Sir William Oldnall Russell (1785– 22 January 1833) was the Chief Justice of the Surpreme Court at

Calcuta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

Life

He was born in 1785, the eldest son of Samuel Oldnall, rector of St. Nicholas,

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

, and North Piddle, and Mary, daughter of William Russell of

Powick Powick is a village and civil parish in the Malvern Hills District, Malvern Hills district of Worcestershire, England, located two miles south of the city of Worcester, England, Worcester and four miles north of Great Malvern. The parish include ...

. In 1816, in accordance with the will of his maternal grandfather, he took the surname of Russell. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 22 December 1801, and was a student till 1812. He graduated B.A. in 1804 and M.A. in 1807. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1809, became

serjeant-at-law A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are wri ...

on 25 June 1827, and Chief Justice of Bengal in 1832, when he was knighted. Russell died on 22 January 1833. He had married, in 1825, Louisa Maria, daughter of John Lloyd Williams, and left children.

Works

Russell's ''Treatise on Crimes and Misdemeanours'', which appeared in 2 vols. in 1819, was pronounced by Samuel Warren''Law Student'', 2nd edit. p. 620 "the best general treatise in criminal law". A second edition appeared in 1827; a third, edited by C. S. Greaves, in 1843, with a supplement in 1851; a fourth, in 3 vols., in 1865; and a fifth, edited by S. Prentice, Q.C., in 1877. The American editions, of which seven were issued between 1824 and 1853, did not reproduce the whole work. Russell also published: *''Practice in the Court of Great Sessions on the Caermarthen Circuit ... also the Mode of levying a Fine and of suffering a Recovery ... To which are added Rules of that Circuit, and some Precedents of Practical Forms'', 3 pts., 1814. *With (Sir) Edward Ryan, ''Crown Cases reserved and decided by Twelve Judges of England, 1799-1824'', 1825; republished in

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's ''British Crown Cases reserved''.

References

* *Adams, John N. "Russell, Sir William Oldnall". In A. W. B. Simpson.

Biographical Dictionary of the Common Law ''Biographical Dictionary of the Common Law'' is a biographical dictionary concerned with legal biography, edited by A. W. B. Simpson and published in 1984 by Butterworths LexisNexis is a part of the RELX corporation that sells data analytics ...

. Butterworths. 1984. pp. 456 - 457. * *Allibone, S Austin. "Russell, Sir William Oldnall". A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors. Philadelphia. 1874. Volume 2
Page 1902
*"Some Account of the Life and Writings of Sir Wm Russell" (1833) 6 The Legal Observe
225
(27 July 1833) *George K Stanton. Rambles and Researches Among Worcestershire Churches. Simpkin, Marshall & Co. London. Messenger Printing and Publishing Company. Bromsgrove. Pages 114 an
117
*(1944
88
Solicitors Journal 222 *Glyn Parry
A Guide to the Records of Great Sessions in Wales
National Library of Wales. 1995. *Rhys and Brynmor-Jones. The Welsh People. Second Edition. New York. 1900. Pages 375 an
384Fifth Edition
Unwin. 1909. Pages 375 and 384. *Russell
The Practice of the Court of Great Sessions on the Carmarthen Circuit
1814. *Russell
A Short Sketch of the Origin and History of the Welsh Jurisdiction
1816. *Russell and Ryan. Crown Cases Reserved for Consideration. (Russell and Ryan's Crown Cases; Russell and Ryan's Reports)
London, 1825Philadelphia, 1839
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, William Oldnall 1785 births 1833 deaths Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Members of Lincoln's Inn Serjeants-at-law (England) British India judges 19th-century English lawyers British people in colonial India