John Russell

John Russell (c.1788 – 1 March 1873) was a British coal and iron master, who had extensive industrial interests especially in the South Wales valleys in the mid-nineteenth century. He was High Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1855.

Biography Russell was born circa 1788 at Broseley, Shropshire, but moved to Worcestershire early in his life. In 1817, at St John the Baptist, Claines, he married Mary Downes (1796–1878), daughter of Benjamin Downes of Alton Court, Herefordshire. Her family were said to look down on Russell's relatively humble origins; he vowed "that his wife would always have a carriage and pair". In 1820, he was recorded as a tobacco pipe maker at Cripplegate in Worcester. By the 1830s he was the owner of Worcester Pipe Works, Russells Brickworks, and many properties in the city. "In working the narrow seams we are compelled to use the labour of children as men are too large for the work, and, from the necessity of the case, boys from 11–15 years of age are employed to draw with the girdle and chain; distances not exceeding 300 yards, the weight drawn from 50 lb to 1 cwt. Very young children are of no service to us, as their strength is insufficient; they rarely commence until 10 years of age."

In 1842, John Russell and Co. were awarded the contracts to provide the steam coal to the East India Company, the Peninsular & Orient Company, and the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. He took over the Cwmtillery Colliery in 1852, sinking new shafts there in 1853 and 1858, and in 1864 incorporated Cwmtillery into his South Wales Colliery Company.

Russell's eldest daughter Susannah married in 1840 his partner George Randale Hookey. In 1854 Russell's daughter Eleanor (1821–1884) married Thomas Henry Maudslay, grandson of the great engineer Henry Maudslay, with whom Russell had business interests. In 1856, Russell's son John Richard Russell JP (1831–1910) married Maria Frances, daughter of Sir Hugh Owen Bt of Orielton and niece of Sir Charles Morgan, 1st Lord Tredegar. They lived at The Lodge, Risca, and later at Coldbrook Park, Abergavenny. His second wife was Annette Willoughby-Hill, daughter of the banker Arnaud Clarke (Robarts, Lubbock, Bosanquet and Clark - later Coutts) and Anna Brett. Russell's daughter Ellen (1828–1902) married Col John Selwyn Payne, whose niece Rosina married Lt. Col Lawrence Heyworth and was to be Chairman of what had been John Russell's South Wales Colliery Company.