Lady Rachel Russell

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Standard Name: Russell, Lady Rachel
Birth Name: Rachel Wriothesley
Styled: Lady Rachel Wriothesley
Married Name: Rachel Vaughan
Titled: Rachel, Lady Vaughan
Married Name: Rachel Russell
Titled: Rachel, Lady Russell
Indexed Name: Lady Rachel Russell
The reputation of LRR 's letters sprang at first from her husband's political fame, but she was a letter-writer of high quality in her own right. Surviving letters probably represent only a fraction of those she wrote. Like many intelligent women of her time and rank, she used writing not only to communicate with relations and friends, but also privately, to shape her religious practice and her sense of her own life. She left diaries, essays, a catechism, and Instructions for Children.
Stipple half-length engraving of a young Lady Rachel Russell by Henry Meyer after Samuel Cooper, published 1853. She is wearing a loose-fitting gown with wide sleeves, low round neckline, jewel at the bust and jewelled armband, and a mantle pinned behind. Her hair is swept back to a bun, except for a long curl hanging down her back.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Family and Intimate relationships Judith Cowper Madan
This diarist, JCM 's paternal grandmother, Sarah, Lady Cowper , was an extraordinary woman. Born into the wealthy merchant class, deeply pious, highly intelligent and well-read, she consoled herself for an unhappy marriage to an...
Friends, Associates Sarah Lady Cowper
SLC brought to the social rituals of visiting some of the same suspicious stance with which she viewed her relations. I visit Some people for the Same Causes as the Indians Worship the Devil, least...
Intertextuality and Influence Elizabeth Strutt
Women, says ES , must be essentially equal with men since both are made in God's image. But women's existing social position
Strutt, Elizabeth. The Feminine Soul. J. S. Hodson, 1857.
1
stems from man's superior physical strength, which has allowed him to seize...
Intertextuality and Influence Lucy Aikin
LA 's preface denies the absurd notion that absolute gender equality might be feasible and advises women not to attempt to become inferior men. But she asserts, there is not an endowment, or propensity, or...
Intertextuality and Influence Elizabeth Ham
The story opens with the young Englishwoman Rhoda Ford (the unbeautiful one of two sisters) and her family in the west of Ireland, where her father has an entrepreneurial scheme. They try to come...
Intertextuality and Influence Cassandra Cooke
Other events follow the ending of the inset tale. Dr Scot is involved in a hush-hush mission with General Monck , facilitating the Restoration of Charles II . The story cannot end until the title...
Intertextuality and Influence Sarah Lady Cowper
SLC flags some items of her own under Observe by beginning them I observe. In a series about books of the Bible she comments in some detail on the behaviour of King Saul and...
Occupation Henrietta Battier
HB acted at Drury Lane Theatre in the role of Lady Rachel Russell in Thomas Stratford 's tragedy on the death of Lord Russell .
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960–1968, 5 vols.
Textual Features Frances Arabella Rowden
The second part opens with quotations from Cicero and Voltaire .
Rowden, Frances Arabella. The Pleasures of Friendship. A Poem. 1810.
47
It includes a picture of connubial love gone sour, turned to mutual wrongs, and mutual hate.
Rowden, Frances Arabella. The Pleasures of Friendship. A Poem. 1810.
63
Its examples of heroic friendship include...
Textual Features Clara Balfour
A chapter which discusses moral heroism . . . in the female character
Balfour, Clara. Moral Heroism; or, The Trials and Triumphs of the Great and Good. Houlston and Stoneman, 1846.
prelims
exemplifies pious and admirable female behaviour in the figures of the letter-writer Rachael Russell and the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry ...
Textual Features Isabella Neil Harwood
In the play Lord Russell is first seen as he hears the news that the King has dissolved the parliament: he has Quite broken with his people, and to govern / Must needs oppress them...
Textual Features Lydia Maria Child
LMC 's first four subjects were all known for their writings and for their resistance to tyrannical authority, either political or religious, but she is more interested here in what she alleges to have been...
Textual Features Cassandra Cooke
The novel opens [t]owards the end of Oliver Cromwell 's usurpation,
Cooke, Cassandra. Battleridge. C. Cawthorn, 1799, 2 vols.
1: 1
among the Vesey family of Battleridge Castle (in the north of England, near one of the castles owned by Lady Anne Clifford
Textual Features Susanna Watts
The many pictures in the volume include diagrams of the hold of a slave ship, I & Dash my Dog (a sketch), and prints of Hester Mulso Chapone , Lady Rachel Russell (with a copy...
Textual Features Mary Tighe
MT mentions her anguish
Tighe, Mary. Keats and Mary Tighe. Editor Weller, Earle Vonard, Kraus Reprint Corporation, 1966.
308
and says that if she could resign herself to parting with her friends, then the bitterness of death were past
Tighe, Mary. Keats and Mary Tighe. Editor Weller, Earle Vonard, Kraus Reprint Corporation, 1966.
308
—citing the words of Lady Rachel Russell 's husband...

Timeline

22 March 1683: A fire at the racing centre of Newmarket...

National or international item

22 March 1683

A fire at the racing centre of Newmarket preserved the lives of Charles II and his brother ; by leaving early for London they avoided a planned assassination.
Todd, Janet. The Secret Life of Aphra Behn. Rutgers University Press, 1997.
300-1

13 July 1683: William, Lord Russell (husband of the letter-writer...

National or international item

13 July 1683

William, Lord Russell (husband of the letter-writer Lady Rachel ), stood trial for High Treason, accused of planning to assassinate the king in an alleged Protestant Plot.
Evelyn, John. The Diary of John Evelyn. Editor De Beer, Esmond Samuel, Oxford University Press, 1959.
747-8

21 July 1683: William, Lord Russell, husband of the letter-writer...

National or international item

21 July 1683

William, Lord Russell , husband of the letter-writer Lady Rachel Russell , was beheaded in Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Evelyn, John. The Diary of John Evelyn. Editor De Beer, Esmond Samuel, Oxford University Press, 1959.
750, 761

7 December 1683: Months after the execution of William, Lord...

National or international item

7 December 1683

Months after the execution of William, Lord Russell (husband of Lady Rachel ), Algernon Sidney met the same fate (after a search of his private papers), charged with Protestant extremism and plotting against the crown.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2024, 22 vols. plus supplements.

Texts

Russell, Lady Rachel. Letters of Lady Rachel Russell. Editor Sellwood, Thomas, E. and C. Dilly, 1773.
Russell, Lady Rachel, and William, Lord Russell. Letters of Lady Rachel Russell. Editor Sellwood, Thomas, 5th ed., J. Mawman, 1801.
Berry, Mary, and Lady Rachel Russell. Some Account of the Life of Rachael Wriothesley Lady Russell. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1819.