William Russell (11 November 1740 – 26 January 1818) was a Unitarian Birmingham merchant and a close friend and sponsor of Joseph Priestley. He promoted and defended Rational Christianity. Russell helped lead the agitation for the repeal of penal laws against English Dissenters and canvassed support for a political union of the Dissenters.
Life William Russell was the eldest of three brothers, Thomas and George, who variously inherited the family's extensive trading interests. His great grandfather, Thomas Russell, had been a Birmingham ironmaster, whilst his grandfather William had expanded into North America, acquiring iron deposits, furnaces and forges in Maryland and Virginia.Some correspondence of grandfather William Russell for the period 1725-1728 may be found in the British Library, Add MS 29600. His father, Thomas (1696–1760), had diversified into thread-making and skinning, businesses that William inherited. Following his marriage to Martha Twamley in September 1762, he invested in a leather business in Worcester in partnership with Henry Beesley, and in 1772 set up the shipping company Respondentia, with Thomas and Nathaniel Jefferys. A thousand-pound investment in this latter concern, including interests in the East Indiamen Norfolk and Grattan, yielded a profit of £630 in the first year alone. In 1775 he formed a partnership with John Finch, dealing in textiles, metals and metal products with Sweden, Holland and Russia.
William and Martha had five children, Martha, Mary, Frances, Thomas Pougher, and Jane. Jane died an infant, and Frances died in 1785 after a long illness. Russell's wife was killed in a coach accident in 1790, during a family holiday in Yorkshire.Mrs. Russell's Journal for this holiday is in Birmingham Reference Library, MSS 660347. The Russells lived well but not extravagantly in a farmhouse at Showell Green in modern-day Balsall Heath, Birmingham. Russell employed two labourers to run the farm and stables, but took a personal interest in stock-breeding, a subject on which he corresponded with George Washington, America's first president.John C. Fitzpatrick (ed.), The writings of George Washington, 1745-1799, Washington, 1938. As one of Birmingham's leading citizens, Russell's advice and support was sought for many of the important commercial, civic and social causes of the day. He was a subscriber and committee member for the town Hospital and the Birmingham Humane Society. In 1787, he was appointed one of the Wardens of the Birmingham Assay Office, supporting Matthew Boulton in recommending the introduction in Britain of standards of silver lower than sterling silver (9 oz. and 10 oz. per pound Troy). Russell was also a Justice of the Peace for the county of Worcestershire, his house in Showell Green being just inside the Worcestershire border.
Philanthropy Russell responded generously and constructively to the needs of those in distress, never courting publicity but always "more concerned to be good than to appear so". He financed the teaching of poor children, paid a local surgeon to care for poor families in the neighbourhood, and contributed to schemes to provide food for the poorest of his neighbours. Throughout his life, many families, "sufferers by fire" and "persons stricken with illness" were supported by his bounty. During the American War for Independence, Russell bought food, clothes and shoes to ease the distress of American prisoners of war.An Act of the Maryland General Assembly, 3 November 1783, exempted Russell's American property from confiscation, because "his purse and interest were liberally made use of in favour of American prisoners, many of whom were clothed and fed by his bounty, their sufferings alleviated, and their lives preserved." British Library Add MS 44993, f. 16
When Russell's house was targeted for destruction in the 1791 Priestley Riots, his poor and illiterate neighbours came to his aid, some calming and dissuading roadside rioters.
Views on education As a Rational Christian, Russell valued education. He paid local clergymen to teach poor boys to read and write, helped support the Birmingham Library and its offshoot Scientific Library, and sponsored scientific lectures. He subscribed to schools in Coseley, Oldbury, Hall Green and Birmingham, and to Warrington Academy and the New College at Hackney, as well as numerous Sunday Schools in the West Midlands. Like his grandfather and father before him, he was a governor of King Edward's School, Birmingham.Philip B. Chatwin (ed.), The records of King Edward's School, Birmingham, vol. 5, Oxford (Dugdale Society), 1963 He joined the committee of London's 'Presbyterian University', the New College at Hackney, in May 1790. When the college faced bankruptcy with debts of two thousand pounds because of over-expansion and poor supervision of the builders, he dashed to London to add his support, chairing a subcommittee appointed to "reduce household expenses".John Rylands Library, MSS collection of Lindsey letters in three volumes: Lindsey to William Tayleur, 21 May 1791 and 7 June 1791. Dr. Williams's Trust: Hackney College Minute Book, 1785-91, ff 135, 150. In 1790, he backed Priestley's scheme for a Birmingham Sunday Society, where youngsters who had passed through a basic Sunday school were taught arithmetic, book-keeping, geography and drawing, as well as the elements of natural and revealed religion, by teachers drawn from Priestley's Senior Class.J. Money, Experience and Identity, Manchester University Press, 1977, pp. 142, 220. As well as a major subscriber to the Unitarian New Meeting in Birmingham, acting as Secretary to the committee of subscribers from 1771 to 1793,Russell's family had been members of the New Meeting, since its foundation in 1692, when Russell's great-grandfather worshipped in what was then called the Lower Meeting. When a new chapel was built in the late 1720s, in Moor Street, Russell's grandfather was one of thirty-two original trustees: Herbert New, The New Meeting and Church of the Messiah, Birmingham, 1912. Russell subscribed to a host of chapels up and down the country, including Theophilus Lindsey's Essex Street Chapel, and supported a number of dissenting ministers.
It was only through Russell's whole-hearted leadership and practical support, that within a few weeks of becoming co-pastor of New Meeting Birmingham, Priestley was able to establish a new scheme of catechetical classes, appointing elders to assist him; introduce lectures on natural and revealed religion to a Senior Class; and start a Congregational Library. Agreeing with Priestley that the promulgation of a Rational Christianity was the best way of reconverting unbelievers, Russell financed several editions of Priestley's Appeal.Joseph Priestley, An appeal to the serious and candid professors of Christianity ... by a lover of the gospel, Birmingham, 1782 When this prompted a vitriolic response from the Anglicans,Anonymous, Martin Luther to Socinus, or A serious and affectionate address to the hearers and admirers of Doctor Priestley, by lovers of the truth as it is in Jesus, Birmingham, 21 April 1783 Russell encouraged Priestley to write the anonymous Melanchton to Martin Luther.Joseph Priestley, Melanchton to Martin Luther; or a serious, affectionate reply and address, to those who under the title of Lovers of the Truth, as it is in Jesus, have addressed the hearers and admirers of Doctor Priestley, Birmingham, 5 May 1783.
For years, Russell had voiced his anger at the way Dissenting clergy were treated by Church of England ministers. Things came to a head at his mother's funeral in 1767, at St Philip's Church, now St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham, when one of the curates refused either to ride in the same carriage as the two Presbyterian ministers, or to allow the Presbyterian ministers to walk in front of the coffin.William Russell, As many of Mr. Russell's Friends have lately applied to him for the Perusal of some Letters, Birmingham, 1771. Thus, used to attacking such Anglican bigotry, Russell sprang to Priestley's defence when Anglican clergy contrived a series of acrimonious disputes in regard to the management of the Birmingham Library.Charles Parish, History of the Birmingham Library, London, 1966 Likewise, he encouraged and supported Priestley during the acerbic pamphlet war that accompanied the campaign for the repeal of the Test Acts.
Test and Corporation Acts With the revival of the movement for repeal in 1787, Russell threw himself zealously into the cause of political liberty. Though this was not always their effect in practice, the Test and Corporation Acts were intended to limit public office to practising Anglicans, and came to be seen as an essential bulwark of the union between church and state. Writing to the Warwickshire MP, Sir Robert Lawley, to solicit his support on the Dissenters' behalf, Russell tried to assure him that the Dissenters' object was "entirely of a civil nature, and ... can neither diminish, nor interfere with, the provision which the legislature has made for the established church." "We are not attacking the rights of others", he added, "but merely endeavouring to recover our own."William Parry, Remarks on the resolutions passed at a meeting ... held on Feb 2, 1790, Birmingham, 1790. (Russell's letter to Lawley is printed as an appendix)
Believing that the Dissenters could only be an effective political force if they presented a united front on common issues, Russell led moves to draw the united strength of the Dissenters together. As a first step, he persuaded representatives of the various Baptist, Independent and Presbyterian congregations to attend a meeting at Dadley's hotel, Birmingham on 14 October 1789. The result was the formation of the Committee of the Seven Congregations of the Three Denominations of Dissenters, chaired by Russell himself. The committee, with Russell's financial backing, undertook the publication and distribution of a number of works on religious liberty, including two volumes of Extracts, substantially edited by Russell.Extracts from books and other small pieces in favour of religious liberty, Number 1, Birmingham, 1789. (Number 2 was published in 1790)
Uniting Protestant dissenters
Russell now sought a union of Protestant Dissenters throughout the land, proposing a four-tier 'Plan of Union', by which Congregations in towns and counties would send deputies to Town and County Meetings of Deputies. These in turn would unite in Provincial Meetings, which would send deputies to a National Meeting in London.The circular letter recommending this plan was republished in Extracts..., Number 2, Birmingham, 1790. The Protestant Dissenting Deputies in London, initially rejected Russell's suggestion of a National Meeting.Thomas W. Davis (ed.), Committees for the repeal of the Test and Corporations Acts, London Record Society, 1978, pp. 37-38 Countrywide support, prompted by Russell's vigorous canvassing, led the London Deputies to meet with country delegates, to discuss the issue. As a result, on 13 May 1790 the London Dissenting Deputies passed a resolution that a Standing Committee of "delegates from different parts of the kingdom be appointed to meet in London".
The Birmingham Committee had consistently gone further than the London Dissenting Deputies in calling for the repeal of all penal legislation against Dissenters, including the act against non-Trinitarians. Now, Russell called together on 13 January 1790, a meeting in Leicester of "Deputies of Protestant Dissenters of the Three Denominations within the Midland District". Echoing the resolutions of the Birmingham Committee, the Midland District meeting issued a sweeping condemnation of all penal statutes against Dissenters. Russell was appointed secretary and treasurer of the executive committee.Aris's Birmingham Gazette, 18 January 1790