The Rev. John Russell's Obituary

The obituary that follows was published in the Swymbridge Parish Magazine of June 1883 following the death of the Reverend John Russell. The original article is framed and hangs in the Jack Russell Inn in Swimbridge (both spellings are used and both are correct).

This obituary is notable in that it does not mention horse, hound or terrier at all, and makes mention only of "his fame in the hunting field."

It has never been clear to me exactly when the term "Jack Russell Terrier" was first coined. It apparently was put forth shortly after his death, perhaps by dog dealers interested in capitalizing on the flurry of fame surrounding his death, but I find no evidence it was a term used while he was actually alive.

In an earlier post I put together a fairly detailed chronology of Rev. John Russell's life and that of Arthur Heinemann as well. The important point here is that Heinemann (an American by birth) and Russell had nothing to do with each other, and in fact the two gentlemen not only hunted in a different manner (Russell on horseback, Heinemann on foot), but different quarry as well (Russell hunted stag and fox, while Heinemann founded the Devon and Somerset Badger Digging Club).

Rev. John Russell

The illness from which the Rev. John Russell had long been suffering, ended fatally on Saturday the 28th of April. The sad event had been expected, and many who had seen him in our Parish Church on Sunday, 4th of March, realized the fact that the end could not be very far off.

Mr. Russell was born at Dartmouth, on December 21st 1795, his father just previously having been appointed to the Rectory of Iddesleigh, near Okehampton. He was the first sent to school at Plympton, and sometime after he was removed to Blundell’s School at Tiverton, where he succeeded in obtaining an exhibition of £30 a year, tenable at Exeter College, Oxford. Soon after having taken his degree at Oxford, Mr Russell was nominated to the curacy of Georgenympton, was ordained deacon in 1819, and priest in the following year by the Bishop (Pelham) of Exeter.

That Mr. Russell entered on the work of the ministry with a due sense of the sacred office, and of his own responsibility is unknown by many, who have only heard of his fame in the hunting field. But Mr. Russell showed a readiness to visit the sick and weary; to relive the wants of his poorer brethren, however poor himself; to preach God’s word earnestly; to plead in many a neighbouring pulpit, the cause of hospitals and kindred institutions. If such things be of good report, and carry any weight, no human being can say of him that his life had been altogether that of an unprofitable servant.

Soon after his appointment to George Nympton, he became Curate of South Molton in addition. Towards the end of 1825, or the beginning of 1826, an event, affecting the happiness of his life happened, namely, his marriage with Miss Penelope Bury, daughter of Admiral Bury of Dennington.

In the Autumn of 1874, a heavy sorrow awaited Mr. Russell – the heaviest he had known through life – by the serious illness of Mrs. Russell, and her subsequent death on New Years Day, 1875. In a letter to an old Curate of his, he alludes thus to the event: “I am at home again, though it no longer seems like home to me; for there is a vacant chair in every room, never again to be filled by her, the dear old soul, to whom I was united forty-nine years ago, come Sunday”.

Mr. Russell removed to Swymbridge, after six years residence at Iddesleigh, in the year 1832. In the following year the Perpetual Curacy of Swymbridge and Landkey became vacant, to which he was appointed, remaining in charge for nearly fifty years. Of his consideration and kindheartedness an instance is given in his treatment of the wandering tribes of gypsies, that were accustomed to sojourn awhile on the waste spots in his parish. Instead of persecuting them as trespassers by impounding their donkeys, compelling them to strike their tents at a moment’s notice, driving them and their children from pillar to post and treating them more like wolves than human beings, he never failed to befriend and protect them when-ever he though they were unfairly used. In return for this kindness they took active steps to protect his house when they had very good reason to believe it was threatened by a gang of thieves.

It was also recorded that when the King of Gypsies Edward Boswell, fell ill, and felt that his earthly hours were drawing to a close, he expressed a last wish that a charm he had long worn and prized greatly – a Spanish Silver Coin, of the date of Charles III – should be given to Mr. Russell, in token of the sympathy he had ever shown to him and his tribe. At the same time he requested that he might be buried in Swymbridge Churchyard, and by Mr. Russell himself.

It is quite unnecessary that any attempt should be made at a description of Mr. Russell’s characteristics. The best qualities of a kindly hearted man were present in him in a remarkable degree, and wherever his name has become familiar it has always associated with all that is honourable and chivalrous, and withal with recollections of innumerable kind attentions to those with whom his position brought him into close contact. By the poor he was always looked upon as one to whom their concerns were of importance, and who was near to them in heart in the troubles of their lot; and by the rich, from the Prince of Wales downwards, he was always welcomed, as much on account of the air of cheerfulness which always marked his presence; as for the wonderful number of anecdotes with which he sustained the life of the conversation in which he was an animated partaker. By his death the poor and lowly lose a kindly helper, while those in other stations will undoubtedly feel that in their circles a blank, which will never be filled up, has been created.

The change to the Black Torrington Rectory, brought about by the force of circumstances, he never ceased to regret. It could not be otherwise after having forty eight years of his life here.

After three short years in his new home he was brought back here to be laid by the side of her who for nearly fifty years shared his joys and sorrows. The enormous crowd that gathered from all parts of the country to his funeral testified to the esteem in which he was held by all classes of society. They felt that there lay one dead whose kindly actions, whose cheery words and genial smile had endeared him to them: and so they stood round his grave and paid him the last tribute of love.

Any may we say that the lesson his life teaches is this: To be kind one towards another, to be ready to assist each other in the many trials and difficulties of life, and to try and lead honest upright, temperate lives.

The picture to the left is Penelope Incledon Bury, aka "Mrs Jack Russell." She married the Reverend John Russell in 1826, and they had two sons, only one of which survived.

The dog pictured to the left of Mrs. Russell is presumably one of her husbands. If that is the case, it is the only photograph that I know of one of the Reverend's dogs. The famous painting of Trump, of course, is a complete fabrication painted more than 40 years after the dog died by a man who never saw the dog at all.

It should be said that Russell was apparently a bit of a dog dealer, and that many terriers and hounds passed through his hands. Russell gave up his hounds at least twice due to poverty -- he did not have a kennel of terriers in the end as some have suggested. At the end of his life there were only four old arthritic terriers named "Rags", "Sly", "Fuss" and "Tinker," and none were of breeding age.
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