Maurice Russell, knight

Sir Maurice Russell (2 February 1356 – 27 June 1416) of Kingston Russell, Dorset and Dyrham, Glos. was an English nobleman and knight. He was a prominent member of the Gloucestershire gentry. He was the third but eldest surviving son and heir of Sir Ralph Russell (1319–1375) and his wife Alice (died 1388). He was knighted between June and December 1385 and served twice as Knight of the Shire for Gloucestershire in 1402 and 1404. He held the post of Sheriff of Gloucestershire four times, and was Coroner and Justice of the Peace, Tax Collector and Commissioner of Enquiry. His land holdings were extensive in Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. He was descended from an ancient line which can be traced back to 1210, which ended on the death of his son Thomas, from his second marriage, as a young man without male issue. Most of his estates, despite having been entailed, passed at his death into the families of his two daughters from his first marriage.

In 1626 the York Herald, William Le Neve, claimed descent for the family of Russell of Kingston Russell from a certain Norman knight, Hugo de Rosel, but this has since been shown to be fanciful, and in fact the family's earliest verifiable ancestor was living about 1200. The family was established at Kingston Russell in the parish of Long Bredy, near Swyre, in Dorset, at the start of the 13th century. About 1210 Sir John Russell (died c. 1224) held Kingston from King John (1199–1216) as half a hide by the serjeanty of being a marshal of the King's buttery on Christmas Day and at Whitsuntide, a service which had originated in the time of William the Conqueror. The tenure was later said to be that of telling out the King's chessmen and putting them away when the King had finished his game. Members of the family also held nearby Allington in Dorset from an early date, by serjeanty of presenting to the King a cup of wine at Christmas, yet it appears in fact to have been part of the Domesday fief of Turstin FitzRolf, which later became the barony of Newmarch. John Russell was Governor of Corfe Castle in Dorset in 1220/1 and sometime Constable of Sherborne Castle, Dorset. He married Rose Bardolph, a daughter of Thomas Bardolph and Adela (or Sybil) Corbet.

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