MEMOIR 
OF 
THE LIFE AND WRITINGS 
OF 
PATRICK RUSSELL, 
M.D. F.R.S. 
Dr. Russell having died while the publication of his Account of Indian Serpents was 
going forward, the following short Account of his Life has, in compliance with the 
wishes of some of his intimate friends, been drawn up from the most authentic sources, 
to accompany the last fasciculus of that work. 
Dr. Patrick Russell was a younger son of John Russell, Esq,* of Braidshaw in Mid 
Lothian, a writer to the Signet, by his third wife, Mary, daughter of the Reverend Mr. 
Anderson, minister at West Galder. He was born at Edinburgh on the 6th of February, 
17 26 (O. S.). He received the rudiments of his classical education at the High School of 
that city ; and he studied at the University there several years.* 
* Dr. Fothergill, in an “ Essay on the Character of the late Alexander Russell, M.D. of which a few copies were 
printed in London in 1770, and subjoined to a collection of his works, Lond. 17 82, mentions that Mr. John Russell, his 
father, was a person of great eminence as a lawyer in the city of Edinburgh, and singularly happy in having seven of 
his sons, that lived to be men, not one of whom, by misbehaving, ever gave him cause of a moment’s disquietude ; but, 
on the contrary, by the just reputation they acquired, made all good men rejoice that he had such a family, and so emi¬ 
nently distinguished by so many good qualities.” In a note upon this passage, written by Mr. William Russell, it is 
added, that “ so judicious was the plan of education adopted by Mr. John Russell, that in bringing up a large family of 
boys, he never, even in one instance, found it necessary to inflict a punishment, or even to use a harsh expression. He 
was never seen to be angry. He lived to the advanced age of eighty-six, retaining his cheerfulness and faculties to 
the last.” 
All the children of the first marriage died in infancy; their mother died in 1705 ; and of nine, the issue by the 
second wife, three only arrived at manhood: I. John, of Roseburn, writer to the Signet, F. R. S. Edin. (one of the ori¬ 
ginal members and founders of that society. See Prof.Dug Stewart’s Life of Robertson), author of “ the Foi’ms of Process 
in the Court of Session and Court of Teinds," Edinb. 1768 ; and of “ the Theory of Conveyancing,” Edin. 1788.— 
II. William , secretary to the Levant Company, F. R. S. Treasurer to the R. S. (Mulgrave’s Voyage to the North Pole, 
p. 97. Bruce’s Travels, Introd. pp. vii. lix. lxii.) and III. Alexander , M.D F.R.S. (Lettsom’s Memoirs of Fothergill. 
Fothergill’s “ Essay on the Character of Alexander Russell," 4to, 1770.), author of the Natural History of AL-ppo, 
4to. 1756. 
The seven children of the third marriage were all sons. The eldest of those who reached manhood were, IV. David , 
solicitor and accomptant in Edinburgh. V. Patrick , the subject of this Memoir. VI. Claud , chief at Vizagapatam, in 
the Honourable East India Company Civil-Service (Dalrymple’s Oriental Repertory, Vol. I. pp. 49. 96, 255-)* And VII. 
Balfour , M.D. who was appointed physician to the factory of Algiers, but died before he could reach his destination. 
