Thomas Russell (poet)
Thomas Russell (1762July 31, 1788) was an English poet born at Beaminster early in 1762. He was the son of John Russell, an attorney at Bridport, in Dorsetshire, and his mother was Miss Virtue Brickle, of Shaftesbury. He was educated at the grammar school of Bridport, and in 1777 proceeded to Winchester, where he stayed three years, under Dr. Joseph Warton, and Thomas Warton, the professor of poetry. In 1780 Russell became a member of New College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1784 and was ordained priest in 1786. During his residence at the university he devoted himself to French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Provenal and even German literature. His health, however, broke down, and he retired to Bristol Hotwells to drink the waters; but in vain, for he died there from consumption on the 31st of July 1788. He was buried in Powerstock churchyard, Dorset. In 1789 was published a thin volume, containing his Sonnets and Miscellaneous Poems, now a very rare book. It contained twenty-three sonnets, of regular form, and a few paraphrases and original lyrics. The sonnets are the best, and it is by right of these that Russell takes his place as one of the most interesting