Lord William Russell (aristocrat)
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Lord William Russell (20 August 1767–5 May 1840), a member of the British aristocratic family of Bedford, did very little to attract the public attention until 1840, when he was murdered in his sleep by his valet, François Benjamin Courvoisier.
[edit] His life
Russell was the posthumous child of Francis Russell, Marquess of Tavistock, who in turn was the eldest son of John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford. He was the youngest brother of Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford, and John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford; and the uncle of Francis Russell, 7th Duke of Bedford.
Russell married Lady Charlotte Villiers, the eldest daughter of George Bussy Child-Villiers, 4th Earl of Jersey, on 11 July 1789; they had seven children together. Lady Charlotte died in 1806.
[edit] His death
On the morning of 6 May, 1840, the Russells' housemaid, Sarah Mancer, discovered the lower floors of the house in disarray. Fearing that a robbery had taken place in the night, she went to Courvoisier's room and found him already dressed. Upon seeing the state of the house, he agreed that a robbery must have occurred; Courvoisier and Mancer then proceeded to Russell's bedchamber, where Courvoisier immediately went to open the shutters as he always did. Thus it was Mancer who first noticed that Russell was dead; his throat had been cut. The police were summoned; Courvoisier drew their attention to marks of violence upon the door to his pantry, asserting that this was where the robbers had entered the house.
The police, however, came quickly to the conclusion that the "robbery" had been staged in order to draw suspicion away from some member of the household. Numerous small gold and silver articles, as well as a ten-pound banknote, were found to be missing; some of the articles were soon discovered wrapped up in a parcel inside the house, which was curious – a thief would have carried them off straightaway rather than leave them behind. The discovery of several more gold articles, as well as the banknote, hidden in the wainscoting and in Courvoisier's pantry cemented their suspicion of the valet. Additionally, a screwdriver in his possession was found to match the marks on the pantry door as well as marks left by the forcing of the silverware drawer.
It appeared that Courvoisier's guilt still would not be proved conclusively; however, an inventory of the house turned up several items of silverware also missing. Silver matching their description was located in a French hotel in Leicester Square; when this news was conveyed to Courvoisier by his attorney, he immediately confessed to both the thefts and the murder.
It came out in Courvoisier's confession that Russell had discovered his silverware thefts and ordered Courvoisier to turn in his resignation from the household. Rather than lose his position, Courvoisier decided to murder Russell in order to conceal the matter.
Courvoisier had reportedly read William Harrison Ainsworth's novel Jack Sheppard in the days leading up to the crime, and several news reports implied that that novel's glorification of the criminal life had led him to commit the murder. The concept was not pursued in Courvoisier's court defence, however.
Courvoisier was executed at Newgate Prison on 6 July 1840.
