Lady William Russell was the wife of Lord George William Russell and a notorious socialite

Socialite

A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....

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Elizabeth Anne was the only child of Captain the Hon. John Theophilus Rawdon (died 1808), the brother of Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings

Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings

Francis Edward Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings KG PC , styled The Honourable Francis Rawdon from birth until 1762 and as The Lord Rawdon between 1762 and 1783 and known as The Earl of Moira between 1793 and 1816, was an Irish-British politician and military officer who served as...

. She married Russell on 21 June 1817. A beautiful and energetic cosmopolitan who had enjoyed a broad Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an education, Lord Byron praised her in Beppo as one whose bloom could, after dancing, dare the dawn. However, her outspoken Tory

Tory

Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...

 sympathies won her few friends among her husband's Liberal

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 circle. Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux

Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux

Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux was a British statesman who became Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.As a young lawyer in Scotland Brougham helped to found the Edinburgh Review in 1802 and contributed many articles to it. He went to London, and was called to the English bar in...

 described her as that accursed woman.

She and Russell had three sons, all of whom she tutored at home, perhaps lending them a rather distinctive approach to life:

• Francis Russell, 9th Duke of Bedford
  Francis Russell, 9th Duke of Bedford
  Francis Charles Hastings Russell, 9th Duke of Bedford KG was an English politician and agriculturalist.-Life:...
  
  ;
• Lord Arthur John Edward Russell
  Lord Arthur John Edward Russell
  Lord Arthur John Edward Russell was a British politician.He was the second son of Major-General Lord George William Russell and Elizabeth Anne Rawdon, daughter of the Hon. John Theophilus Rawdon, himself second son of the 1st Earl of Moira, as well as younger brother to the 9th Duke of Bedford and...
  
  ;
• Odo Russell, 1st Baron Ampthill
  Odo Russell, 1st Baron Ampthill
  Odo William Leopold Russell, 1st Baron Ampthill GCB GCMG PC , known as Lord Odo Russell between 1872 and 1881, was a British diplomat and ambassador and the first British ambassador to the German Empire. He was born in Florence in 1829 into the Russell family, one of England's leading Whig/liberal...
  
  .

Benjamin Disraeli

Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield

Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS, was a British Prime Minister, parliamentarian, Conservative statesman and literary figure. Starting from comparatively humble origins, he served in government for three decades, twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom...

said in conversation, I think she is the most fortunate woman in England, for she has the three nicest sons.