Russell family, Dukes of Bedford

Stephen Russell (d. 1438), of a Dorset family, owned land at Maiden Newton and elsewhere, and acquired Berwick (Dorset) through his wife. (Kingston Russell, an older family possession, was alienated but re-acquired c.1560.) Sir John Russell (1485-1555), courtier, soldier and diplomat, married in 1526 Anne, daughter of Sir Guy Sapcote, through whom the Chenies (Buckinghamshire) and Thornhaugh (Northamptonshire) estates were inherited. He received large grants from the Crown, including lands of Tavistock Abbey and other property in Devon and Cornwall in 1540-50, the reversion of Woburn Abbey (Bedfordshire) in 1547, Thorney Abbey (Cambridgeshire), and the Covent Garden estate (Middlesex) (following the attainder of the Duke of Somerset) in 1552. He was created Earl of Bedford in 1550.

The Thornhaugh estate passed to the 1st Baron Russell (d. 1613), fourth son of the 2nd Earl of Bedford. Lord Russell also acquired Shingay (Cambridgeshire) by marriage. The 2nd Baron Russell succeeded his cousin as 4th Earl of Bedford in 1627. Thornhaugh then descended with the earldom of Bedford, but Shingay passed to a younger son, created Earl of Orford in 1697.

The 5th Earl of Bedford (1613-1700) was created Duke of Bedford in 1694. His eldest son William, Lord Russell (1639-83), married in 1669 Lady Rachel Wriothesley, daughter and co-heir of the 4th Earl of Southampton, through whom the Bloomsbury (Middlesex) estate and land in Hampshire (Stratton, Micheldever, etc) came to the Russell family. (See also, for other Southampton co-heirs, Montagu-Douglas-Scott, Dukes of Buccleuch and Queensberry, and Noel, Earls of Gainsborough). The second Duke (1680-1711) married in 1695 Elizabeth Howland, who brought property in Surrey (Streatham, Wandsworth, Lambeth and Rotherhithe), Essex, Suffolk and elsewhere. These properties were sold after her death in 1724, apart from the Surrey estates, which were disposed of between about 1790 and 1816.

In the 18th and early 19th centuries the Bedfordshire and Tavistock estates were increased by purchase, the Bedfordshire estates notably by Oakley (1737), lands in Houghton Conquest, etc (1738, from the Earl of Ailesbury), Gostwick, etc (1774, from the Duke of Marlborough) and Ampthill and Houghton Conquest (1842, from Lord Holland's devisees), and the Tavistock estates partly by land in Cornwall later sold. The Hampshire estate was sold to the Baring family in 1800, to help meet the 5th Duke's liabilities. The Thornhaugh estate was sold in 1904 (to the 7th Earl Fitzwilliam), the Thorney estate in 1910, Covent Garden in 1917-18, and Chenies and most of the Tavistock estate by the late 1960s.

Estates in 1883: Beds 32,269 acres, Devon 22,607 acres, Cambs 18,800 acres, Northants 3,414 acres, Dorset 3,412 acres, Bucks 3,036 acres, Hunts 1,334 acres, Cornwall 1,231 acres, Hants 148 acres, Herts 83 acres, Lincs 1 acre, total 86,335 acres worth £141,793 a year. (The metropolitan property is excluded.)