John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford

The Right Honourable The Earl of Bedford KG PC JP
John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, by Hans Holbein the Younger; Royal Collection, Windsor Castle
Lord High Steward for the coronation of Edward VI
In office 20 February 1547 – 20 February 1547
Monarch	Edward VI
Lord Privy Seal
In office 1542–1555
Monarch	Henry VIII Edward VI Mary I
Chancellor	See Sir Thomas Audley (1542-1544) The Earl of Southampton (1544-1547) The Lord St John (1547) (as Lord Keeper) The Lord Rich (1547-1551) Thomas Goodrich, Bishop of Ely (1551-1553) Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester (1553-1555)
Preceded by	The Earl of Southampton
Succeeded by	The Lord Paget
Lord High Admiral
In office 1540–1542
Monarch	Henry VIII
Chancellor	Sir Thomas Audley
Preceded by	The Earl of Southampton
Succeeded by	The Earl of Hertford
Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall
In office 1552–1554
Monarch	Edward VI Mary I
Preceded by	Unknown
Succeeded by	The Earl of Bath
Lord Lieutenant of Devon
In office 1552–1555
Monarch	Edward VI Mary I
Preceded by	Unknown
Succeeded by	The Earl of Bath
Lord Lieutenant of Dorset
In office 1552–1555
Monarch	Edward VI Mary I
Preceded by	Unknown
Succeeded by	The Earl of Bath
Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
In office 1552–1555
Monarch	Edward VI Mary I
Preceded by	Unknown
Succeeded by	Vacant The Earl of Pembroke
High Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset
In office 1527–1527
Monarch	Henry VIII
Preceded by	John Seymour
Succeeded by	Sir Andrew Luttrell
Member of Parliament for Buckinghamshire
In office 9 August 1529 – 14 April 1536 Serving with Sir Andrew Windsor Sir Francis Bryan (from 1532)
Monarch	Henry VIII
Chancellor	Sir Thomas More (1529-1532) Sir Thomas Audley (1532-1536)
Preceded by	Unknown
Succeeded by	Unknown
Personal details
Born	John Russell c. 1485 Berwick-by-Swyre, Dorset
Died	May 14, 1555(1555-05-14) (aged 69–70)
Resting place	Bedford Chapel, St Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire
Nationality	English
Spouse(s)	Anne Sapcote
Relations	John Russell, 1st Earl Russell Bertrand Russell Winston Churchill (distant descendants)
Children	Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford
Parents	James Russell (father) Alice Wise (mother)
Residence	Chenies Manor House, Chenies, Buckinghamshire
Awards	Knight of the Order of the Garter Privy Counsellor Several Life peerages
John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford Garter stall plate of John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, installed as a Knight of the Garter 18 May 1539 Title 1st Earl of Bedford Tenure 1550-1555 Other titles 1st Baron Russell Successor Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford

John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford
Garter stall plate of John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, installed as a Knight of the Garter 18 May 1539
Title	1st Earl of Bedford
Tenure	1550-1555
Other titles	1st Baron Russell
Successor	Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford

John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford KG PC JP (c. 1485 – 14 March 1554/1555) was an English royal minister in the Tudor era. He served variously as Lord High Admiral and Lord Privy Seal. Among the lands and property he was given by Henry VIII after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, were the Abbey and town of , and the area that is now Covent Garden. Russell is the ancestor of all subsequent Earls and Dukes of Bedford and Earls Russell, including John Russell, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and philosopher Bertrand Russell.

John Russell was born ca. 1485 probably at Berwick-by-Swyre, Dorset, the son of James Russell (d. Nov. 1505) and his first wife Alice Wise, daughter of Thomas Wise of Sidenham, near Tavistock, Devon. James's father was possibly William Russell, but more likely his brother John Russell (d. pre November, 1505) by his wife Alice Froxmere, daughter of John Froxmere of Droitwich, Worcs. John was the son of Henry Russell (d. 1463/4), and Elizabeth Herring, daughter of John Herring of Chaldon Herring. Henry, great-grandfather of the 1st Earl, was a substantial wine merchant and shipper, who represented Weymouth in the House of Commons four times. The Russell pedigree can only be traced back with certainty to Henry Russell's father, Stephen Russell, the evidence being contained in a deed of April 1440 in which Henry Russell made over to his daughter Christina and her husband Walter Cheverell of Chauntemarle, a tenement in Dorchester to be held of himself and his heirs upon rent of a red rose. In the deed Henry referred to himself as son and heir of Stephen Russell and of Alice his wife. This Alice appears to have been the heir general of the De la Tour family, which had long owned Berwick-by-Swyre, and by whom therefore the manor was brought into the Russell family. Both Henry and Stephen were referred to as Gascoigne as well as Russell, possibly due to their wine trade with France, as in a 1442 pardon under the Privy Seal referring to Henry Russell of Weymouth, merchant, alias Henry Gascoign, gentleman. It was long believed in the noble Russell family, certainly by the 2nd Earl of Bedford, that the family was descended from the ancient family of Russell of Kingston Russell in Dorset, three miles northeast of Berwick, which descent was declared unproven by Gladys Scott Thomson in her Two Centuries of Family History, London, 1930, an exhaustive and scholarly work on the early pedigree of the Earls of Bedford. (For a disambiguation of the Bedford Russells and the Russells of Kingston Russell, see Kingston Russell)