Kingston Russell
Encyclopedia
Kingston Russell is a large mansion
house and manor near Long Bredy
in Dorset
, England, west of Dorchester. The present house dates from the late 17th century but in 1730 was clad in a white Georgian
stone facade. The house was restored in 1913, and at the same time the gardens were laid out. The house is on land which was granted to the Russell family (not ancestors of the Russell Dukes of Bedford
), by an early King, probably King John(1199–1216) at the end of his reign, or his son Henry III. Kingston Russell manor is now part of Long Bredy parish, but earlier appears to have had its own church. The main part of the manor adjoins Winterbourne Abbas to the east and Compton Valence to the north, whilst the house itself adjoins Long Bredy. It is situated in an area known for ancient tumuli and the Kingston Russell Stone Circle. The Poor Lot barrows form a boundary with Littlebredy and Winterbourne Abbas.
from the King by Grand Serjeanty
, the particular service performed for the King was originally as Marshal of the Buttery, as the entry in the Book of Fees
dated 1211 records for the Hundred of "Alvredesberge" (since dissolved), Dorset:
The serjeanty changed during the minority of King Henry III to the counting the King's chessman and storing them away after a game. John Russell of Kingston Russell was a household knight of King Richard I
from at the latest 1195 then also of his brother King John and then of his infant son King Henry III
, of whose household he became steward. In the capacity of Household Knight he acted as part of the backbone of the king's army, as a temporary castellan, sheriff, diplomat and general trouble-shooter. He thus served as Constable of Sherborne Castle
, and Governor of Corfe Castle
, both in Dorset. He undertook an important diplomatic assignment in 1220 to recover Princess Joan
, infant sister of Henry III, from the court of Hugh X of Lusignan
to whom she had been betrothed and by whom then rejected. Russell died in 1224. He married Rose Bardolph, da. of Thomas Bardolph and widow of Henry de Pomeroy, feudal baron of the large barony of Berry Pomeroy
in Devon, consisting of 32 knight's fee
s. The marriage to this widow of a tenant-in-chief was likely to have been a reward from the king for Russell's services, and brought Russell a life-interest in her large dower lands. John Russell was granted as a further royal mark of gratitude the marriage of one of the heiresses of James de Newmarch, feudal baron of North Cadbury
, who had died in 1216 without male heir, leaving 2 infant heiresses, whose marriages became the property of the king by feudal custom. The wardship of the eldest daughter Isabelle was granted by King John to John Russell, who married her to his eldest surviving (3rd.) son Ralph, the marriage of the other daughter Hawise having been acquired by John de Bottrell/Bottreux. The Newmarch lands were thus split in half, one moiety
consisting of nearly 17 knight's fee
s, in Gloucestershire (including Dyrham
), Somerset, Buckinghamshire, Wiltshire and Berkshire going to the Russells, with the second half, including the caput
of North Cadbury, being confirmed to Bottrell by Henry III in 1218, per the Close Rolls. Sir Ralph Russell continued to hold Kingston Russell from Henry III by Grand Serjeanty
, viz "that he should present a cup of beer to our Sovereign Lord the King on the 4 principal feasts of the year" Sir Ralph Russell and Isabel's heir was Sir William Russell
(1257–1311), Constable of Carisbrook Castle, Isle of Wight. He married Katherine de Aula, heiress of Yaverland
, Isle of Wight (and possibly later Jane Peverell). On 12th July 1284 William was granted by King Edward I
(1272-1307) a market and free warren as the following entry in the Charter Rolls records:
William died before his son and heir Theobald(1303–1349) had reached his majority of 21, and the infant Theobald was granted in wardship to Ralph III de Gorges, 1st Baron Gorges
(d.1224) of Knighton, Isle of Wight
and Wraxall, Somerset
. Gorges married off the young Theobald to his 2nd daughter Eleanor. Gorge's son, Ralph IV, 2nd. Baron Gorges, found himself without his own male heir, with only 3 sisters as heiresses to his ancient and noble line. He thus made his nephew Theobald II Russell his heir, apparently with the provision that he should change his name to Gorges, bear the ancient Gorges armourials and inherit the bulk of the Gorges lands, including Wraxall, Somerset
, 6 miles west of Bristol. Theobald Russell "Gorges" thus established a new line of Gorges at Wraxall, where the family became well established (see Sir Ferdinando Gorges
). The eldest son of Theobald and Eleanor was Ralph(1319–1375), the second son being Theobald, who duly adopted the name Gorges and inherited his mother's lands at Wraxall and Bradpole, Dorset. Ralph his elder brother had as his heir Sir Maurice Russell
(c.1352-1416) of Dyrham
, Gloucestershire. To the latter, whose funerary brass can be seen at Dyrham Church, descended Kingston Russell, the manor and hundred of Redhove (Redhone) and Beminster Forum (Beaminster) in the manor of Bradpole, as well as the manor of Dyrham, Gloucestershire and Horsington, Somerset. By his first wife Isabel Childrey he had two daughters who on the death of his son Thomas in 1432 from his second marriage to Joan Dauntsey, became his co-heiresses. Margaret Russell(d.1466) the eldest daughter had married firstly her father's neighbour Sir Gilbert Denys
of Siston
and thus Kingston Russell and Dyrham passed to the Denys family. The Denyses appear never to have lived at Kingston Russell, and in 1542 Sir Walter Denys(1501–1571) of Dyrham, great-great-grandson of Sir Gilbert Denys and Margaret Russell sold Kingston Russell to his younger brother Sir Maurice Denys
(1516–1563), who sold it in March 1543/4 to the Crown.
of Walter Denys(d.1505) at Olveston
Church, where the Denys arms are quartered with the Russell arms of his grandmother Margaret, together with those of Gorges (New). These Russell arms are: Argent, on a chief gules three bezants. A bezant is a Byzantine gold coin, much beloved by crusaders. The arms of the Russell Dukes of Bedford are: Argent, a lion rampant gules on a chief sable three escallops of the first. Thus both arms have a field argent, both use a chief, which is filled with three circular or near circular devices - bezants and escallops. It may well be that the Ducal House created their arms as differences from their supposed ancestors
of Kingston Russell. Mr Wiffen, who was commissioned by a 19th.c. Duke of Bedford to write a history of the ducal family, proposed that the arms with the escallops were the original arms of Russell of Kingston Russell, which proposition was followed by Burke's Armorials (1884),
and that a cadet branch of the Russell family adopted the bezant arms as differences. This is clearly erroneous as the bezant arms alone appear in mediaeval rolls of arms
. It would not have been diplomatic for Mr Wiffen, whose work is fatally flawed in the matter of the connection of the two families but otherwise contains much valuable information, to have reported to his generous patron that the lineage of the Dukes was a cadet branch, and indeed even if that an uncertain one. In reality, the earliest Earls of Bedford were unconcerned about the age of their lineage, deeming the possession of a "Great Man" as a recent ancestor all that mattered. Like Napoleon, the first Earl could say witheringly to those who questioned the antiquity of his House: "Moi, je suis l'ancetre".
So convinced were the noble Russells that they were descended from the Russells of Kingston Russell that Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford purchased, or procured the transfer, of Kingston Russell from the Crown in 1560. This was clearly a move prompted by sentimentality, albeit erroneous, since the Russells by then had many properties for habitation, including Tavistock Abbey in Devon. In 1626 the 3rd Earl of Bedford(d.1627) commissioned William Le Neve, the York Herald
, to produce a Russell pedigree. Scott Thomson states this to be " wrong in most of its details, and from the point of view of strict verity it is an unworthy document". Le Neve's technique seems to have been that he visited Normandy in search of any important personage called "Russell". He surmised that English Earls (the Dukedom was not created until 1694, the Earldom in 1550) must have had noble ancestors from the time of Charlemagne at least, and thus gave the Dukes a certain Hugo de Rosel, dug out from dusty archives somewhere in France, as their early ancestor. In fact the name Russell was quite common in the middle ages, signifying "red-headed". Le Neve went a step further and provided an illustration of the proposed noble forefather, a total work of fiction, but endearingly amusing nonetheless, showing the ignorance which existed in the 17th.c. as to what a Norman knight would have looked like. He thus bears a Saracen's curved sword, perhaps a reference to the Norman tenure of Sicily
, where cultures of East and West synthesised.
At some point possibly around the 1640s, part of the manor, including the house, came into the possession of the Michel family, who partly rebuilt the seventeenth century Kingston Russell House as it still stands today at the end of a long driveway. The Michel family also owned Dewlish House in Dewlish, Dorset and removed there sometime during the 1760s when the house was then let. Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy, 1st Baronet, Nelson's flag captain, was born at Kingston Russell on 5 April 1769, his mother being the daughter of Thomas Masterman of this place. At some time before 1861 the Dukes of Bedford bought Kingston Russell for a second time, and when Lord John Russell
(1792–1878) the prominent Liberal statesman, 3rd son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, was raised to the peerage as an earl on 30 July 1861, he chose the title Earl Russell of Kingston Russell
, which title is still extant. By the turn of the twentieth century however, the house was in a dilapidated condition and the estate was sold in 1913 to George Gribble Esq. The new owner - with architect Philip Tilden, who later worked for Winston Churchill - demolished a stub wing from the older Tudor building, extended the Carolean/Georgian wing by the addition of two small three-storey wings at either end of the original two storey structure, and laid out the gardens. His son Julian Royds Gribble
won the Victoria Cross
in the First World War, but was killed in action in 1918; the current village hall was constructed as a gift the village, in memory of him. The Gribble family moved away in the 1920s. Since then, the house has had a number of different owners. Since 1984 it has been owned by Dr HHJ Carter & Miss T. Silkstone, who are the longest continuous owner-occupiers of the house since the 1760s. The house is not open to the public, though it has welcomed visitors from bodies such as the Georgian Group
.
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
house and manor near Long Bredy
Long Bredy
Long Bredy is a village in west Dorset, England, situated in a small valley seven miles west of Dorchester. The village has a population of 202 . The village has some notable history, being located near the strategic chalk hills it has some Iron Age and Roman history, including a stone circle,...
in Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
, England, west of Dorchester. The present house dates from the late 17th century but in 1730 was clad in a white Georgian
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
stone facade. The house was restored in 1913, and at the same time the gardens were laid out. The house is on land which was granted to the Russell family (not ancestors of the Russell Dukes of Bedford
Duke of Bedford
thumb|right|240px|William Russell, 1st Duke of BedfordDuke of Bedford is a title that has been created five times in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1414 in favour of Henry IV's third son, John, who later served as regent of France. He was made Earl of Kendal at the same time...
), by an early King, probably King John(1199–1216) at the end of his reign, or his son Henry III. Kingston Russell manor is now part of Long Bredy parish, but earlier appears to have had its own church. The main part of the manor adjoins Winterbourne Abbas to the east and Compton Valence to the north, whilst the house itself adjoins Long Bredy. It is situated in an area known for ancient tumuli and the Kingston Russell Stone Circle. The Poor Lot barrows form a boundary with Littlebredy and Winterbourne Abbas.
Pedigree of Russell of Kingston Russell
Kingston Russell takes the second part of its name from the Russell family who were granted the manor for their service to the King. The manor was held in-chiefTenant-in-chief
In medieval and early modern European society the term tenant-in-chief, sometimes vassal-in-chief, denoted the nobles who held their lands as tenants directly from king or territorial prince to whom they did homage, as opposed to holding them from another nobleman or senior member of the clergy....
from the King by Grand Serjeanty
Serjeanty
Under the feudal system in late and high medieval England, tenure by serjeanty was a form of land-holding in return for some specified service, ranking between tenure by knight-service and tenure in socage...
, the particular service performed for the King was originally as Marshal of the Buttery, as the entry in the Book of Fees
Book of Fees
The Book of Fees is the colloquial title of a modern edition, transcript, rearrangement and enhancement of the mediaeval Liber Feodorum , being a listing of feudal landholdings or "fees/fiefs", compiled in about 1302, but from earlier records, for the use of the English Exchequer...
dated 1211 records for the Hundred of "Alvredesberge" (since dissolved), Dorset:
- Johannes Russel tenet Kingeston pro dimidia hyda terre de domino rege ex tempore Willelmi Bastard quondam Rege Anglie per serjanciam essendi marescallus buteilerie domini regis ad Natale Domini et ad Pentecosten. ("John Russell holds Kingston for half a hideHide (unit)The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...
of land from the Lord King from the time of William the Bastard sometime King of England through the serjeanty of being marshall of the king's buttery (store of wine barrels) at Christmas and at PentecostPentecostPentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...
")
The serjeanty changed during the minority of King Henry III to the counting the King's chessman and storing them away after a game. John Russell of Kingston Russell was a household knight of King Richard I
Richard I of England
Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...
from at the latest 1195 then also of his brother King John and then of his infant son King Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
, of whose household he became steward. In the capacity of Household Knight he acted as part of the backbone of the king's army, as a temporary castellan, sheriff, diplomat and general trouble-shooter. He thus served as Constable of Sherborne Castle
Sherborne Castle
Sherborne Castle is a 16th-century Tudor mansion southeast of Sherborne in Dorset, England. The park formed only a small part of the Digby estate.-Old castle:Sherborne Old Castle is the ruin of a 12th-century castle in the grounds of the mansion...
, and Governor of Corfe Castle
Corfe Castle
Corfe Castle is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It is the site of a ruined castle of the same name. The village and castle stand over a gap in the Purbeck Hills on the route between Wareham and Swanage. The village lies in the gap below the castle, and is some eight...
, both in Dorset. He undertook an important diplomatic assignment in 1220 to recover Princess Joan
Joan of England
Joan of England may refer to:*Joan of England, Queen of Sicily , daughter of Henry II of England, married William II of Sicily*Joan of England, Queen Consort of Scotland , daughter of King John of England, married Alexander II of Scotland*Joan, Lady of Wales , illegitimate daughter of John of...
, infant sister of Henry III, from the court of Hugh X of Lusignan
Hugh X of Lusignan
Hugh X de Lusignan, Hugh V of La Marche or Hugh I of Angoulême or Hugues X & V & I de Lusignan succeeded his father Hugh IX as Seigneur de Lusignan and Count of La Marche in November, 1219 and was Count of Angoulême by marriage.Hugh X de Lusignan was betrothed to marry 12 year-old Isabel of...
to whom she had been betrothed and by whom then rejected. Russell died in 1224. He married Rose Bardolph, da. of Thomas Bardolph and widow of Henry de Pomeroy, feudal baron of the large barony of Berry Pomeroy
Berry Pomeroy
Berry Pomeroy is a village and civil parish in the South Hams district of Devon, England, about two miles east of Totnes. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 973...
in Devon, consisting of 32 knight's fee
Knight's fee
In feudal Anglo-Norman England and Ireland, a knight's fee was a measure of a unit of land deemed sufficient from which a knight could derive not only sustenance for himself and his esquires, but also the means to furnish himself and his equipage with horses and armour to fight for his overlord in...
s. The marriage to this widow of a tenant-in-chief was likely to have been a reward from the king for Russell's services, and brought Russell a life-interest in her large dower lands. John Russell was granted as a further royal mark of gratitude the marriage of one of the heiresses of James de Newmarch, feudal baron of North Cadbury
North Cadbury
North Cadbury is a village west of Wincanton in the River Cam in the South Somerset district of Somerset, England. It shares its parish with nearby Yarlington and includes the village of Galhampton, which got its name from the settlement of the rent-paying peasants, and the hamlet of...
, who had died in 1216 without male heir, leaving 2 infant heiresses, whose marriages became the property of the king by feudal custom. The wardship of the eldest daughter Isabelle was granted by King John to John Russell, who married her to his eldest surviving (3rd.) son Ralph, the marriage of the other daughter Hawise having been acquired by John de Bottrell/Bottreux. The Newmarch lands were thus split in half, one moiety
Moiety
Moiety may refer to:* Moiety , a part or functional group of a molecule* Moiety , either of two groups into which a society is divided* An Australian Aboriginal kinship group* Native Hawaiian realm ruled by a Mo'i or Ali'i...
consisting of nearly 17 knight's fee
Knight's fee
In feudal Anglo-Norman England and Ireland, a knight's fee was a measure of a unit of land deemed sufficient from which a knight could derive not only sustenance for himself and his esquires, but also the means to furnish himself and his equipage with horses and armour to fight for his overlord in...
s, in Gloucestershire (including Dyrham
Dyrham
Dyrham is a village and parish in South Gloucestershire, England.-Location and communications:Dyrham is at lat. 51° 29' north, long. 2° 22' west . It lies at an altitude of 100 metres above sea level. It is near the A46 trunk road, about north of Bath and a little south of the M4 motorway...
), Somerset, Buckinghamshire, Wiltshire and Berkshire going to the Russells, with the second half, including the caput
Caput
The Latin word caput, meaning literally "head" and by metonymy "top", has been borrowed in a variety of English words, including capital, captain, and decapitate...
of North Cadbury, being confirmed to Bottrell by Henry III in 1218, per the Close Rolls. Sir Ralph Russell continued to hold Kingston Russell from Henry III by Grand Serjeanty
Serjeanty
Under the feudal system in late and high medieval England, tenure by serjeanty was a form of land-holding in return for some specified service, ranking between tenure by knight-service and tenure in socage...
, viz "that he should present a cup of beer to our Sovereign Lord the King on the 4 principal feasts of the year" Sir Ralph Russell and Isabel's heir was Sir William Russell
William Russell, knight
Sir William Russell was holder of a moiety of the feudal barony of North Cadbury, Somerset, but spent most of his life engaged in the administration and defence of the Isle of Wight, where he obtained by marriage the manor of Yaverland...
(1257–1311), Constable of Carisbrook Castle, Isle of Wight. He married Katherine de Aula, heiress of Yaverland
Yaverland
Yaverland is a village on the Isle of Wight, just north of Sandown. It has about 200 houses. About 1/3 of a mile away from the village is the Yaverland Manor and Church. Holotype fossils have been discovered here of Yaverlandia and a pterosaur, Caulkicephalus...
, Isle of Wight (and possibly later Jane Peverell). On 12th July 1284 William was granted by King Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
(1272-1307) a market and free warren as the following entry in the Charter Rolls records:
"Grant to William son of Ralph Russel, and his heirs, of a weekly market on Thursday at his manor of Kyngeston Russel, co. Dorset, and
of a yearly fair there on the vigil, the feast and the morrow of St. Matthew (i.e. 21st. September) ; grant also of free warren in the demesne lands of the said
manor".
William died before his son and heir Theobald(1303–1349) had reached his majority of 21, and the infant Theobald was granted in wardship to Ralph III de Gorges, 1st Baron Gorges
Gorges family
The House of Gorges is an ancient English family with Norman origins. Radulph, Lord of the Château de Gorges came over to England from Gorges in the canton of Périers in Normandy in the army of William the Conqueror in the year 1066 and acquired a knighthood. He had thus started the history of...
(d.1224) of Knighton, Isle of Wight
Knighton, Isle of Wight
Knighton is a hamlet near to Sandown on the Isle of Wight.It is usually pronounced as Kay-nighton by local people, to avoid confusion with the larger, homophonic village of Niton, near Ventnor....
and Wraxall, Somerset
Wraxall, Somerset
Wraxall is a village in North Somerset in England. The parish of the same name also included Nailsea and Flax Bourton until 1811. It is now within the parish of Wraxall and Failand.-History:...
. Gorges married off the young Theobald to his 2nd daughter Eleanor. Gorge's son, Ralph IV, 2nd. Baron Gorges, found himself without his own male heir, with only 3 sisters as heiresses to his ancient and noble line. He thus made his nephew Theobald II Russell his heir, apparently with the provision that he should change his name to Gorges, bear the ancient Gorges armourials and inherit the bulk of the Gorges lands, including Wraxall, Somerset
Wraxall, Somerset
Wraxall is a village in North Somerset in England. The parish of the same name also included Nailsea and Flax Bourton until 1811. It is now within the parish of Wraxall and Failand.-History:...
, 6 miles west of Bristol. Theobald Russell "Gorges" thus established a new line of Gorges at Wraxall, where the family became well established (see Sir Ferdinando Gorges
Ferdinando Gorges
Sir Ferdinando Gorges , the "Father of English Colonization in North America", was an early English colonial entrepreneur and founder of the Province of Maine in 1622, although Gorges himself never set foot in the New World.-Biography:...
). The eldest son of Theobald and Eleanor was Ralph(1319–1375), the second son being Theobald, who duly adopted the name Gorges and inherited his mother's lands at Wraxall and Bradpole, Dorset. Ralph his elder brother had as his heir Sir Maurice Russell
Maurice Russell, knight
Sir Maurice Russell of Kingston Russell, Dorset and Dyrham, Glos. was a prominent member of the Gloucestershire gentry, the 3rd son, but eventual heir of Ralph Russell and his wife Alice. He was knighted between June and December 1385 and served twice as Knight of the Shire for Gloucestershire in...
(c.1352-1416) of Dyrham
Dyrham
Dyrham is a village and parish in South Gloucestershire, England.-Location and communications:Dyrham is at lat. 51° 29' north, long. 2° 22' west . It lies at an altitude of 100 metres above sea level. It is near the A46 trunk road, about north of Bath and a little south of the M4 motorway...
, Gloucestershire. To the latter, whose funerary brass can be seen at Dyrham Church, descended Kingston Russell, the manor and hundred of Redhove (Redhone) and Beminster Forum (Beaminster) in the manor of Bradpole, as well as the manor of Dyrham, Gloucestershire and Horsington, Somerset. By his first wife Isabel Childrey he had two daughters who on the death of his son Thomas in 1432 from his second marriage to Joan Dauntsey, became his co-heiresses. Margaret Russell(d.1466) the eldest daughter had married firstly her father's neighbour Sir Gilbert Denys
Gilbert Denys, knight
Sir Gilbert Denys of Siston, Gloucestershire, was a soldier, and later an administrator. He was knighted by Jan 1385, and was twice knight of the shire for Gloucestershire constituency, in 1390 and 1395 and served as High Sheriff of Gloucestershire 1393-4...
of Siston
Siston
Siston is a small village in South Gloucestershire, England east of Bristol Castle, ancient centre of Bristol, recorded historically as Syston, Sistone, Syton, Sytone and Systun etc. The village lies at the confluence of the two sources of the Siston Brook, a tributary of the River Avon...
and thus Kingston Russell and Dyrham passed to the Denys family. The Denyses appear never to have lived at Kingston Russell, and in 1542 Sir Walter Denys(1501–1571) of Dyrham, great-great-grandson of Sir Gilbert Denys and Margaret Russell sold Kingston Russell to his younger brother Sir Maurice Denys
Maurice Denys
Sir Maurice Denys was an English lawyer in London, a property speculator during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, during which period he served as a "powerful figure at the Court of Augmentations", a Member of Parliament for Malmesbury in Wiltshire, Treasurer of Calais and the builder of Siston...
(1516–1563), who sold it in March 1543/4 to the Crown.
Erroneously claimed as Heritage of Dukes of Bedford
It was long thought that Sir Theobald Russell(1303–1349) had a third son William who became the ancestor of the Russell Dukes of Bedford. In fact Theobald had 5 sons, the additional 2 being John and Richard, as the 1944 research of Mr Raymond Gorges has revealed Wiffen proposed that Sir Theobald Russell had married secondly Eleanor de la Tour of Berwick, who is a confirmed ancestor of the Bedford Russells. However, this marriage can never have taken place as Theobald Russell died in 1340/1 famously leading the forces defending the Isle of Wight against French invasion, and his widow Eleanor de Gorges survived him until 1376. Gladys Scott-Thomson FRHS in her exhaustive and scholarly work on the early Bedford pedigree, Two Hundred Years of Family History, London, 1930, has not found any proven link between the Bedford Russells, descended from a certain Henry Russell, a Weymouth merchant from Berwick-in-Swyre, and the Russells of Kingston Russell. There is much scope for confusion, as Berwick is only 3 miles to the south-west of Kingston Russell. It is interesting to compare the armourials of the two families, which have certain similarities. The arms of Russell of Kingston Russell survive earliest (without tinctures) on the funerary brass of Sir Maurice ("Morys") Russell at Dyrham Church, dated 1416/17. They are shown also on the Denys monumental brassDenys brass, Olveston
The Denys monumental brass in Olveston Church, Gloucestershire, dates from 1505, and is one of only about 80 Monumental brasses of Gloucestershire surviving today. It was erected following the death of Sir Walter Denys in 1505, and shows the latter together with his father Maurice Denys, both ...
of Walter Denys(d.1505) at Olveston
Olveston
Olveston is a small village and larger parish in South Gloucestershire, England. The parish comprises the villages of Olveston and Tockington, and the hamlets of Old Down, Ingst and Awkley. Alveston became a separate parish in 1846...
Church, where the Denys arms are quartered with the Russell arms of his grandmother Margaret, together with those of Gorges (New). These Russell arms are: Argent, on a chief gules three bezants. A bezant is a Byzantine gold coin, much beloved by crusaders. The arms of the Russell Dukes of Bedford are: Argent, a lion rampant gules on a chief sable three escallops of the first. Thus both arms have a field argent, both use a chief, which is filled with three circular or near circular devices - bezants and escallops. It may well be that the Ducal House created their arms as differences from their supposed ancestors
of Kingston Russell. Mr Wiffen, who was commissioned by a 19th.c. Duke of Bedford to write a history of the ducal family, proposed that the arms with the escallops were the original arms of Russell of Kingston Russell, which proposition was followed by Burke's Armorials (1884),
and that a cadet branch of the Russell family adopted the bezant arms as differences. This is clearly erroneous as the bezant arms alone appear in mediaeval rolls of arms
Roll of arms
A roll of arms is a collection of coats of arms, usually consisting of rows of painted pictures of shields, each shield accompanied by the name of the person bearing the arms...
. It would not have been diplomatic for Mr Wiffen, whose work is fatally flawed in the matter of the connection of the two families but otherwise contains much valuable information, to have reported to his generous patron that the lineage of the Dukes was a cadet branch, and indeed even if that an uncertain one. In reality, the earliest Earls of Bedford were unconcerned about the age of their lineage, deeming the possession of a "Great Man" as a recent ancestor all that mattered. Like Napoleon, the first Earl could say witheringly to those who questioned the antiquity of his House: "Moi, je suis l'ancetre".
So convinced were the noble Russells that they were descended from the Russells of Kingston Russell that Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford purchased, or procured the transfer, of Kingston Russell from the Crown in 1560. This was clearly a move prompted by sentimentality, albeit erroneous, since the Russells by then had many properties for habitation, including Tavistock Abbey in Devon. In 1626 the 3rd Earl of Bedford(d.1627) commissioned William Le Neve, the York Herald
York Herald
York Herald of Arms in Ordinary is an officer of arms at the College of Arms. The first York Herald is believed to have been an officer to Edmund of Langley, Duke of York around the year 1385, but the first completely reliable reference to such a herald is in February of 1484, when John Water...
, to produce a Russell pedigree. Scott Thomson states this to be " wrong in most of its details, and from the point of view of strict verity it is an unworthy document". Le Neve's technique seems to have been that he visited Normandy in search of any important personage called "Russell". He surmised that English Earls (the Dukedom was not created until 1694, the Earldom in 1550) must have had noble ancestors from the time of Charlemagne at least, and thus gave the Dukes a certain Hugo de Rosel, dug out from dusty archives somewhere in France, as their early ancestor. In fact the name Russell was quite common in the middle ages, signifying "red-headed". Le Neve went a step further and provided an illustration of the proposed noble forefather, a total work of fiction, but endearingly amusing nonetheless, showing the ignorance which existed in the 17th.c. as to what a Norman knight would have looked like. He thus bears a Saracen's curved sword, perhaps a reference to the Norman tenure of Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, where cultures of East and West synthesised.
At some point possibly around the 1640s, part of the manor, including the house, came into the possession of the Michel family, who partly rebuilt the seventeenth century Kingston Russell House as it still stands today at the end of a long driveway. The Michel family also owned Dewlish House in Dewlish, Dorset and removed there sometime during the 1760s when the house was then let. Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy, 1st Baronet, Nelson's flag captain, was born at Kingston Russell on 5 April 1769, his mother being the daughter of Thomas Masterman of this place. At some time before 1861 the Dukes of Bedford bought Kingston Russell for a second time, and when Lord John Russell
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, KG, GCMG, PC , known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was an English Whig and Liberal politician who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century....
(1792–1878) the prominent Liberal statesman, 3rd son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, was raised to the peerage as an earl on 30 July 1861, he chose the title Earl Russell of Kingston Russell
Earl Russell
Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 30 July 1861 for the prominent Liberal politician Lord John Russell. He was Home Secretary from 1835 to 1839, Foreign Secretary from 1852 to 1853 and 1859 to 1865 and Prime...
, which title is still extant. By the turn of the twentieth century however, the house was in a dilapidated condition and the estate was sold in 1913 to George Gribble Esq. The new owner - with architect Philip Tilden, who later worked for Winston Churchill - demolished a stub wing from the older Tudor building, extended the Carolean/Georgian wing by the addition of two small three-storey wings at either end of the original two storey structure, and laid out the gardens. His son Julian Royds Gribble
Julian Royds Gribble
Julian Royds Gribble VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces....
won the Victoria Cross
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
in the First World War, but was killed in action in 1918; the current village hall was constructed as a gift the village, in memory of him. The Gribble family moved away in the 1920s. Since then, the house has had a number of different owners. Since 1984 it has been owned by Dr HHJ Carter & Miss T. Silkstone, who are the longest continuous owner-occupiers of the house since the 1760s. The house is not open to the public, though it has welcomed visitors from bodies such as the Georgian Group
Georgian Group
The Georgian Group is an English and Welsh conservation organisation created to campaign for the preservation of historic buildings and planned landscapes of the 18th and early 19th centuries...
.
Chapel of St. James
A small chapel dedicated to St. James once stood nearby. It is reputed to have been built by the Russells and was financed by them through tithes and the glebe in Pitcombe. The last rector of the chapel was Roger Bond who was appointed to it, along with Little Bredy in 1531. The inhabitants then used the church at Long Bredy for burials. After its closure it was leased variously. In 1565 it was granted to Edith Cole, widow and John and Joan Martin, her children for their lives. It was then granted to John, Henry and William Mintern for their lives from 1585, then in 1605 to Fenton, esq. captain of the guard, and 1607 to George Ward. The chapel of St James then came to the Mellers of Little Bredy who sold the tithes and part of the glebe to the Michels. By this time the chapel was in ruins and in Hutchins' time only the walls remained. During the time of the Michel's residence of the manor, according to Hutchins, it was inhabited by poor people.Sources
- Scott-Thomson, Gladys,F.R.H.S. Two Centuries of Family History, London, 1930. A study of the Bedford Russell early pedigree.
- Wiffen, J.H. Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell from the Time of the Norman Conquest, (2 Vols.) Vol.1, London, 1833. Fatally flawed in its erroneous linkage of the Russell Earls of Bedford with the "baronial" Russells of Kingston Russell.
- Round, J. Horace, Studies in Peerage & Family History, London, 1901, vol.2, pp.250-279, "The Origin of the Russells". A severe and detailed critique of the work of Wiffen.
- Gorges, Raymond. History of the Family of Gorges ("The Story of a Family through Eleven Centuries Illustrated by Portraits and Pedigrees Being a History of the Family of Gorges"), Boston USA, 1944. Extensive research on the Russell family.
- Church, S.D. The Household Knights of King John, Cambridge, 1999
- Pitt-Rivers, Michael, 1968. Dorset. London: Faber & Faber.
- www.weymouth-dorset.co.uk/kingston-russell.html
- www.1911encyclopedia.org/Russell_(Family)
External links
- b&w copyrighted photo of Kingston Russell c. 1955
- Local History Website
- Research article on birth place of Thomas Hardy
- Earthwork and geophysical survey of long barrows on South Dorset Ridgeway
- http://www.archive.org/stream/studiesinpeerage02rounuoft/studiesinpeerage02rounuoft_djvu.txt Round, J.H., Studies in Peerage & Family History, 1901. pp. 250–277 "The Origin of the Russells".