{{Short description|Scottish lawyer}} {{Original research|date=November 2023}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} '''Alexander James Russell''' WS FRSE (1814–1887) was a Scottish lawyer.
==Life== thumb|The grave of Alexander James Russell, Dean Cemetery He was born at 101 George Street in Edinburgh on 21 June 1814, the son of John Russell FRSE Writer to the Signet.<ref>Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1814</ref> He was apprenticed to his father as a lawyer and qualified as a Writer too the Signet in 1837.
By 1840 he appears as a Clerk to the Signet (CS) living at 9 Shandwick Place at the west end of Princes Street.<ref>Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1840</ref> By 1850 he is in partnership with his father as "J & A J Russell CS".<ref>Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1850</ref>
In 1852 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposer was James Thomson Gibson-Craig.<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=26 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>
By 1860 his father had retired and moved to the "south Bank" of Canaan Lane in the Morningside district.<ref>Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1860</ref>
A few years after his father's death he went into business with James Nicolson to create the new firm of Russell & Nicolson at 11 George Street.<ref>Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1870</ref> The firm later evolved into Russell & Dunlop.
He died at Shandwick Place in Edinburgh on 8 January 1887. He is buried in Dean Cemetery.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gravestonephotos.com/public/gravedetails.php?available=yes&fullname=Magdalene%20Stein&grave=73911&personid=155821&db=73911&scrwidth=300|title=Alexander James Russell grave monument details at Dean 2g Cemetery, Edinburgh, Lothian, Scotland}}</ref>
==Family== He was married twice: firstly in 1839 to Magdalene Stein (1820-1857) and secondly in 1861 to Elizabeth Anne Lancaster (1835-1903), twenty years his junior. His son, born 1839, was army officer John Cecil Russell.<ref>{{cite news |title=Legal Obituary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=18Vs7CQrXw8C |work=Law Times |date=29 January 1887|page=237}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Alexander James}} Category:1814 births Category:1887 deaths Category:Lawyers from Edinburgh Category:Scottish lawyers Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Category:Burials at the Dean Cemetery