Lady William Russell

Who was Lady William Russell?

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

Elizabeth Anne was the only child of Captain the Hon. John Theophilus Rawdon, the brother of Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings. She married Russell on 21 June 1817. A beautiful and energetic cosmopolitan who had enjoyed a broad European education, Lord Byron praised her in Beppo as "[one] whose bloom could, after dancing, dare the dawn". However, her outspoken Tory sympathies won her few friends among her husband's Liberal circle. Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux 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;

⁕Lord Arthur John Edward Russell;

⁕Odo Russell, 1st Baron Ampthill.

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