Alexander James Russell WS

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(1814–1887) was a 19th-century Scottish lawyer.

Life

The grave of Alexander James Russell, Dean Cemetery

He was born at 101 George Street in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

on 21 June 1814, the son of John Russell

Writer to the Signet The Society of Writers to His Majesty's Signet is a private society of Scottish solicitors, dating back to 1594 and part of the College of Justice. Writers to the Signet originally had special privileges in relation to the drawing up of document ...

. He was apprenticed to his father as a lawyer and qualified as a Writer too the Signet in 1837. By 1840 he appears as a Clerk to the Signet (CS) living at 9 Shandwick Place at the west end of Princes Street. By 1850 he is in partnership with his father as "J & A J Russell CS". In 1852 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposer was

James Thomson Gibson-Craig James Thomson Gibson-Craig (12 March 1799 – 18 July 1886) was a Scottish book collector and writer to the Signet. Early life, education, and career Gibson-Craig was born on 12 March 1799 as the second son of James Gibson (1765–1850), and ...

. By 1860 his father had retired and moved to the "south Bank" of Canaan Lane in the Morningside district. A few years after his father's death he went into business with James Nicolson to create the new firm of Russell & Nicolson at 11 George Street. The firm later evolved into Russell & Dunlop. He died at Shandwick Place in Edinburgh on 8 January 1887. He is buried in

Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on ...

. The grave, with an unusual triangular base, lies at the junction of the main southern path with the now infilled track around the small south sections, opposite the ornate Leishman monument.

Family

He was married twice: firstly in 1839 to Magdalene Stein (1820-1857) and secondly in 1861 to Elizabeth Anne Lancaster (1835-1903), twenty years his junior.

References

1814 births 1887 deaths Lawyers from Edinburgh Scottish lawyers Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Burials at the Dean Cemetery {{Scotland-law-bio-stub