Sir Henry Russell, 1st Baronet

Sir Henry Russell, 1st Baronet (8 August 1751 – 18 January 1836) was a British lawyer. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1816, during the reign of George III. The Russell baronetcy of Swallowfield in Berkshire, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on 10 December 1812 for him. Russell was the Chief Justice of Bengal.

Early life Russell was born at Dover, on 8 August 1751. He was the third son of Michael Russell (1711–1793) of Dover, by his wife Hannah Henshaw, a daughter of Henry Henshaw. Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke nominated him in 1763 to the foundation of the Charterhouse School, and he was educated there and at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he earned a BA degree in 1772 and an MA degree in 1775.

Career Having been admitted a member of Lincoln's Inn, 20 June 1768, he was appointed about 1775 by Lord Bathurst to a commissionership in bankruptcy; and was called to the bar on 7 July 1783. In 1797 he was appointed a puisne judge in the supreme court of judicature, Bengal, and was knighted. He reached Calcutta on 28 May 1798. In 1807 he was appointed chief justice of the supreme court in place of Sir John Anstruther. On 8 January 1808, he pronounced judgment in a case that attracted much attention at the time. John Grant, a company cadet, was found guilty of maliciously setting fire to an Indian's hut. In sentencing him to death, the chief justice said: "The natives are entitled to have their characters, property, and lives protected; and as long as they enjoy that privilege from us, they give their affection and allegiance in return". Russell's house at Calcutta stood in what was later called after him, Russell Street. Here, on 2 March 1800, his wife's niece, Rose Aylmer, died. Her memory is perpetuated in a poem of that name by Walter Savage Landor.

By patent dated 10 December 1812, Russell was made a baronet. On 9 November 1813, he resigned the chief justiceship; testimony to his merits was formally recorded in a general letter from the Bengal government to the court of directors of the East India Company, dated 7 December 1813. Russell left Calcutta two days later, and on his return to England, the Company awarded him a pension of £2,000 a year. After his retirement he declined the offer from Charles Whitworth, 1st Earl Whitworth, his brother-in-law, to take a seat in Parliament, as a member for East Grinstead, a pocket borough of the Sackville family, on the grounds that he "did not choose to be any gentleman's gentleman." On 27 June 1816, Russell was sworn a member of the privy council. In 1820, he bought Swallowfield Park, Reading, and his remaining years were mainly spent there, where he died in 1836.

Personal life On 1 August 1776, Russell married Anne Skinner, the daughter of John Skinner of Lydd, Kent. Before her death in 1780, they were the parents of:

Sir Henry Russell, 2nd Baronet (1783–1852), who was British Resident to Hyderabad between 1800 and 1820, before returning to England in failing health; he married Jane Amelia Casamaijor, daughter of John Casamaijor, in 1808. After her death two months later, he married Marie Clotilde de la Fontaine, daughter of Benoît Mottet de La Fontaine, Baron fieffé de St. Corneille, in 1816. Francis Whitworth Russell (1790–1852), who married Jane Anne Catherine Brodie, daughter of James Brodie, in 1823.

Legacy A monument to his memory by William Behnes exists in Swallowfield in Berkshire.