were probably performed by the Cecilian Society, of which he was a member. A volume of psalms, hymns, and anthems was compiled for the Foundling Chapel in 1809. He further published ‘Twelve Voluntaries for the Organ or Pianoforte’ (1807?), and a ‘Second Book’ (1812), while ‘Job,’ an oratorio adapted for organ or pianoforte, by Wesley, was issued in 1826.  RUSSELL, WILLIAM (1740–1818), merchant and reformer, son of Thomas Russell (1696–1760), ironmaster, and Frances (1713–1767), daughter of Thomas Pougher of Leicester, was born in Birmingham on 11 Nov. 1740, and educated for a mercantile life. His business was the export trade from Birmingham and Sheffield to Russia, Spain, and the United States. As a Birmingham townsman he showed great public spirit. In politics he was a strong advocate for measures of reform, especially interesting himself in the agitation for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. On the settlement of Joseph Priestley [q. v.] at Birmingham in 1780, Russell, who was a member of his congregation, became his generous supporter and intimate friend. The dinner of 14 July 1791, which led to the Birmingham riots, was mainly promoted by Russell, and, as he states, on commercial grounds, in the interest of the Birmingham trade with France (Letter in Appeal, 1792, ii. 135). On the third day of the riots his house at Showell Green was burned by the mob. He went up to London with his family, arriving on 18 July, and, at an interview with Pitt, obtained assurance that the government would indemnify the sufferers. His letter (20 July) to the ‘Morning Chronicle’ gives an account of the dinner, in correction of an inflammatory article in the ‘Times’ of 19 July.

Soon afterwards Russell retired from business, and lived near Gloucester. In August 1794 he set out from Falmouth for the United States with his son Thomas and two of his daughters, intending to wind up matters connected with his American trade, and to look after his paternal estate in Maryland. His vessel was captured by a French squadron and detained in Brest harbour. He did not reach America till September 1795. Here he stayed nearly five years, seeing much of the leaders of American affairs, visiting Washington in his retirement at Mount Vernon, and beginning a correspondence with him. In 1802 he visited France on his way to England, and was detained, on the outbreak of war, at Ardennes, in Normandy, where his kindness to the needy gained him the name of ‘le père des pauvres.’ He 