M E M O I R
OFTHE
LIEE AND WRITINGS
O F
PATRICK RUSSELL,
M . D . F.R.S.
D K - RUSSELL h a v i n g died whi l e the publ icat ion of his Account of India n Serpents was
g o i n g forward, the following short Account of his Life has, in compliance with the
w i s h e s of some of his intimate friends, b e e n d rawn u p f rom the most authentic sources,
t o a c company the last fasciculus of that work.
D r . Patrick Russell was a y o u n g e r son of J o h n Russell, Esq.* of Braidshaw in Mid
L o t h i a n , a w r i t e r to the Signet, by his third wife, Mary, daughter of the Reverend Mr.
A n d e r s o n , minister at W e s t Calder. He was bor n at E d i n b u r g h on the 6th of February,
1 7 2 6 (0. S.). He received the rudiment s of bis classical education at the H i g h School of
t h a t city ; and lie studied at the Universi t y there several years.*
• Dr. Fothergill, in an " Essay on the Character of the late Alexander Russell, M, D. of which a few copies were
printed in London in 1770, and subjoined to a collection of his worts, Lond. 17S2, mentions that Mr. John Russell, his
father, was a person of great eminence as a lawyer in the city of Edinburgh, and singularly happy in having seven of
his sons, that lived to be men, not one of whom, by misbehaving, ever gave him cause of a moment's disquietude ; but,
on the contrary, by the just reputation they acquired, made all good men rejoice that he had such a family, and so eminently
distinguished by so many good qualities." In a note upon tliis passage, written by ISIr. William Russell, it is
added, that " so judicious was the plan of education adopted by l l r . John Russell, that in bringing up a large family of
boys, he never, even in one instance, found it necessary to inflict a punishment, or even to use a harsh e.xpression. He
was never seen to be angry. He lived to the advanced age of eighty-si-v, retaining his cheerfulness and faculties to
the hst."
All the clhldren of the first marriage died in infancy, their mother died in 1706 ; and of nine, the issue by the
second wife, three only arrived at manhood: I. John, ofRoseburn, writer to the Signet, F. R. S. Edin. (one of the original
members and founders of that society. See Prof.Dug Stewart's Life of ¡Robertson), author of " the Forms of Process
in the Court of Session and Court of Teinds," Edinb. 1768 ; and o f " the Theory of Conveyancing," Edin. 17SS.—
U. WilUam, secretary to the Levant Company, F. R. S. Treasurer^ to the R. S. (Mulgrave's 'Voyage to the North Pole,
p. 97. Bruce's Travels, Introd. pp. vii. li.>:. Ixii.) and 10 JlexamUr, M. D, F. R. S. (Lettsom's Memoirs of Fothergill.
Fothci-gill's Essay on the Character of Alexander Russell," 4to. 17 70.), author of the Natural History of Aleppo,
<lto. 1756.
The seven children of the third marriage were all sons. The eldest of those who reached manhood were, I'V. Darid,
solicitor and accomptaut in Edinburgh. 'V. Palrick, the subject of this Memoir. VI. Claud, chief at Vizagapatam, in
the Honourable Eastlndia Company Civil-Service (Dalrymple's Oriental Repertory, 'Vol. L pp. 49- 96, 255.). And 'VII.
Baijour, M.D. who was appointed physician to the factory of Algiers, but died before he could reach his destination.