to the needs of those in distress, never courting publicity but always 'more concerned to be good than to appear so.' He financed the teaching of poor children, paid a local surgeon to care for poor families in the neighbourhood, and contributed to schemes to provide food for the poorest of his neighbours. Throughout his life, many families, 'sufferers by fire' and 'persons stricken with illness,' were supported by his bounty. During the American War for Independence, Russell bought food, clothes and shoes to ease the distress of American prisoners of war. Nothing better portrays the stature of the man than the response of the local poor when Russell's house was attacked and destroyed in the 1791 Birmingham riots. His 'poor and illiterate' neighbours swarmed to his assistance as soon as Russell's house was announced as the rioters' next target. Some stayed at the roadside trying to calm and dissuade the rioters. Views on education As a Rational Christian, Russell valued education. He paid local clergymen to teach poor boys to read and write, helped support the Birmingham Library and its offshoot Scientific Library, and sponsored scientific lectures. He subscribed to schools in Coseley, Oldbury, Hall Green and Birmingham, and to Warrington Academy and the New College at Hackney, as well as numerous Sunday Schools in the West Midlands. Like his grandfather and father before him, he was a governor of King Edward's School, Birmingham. He joined the committee of London's 'Presbyterian University', the New College at Hackney, in May 1790. When the college faced bankruptcy with debts of two thousand pounds because of over-expansion and poor supervision of the builders, he dashed to London to add his support, chairing a subcommittee appointed to 'reduce household expenses.' In 1790, he backed Priestley's scheme for a Birmingham Sunday Society, where youngsters who had passed through a basic Sunday school were taught arithmetic, book-keeping, geography and drawing, as well as the elements of natural and revealed religion, by teachers drawn from Priestley's Senior Class. As well as a major subscriber to the Unitarian New Meeting in Birmingham, acting as Secretary to the committee of subscribers from 1771 to 1793, Russell subscribed to a host of chapels up and down the country, including Theophilus Lindsey's Essex Street Chapel, and supported a number of dissenting ministers. It was only through Russell's whole-hearted leadership and practical support, that within a few weeks of becoming co-pastor