Francis Russell 7th Duke of Bedford 1788 – 1861

Francis Russell 7th Duke of Bedford KG, PC 1788 – 1861, ‘… *styled Marquess of Tavistock from 1802 to 1839, was a British peer and Whig politician.*..’

Lord Tavistock was a patient (Thomas Moore, Wilfred S Dowden (Ed.), The Journal of Thomas Moore: 1831-1835, (Associated University Presse, 1 Oct 1987). Page 1663) and advocate of homeopathy, with relatives in America who were homeopathic physicians (see below), the Duke of Bedford was a President of the Royal Jennerian Society,

From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis\_Russell,*7th\_Duke\_of\_Bedford\](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis\_Russell,\_7th\_Duke\_of\_Bedford) ’… *Francis was the son of John Russell 6th Duke of Bedford and his first wife Hon. Georgiana Byng, second daughter of George Byng 4th Viscount Torrington._

Russell was educated at Westminster School and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1808, with a Master of Arts. He succeeded his father as duke in 1839.

He entered the British House of Commons in 1809, sitting as Member of Parliament for Peterborough in the next three years. Subsequently Russell represented Bedfordshire until 1832.

In the following year, he was summoned to the House of Lords in his father’s junior title Baron Howland of Streatham by a writ of acceleration. Russell was sworn of a Privy Counsellor on 6 July 1846 and was invested as a Knight of the Order of the Garter on 26 March 1847.

He was made a Special Deputy Warden of the Stannaries in 1852 and was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire in 1859, a post he held until his death in 1861.

On 8 August 1808, he married the Anna Maria Stanhope, daughter of Charles Stanhope 3rd Earl of Harrington, and had by her a son.

Russell died in 1861, aged 73, and was buried on 22 May at Chenies, Buckinghamshire. He was succeeded in his titles by his only son William…’

Of interest:

James Hamilton 1st Duke of Abercorn, married Lady Louisa, second daughter of John Russell 6th Duke of Bedford, James Hamilton 1st Duke of Abercorn and his wife were staunch advocates of homeopathy, he was a Patron of the homeopathic hospital in Smyrna, and he was a friend of Frederick Hervey Foster Quin, and a patient of Allan Broman,

Philip Henry Stanhope 4th Earl Stanhope was a secret agent, an amateur homeopath and a lifelong keen researcher into the occult,

George Henry Charles Byng 3rd Earl of Strafford was an advocate of homeopathy,

Lord Cosmo Russell 1817 – 1875 was the son of John Russell 6th Duke of Bedford (whose wife was related to the Earls of Albemarle),

With thanks to Peter Morrell and the Illustrated London News April 1858 (http://www.homeoint.org/morrell/articles/rlhh.htm):

The supporters of homeopathy are now striving to establish a large metropolitan hospital, which shall be conducted according to the principles inculcated by Hahnemann, which will be a school for homeopathic students, and which will afford to allopathic physicians the means of inquiring into the merits of the new doctrine and practice.

A public dinner in aid of the building fund of this charity took place on Wednesday, April 21 at Willis’s Rooms, when the Duke of Beaufort, George Ponsonby O’Callaghan 2nd Viscount Lismore, Arthur de Vere Capell Viscount Malden, Lord Rokeby, Lord Grey de Wilton, Lord Cosmo Russell, Robert Grosvenor, Mr Truman MP, Major Blake, Edmund Gardiner Fishbourne, *H D Pritchard, Mr Sheriff Rutherford, Frederick Hervey Foster Quin, John Rutherford Russell, and about 150 other gentlemen, known as supporters and practitioners of homeopathy in the metropolis and in the provinces.

The usual toasts were given, viz– “The Queen;” “The Prince Consort and the Royal Family;” and “The Army and Navy,” responded to by Lord Rokeby and Edmund Gardiner Fishbourne, who alluded to their experience of the benefits personally derived by them from homeopathy during their service in the Niger expedition and in the Crimea.

Lady Cosmo Russell was the daughter in law of John Russell 6th Duke of Bedford, and the sister in law of James Hamilton 1st Duke of Abercorn,

George Russell 1795 - 1883, was a homeopath in America, son of Richard Russell…

… who was also a practicing physician of that town, was drowned at the age of 45. His grandfather, James Russell, said to have been a younger son of the Duke of Bedford who came to America…

George Russell M. D., of Boston, Mass., a native of Lincoln, Mass., was born September 23d, 1795. He is of English descent, and only two generations removed from the emigration of his ancestors to America.

His grandfather, James Russell, and his brother Charles, came together from England, and settled in Charlestown as merchants. They were younger sons of the (then) Duke of Bedford.

His father, Dr. Richard Russell, was born in Charlestown about the year 1752, settled professionally in Lincoln, and was accidentally drowned there at the age of forty five years, while our subject was a very young child. His mother was Elizabeth Brown, the daughter of Nathan Brown, a successful and highly respected farmer in Lincoln.

Dr. Russell received his early education in the common schools. He was afterwards for a long time under the private instructions of Rev. Charles Stearns, D. D., a celebrated teacher and theologian, with whom he fitted for college.

He graduated Doctor of Medicine at Harvard University in August, 1820. In April of the following year he settled in Lincoln, the place of his birth, where he remained in medical practice seventeen years. From thence he removed to Waltham, where he practiced eight years, and from thence to Boston, where he now resides in active pursuit of his profession. In the year 1826, he was married to Hannah Green Cole, daughter of Abraham Cole.

While residing in Lincoln Dr. Russell held every office in the gift of his townsmen up to that of Representative in the General Court of the Commonwealth. He was for a time Assistant Surgeon in the United States Army, and also for years a surgeon in the Massachusetts State Militia. He has been for many years a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has filled the office of Steward in that denomination -an office designed to look after the local interests of the denomination.

He is a member of several societies not strictly literary or scientific, of the Boston Society of Natural History, and of the Massachusetts Homœopathic Medical Society, of which he was the fourth President.

He commenced the study of homœopathy in 1839, and at once espoused its modes of practice, in which he has continued ever since.

These last mentioned facts have recently served to raise him to great distinction, both publicly and in the Massachusetts Medical Society, of which he had been an acceptable member for forty-eight years. He is one of the eight subjects of the late persecution by the allopaths, having been expelled the above society along with the rest.

In his extensive business, as in all his public relations, and by his friends, he is known as a Christian gentleman and worthy physician.

William Russell, the posthumous child of Francis Russell Marquess of Tavistock, eldest son of John Russell 4th Duke of Bedford. He was the youngest brother of Francis Russell 5th Duke of Bedford, and John Russell 6th Duke of Bedford, and uncle of Francis Russell 7th Duke of Bedford, was an advocate of homeopathy