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ber I ^(>^. He was intended for the Church, but in 1782 went to India as a volunteer, with his brother Ambrose. After five years' service he returned (according to one account disgusted at the outrages perpe- trated on the natives of India), and was appointed captain in the 64th Regiment. In 1789 an acquaintance with Wolfe Tone ripened into a close intimacy. He entered warmly into all Tone's plans regarding Ireland — his sobriety of demeanour and deep religious earnestness contrasting strangely with his friend's mercurial temperament and heterodoxy in religion. Tone was devotedly attached to him ; "P.P." or "Clerk of the Parish," the play- ful name by which he knew Russell, occurs upon almost every page of his Journal. About 1 791 he sold his commission, as the only means of meeting a liability of .£200 which he had incurred for a friend. He obtained the position of Sene- schal to the Manor Court of Dungannon, and was made a justice of the peace for the Coimty of Tyrone. It was not long before he threw up both appointments, declaring " he could not reconcile it to his conscience to sit as magistrate on a bench where the practice prevailed of inquiring what a man's religion was be- fore going into the crime with which a prisoner was accused." In 1794 he was appointed librarian of the Belfast Library, on a very small salary. Russell wrote for the Northern Slar. Several pieces on negro slavery show that his liberal principles were not confined to any race or country. He published a pamphlet on the Catholic claims in 1796. When the plans of the revolutionary party took shape, he was appointed to the com- mand of the United Irishmen in the County of Down. Several of his letters found their way into the hands of the Governmpnt, and on the i6th September 1796 he was arrested, and was kept in confinement until 1802 — first at Newgate, Dublin, and afterwards at Fort George, Scotland. This long incarceration in no way abated his ardour in what he be- lieved to be the cause of Ireland. In June 1802, with other state prisoners, he was liberated, and landed on the Conti- nent. In August he met Robert Emmet in Paris, and threw himself with zeal into his plans. With difficulty he contrived to reach Ireland in disguise. To him Emmet assigned the task of rousing Ulster. He met with little encourage- ment, yet even after receiving the news of Emmet's failure and arrest, he wrote to his friend Miss McCracken : " I hope your spirits are not depressed by a temporary 460
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damp, in consequence of the recent failure ;
. . of ultimate success I am still cer- tain." He returned to Dublin, and took lodgings at the house of a gunmaker in Parliament-street, where, on 9th Septem- ber 1803 he was arrested by Major Sirr: he was shortly afterwards sent to Down- patrick for trial. IneflFectual efforts were made by Miss McCracken to bribe the jail- ers and procure his release. He was found guilty of high treason at Downpatrick on 19th October 1803, and was executed next day. His last letters to his friends were full of a spirit of lofty devotion and self- sacrifice ; and his only request before sen- tence was that he might be given a few days to complete a treatise he was writing on the book of Revelation, which he believed would be of some good to the world. His body was interred in Downpatrick church- yard, under a slab bearing the inscription, " The grave of Russell." He is described as tall, with dark hair and complexion ; his voice was deep and melodious ; his presence showed a singular combination of sweetness and strength. His sister, to whom he was devotedly attached, was cared for by Miss McCracken, and sur- vived until 1 82 1. [For further mention of Miss McCracken, see McCracken, Henry J.] 330
Rntherford, Griffith, General, a com- mander in the American War of Indepen- dence, was born in Ireland in the first half of the 1 8th century. He resided in the Locke Settlement, Noi-th Carolina, at the commencement of the Revolution, and was sent representative to the Convention at Newbern. Next year he led a force against the Cherokees, and was appointed a brigadier by the Provincial Congress. He led a brigade at the battle of Camden, in August 1 780 ; was taken prisoner ; and, having been exchanged, commanded the American troops at Wilmington when it was evacuated by the British at the close of the war. He was a State Senator in 1784, and was President of the Tennes- see Legislative Council in 1794. Coun- ties in North Carolina and Tennessee bear his name. Drake says : " He was brave and patriotic, but uncultivated in mind and manners." General Rutherford died in Tennessee after 1794. 37*
Rutty, John, M.D., a distinguished Dublin physician, a member of the Society of Friends, was born in Wiltshire, 25th December 1697. He settled in Dublin in 1724, where he practised during the re- mainder of his Ufe. He was the author of numerous works relating to Ireland ; besides others not here enumerated : (i) Rise and Progress of the People called
