# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Russell, Arthur Tozer

​RUSSELL, ARTHUR TOZER (1806–1874), divine and hymn-writer, elder son of Thomas Russell or Cloutt [q. v.], was born at Northampton on 20 March 1806. He received his early education at St. Saviour's School, Southwark, and Merchant Taylors' School, London. Having read some writings of Thomas Belsham [q. v.], he wished to qualify for the unitarian ministry. Belsham got him an exhibition, under the name of Russell, on the Hackney College fund, with a view to his entrance as a divinity student at Manchester College, York. The exhibition was temporarily withdrawn, owing to ‘his rooted aversion to dissenters as such’ (unpublished letter, 4 Oct. 1822, of John Kenrick [q. v.]); but he entered Manchester College, on the Hackney foundation, in September 1822, under the name of Cloutt, among his fellow-entrants being Robert Brook Aspland [q. v.] and James Martineau. At the annual examination, 30 July 1824, he delivered a Latin oration, under the name of Russell. He then left York, without finishing his course. Kenrick writes (1 June 1824) that he had made the acquaintance of Francis Wrangham [q. v.], archdeacon of Cleveland, and was resolved to study for orders. In 1825 he entered as a sizar at St. John's College, Cambridge, and took the Hulsean prize in his freshman year. After becoming a scholar of St. John's (1827), he was ordained deacon (1827) by John Kaye [q. v.], bishop of Lincoln, and licensed to the curacy of Great Gransden, Huntingdonshire. In 1830 he was ordained priest, became vicar of Caxton, Cambridgeshire, and graduated LL.B. In 1852 he became vicar of Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, exchanging this benefice in 1863 for the vicarage of St. Thomas, Toxteth Park, Liverpool. In 1868 he became vicar of Wrockwardine Wood, Shropshire. His last preferment was to the rectory of Southwick, Sussex, in 1874; but his health was broken. As a clergyman he was exemplary; his brief incumbency in Liverpool is remembered for his zealous attention to educational work in his parish. His theological views underwent several modifications, but he kept an open mind, and his love for the writings of St. Augustine gave both strength and breadth to his views. He died at Southwick on 18 Nov. 1874.
Russell's career as a hymn-writer began early, his first hymns being included in the third edition of his father's ‘Collection.’ Hymns by him, original and translated, are in ‘The Christian Life,’ 1847, 16mo, and in ‘Psalms and Hymns,’ 1851, 12mo. Twenty-one appear in ‘The Choral Hymn-book,’ &c., 1861, edited by the Rev. Peter Maurice, D.D. Of his original hymns four are included in Lord Selborne's ‘Book of Praise,’ 1862, and some fifty have been admitted to other collections. Perhaps he is best known for the addition in 1851 of a sixth verse, designed to improve its theology, to the well-known hymn, ‘Nearer my God, to Thee’ (1841), by Sarah Fuller Adams. He published also ‘Hymn Tunes, Original and Selected,’ in 1843. In all he produced about one hundred and forty original and one hundred and thirty translated hymns.
His theological publications, in addition to his Hulsean prize essay on ‘The Law … a Schoolmaster,’ Cambridge, 1826, 8vo, and a sermon on the ‘Real Presence,’ Cambridge, 1857, 8vo, are: 1. ‘Sermons on … Festivals … of the Church,’ &c., Cambridge, 1830, 12mo. 2. ‘Remarks upon … Keble's ​Visitation Sermon,’ &c., Cambridge, 1837, 8vo. 3. ‘Apology … translated from the … Latin of Bishop Jewell,’ &c. (with notes), 1834 (Crockford); 1839, 8vo; Oxford, 1840, 12mo. 4. ‘A Manual of Daily Prayer,’ &c., 1841, 8vo. 5. ‘Advent and other Sermons,’ &c. [1855], 12mo. 6. ‘A Letter to the Bishop of Oxford upon “Essays and Reviews,”’ &c., 1862, 8vo (in reply to an article in ‘Edinburgh Review,’ April, 1861, by Dean Stanley). 7. ‘Memorials of … Thomas Fuller,’ &c., 1844, 16mo. 8. ‘Memoirs of … Lancelot Andrewes,’ &c., 1863, 8vo. Among his contributions to reviews was a series of critical articles on the Greek Testament in the ‘British and Foreign Evangelical Review,’ 1862–3. He was one of the editors of a new edition of ‘Slatter's Old Oxford University Guide’ [1861?]. Among his manuscripts is an unpublished ‘History of the Bishops of England and Wales.’
[Monthly Repository, 1822 p. 773, 1824 p. 426; Christian Reformer, 1847, p. 64; Roll of Students, Manchester College, 1868; Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1874, p. 755; Julian's Dict. of Hymnology, 1892, pp. 981 sq.]
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