Some women – not many, but some – have been called by our Lord to give up their lives for Him. Yet, many others have suffered, and given much, in that they were called to give up their dearest ones in this life – their own husbands – for the cause of Christ. They remain, mourning their loved one, continuing to feel their loss, sometimes suffering financial hardship, and maybe the difficulty of bringing up children on their own. The writers of Christian biography typically give us much more detail on those put to death. Seldom do we learn anything of those they left behind in this life. In the case of Lady Rachel Russell, we do.

Rachel’s Background⤒🔗

This lady, a woman of noble family and endowed with great personal charm, played a significant role in the political life of England in the later seventeenth century. She enjoyed friendships with some of the best-known characters of the age, including Sarah, Lady Churchill, and King William and Queen Mary. Large estates, great wealth and a happy home life were hers in addition. She and her husband, Lord William Russell, were deeply committed Christians, and their love for Christ bore fruit in very many ways in all their varied life’s work. But if it had not been for the one, and very great sorrow that came in the middle of her life, there would have been little to distinguish her from many good Christian wives and mothers. It was her conduct at the time of this trial that makes her story remarkable – and instructive – to us, so far down the years, who may read it today.

Rachel’s father, the Earl of Southampton, was a serious, honourable man who had deep religious convictions and a sympathy for Puritan teachings. His kind of theological convictions were unusual – but not unheard-of – among men of his type and class, who were devoted supporters of the King’s cause during the English Civil War in the 1640s. Rachel’s mother, Rachel Mass e de Ruvigny de la Maison Fort, was a French Huguenot, and a lady with vivacity, charm, beauty and a deep personal faith in Christ. All of these qualities she passed on to her daughter.

Rachel’s education was quite a good one for a girl of her time. She loved literature, and grew to be a fine writer – her ability to express herself with her pen marks her out as an intelligent, fluent writer on matters of a theological and personally spiritual nature. Her later correspondence with several bishops and theologians show her to be at least their equal in these things. She was also good with figures. Later on in her life she proved to be an excellent manager of her large estates. She was also well-grounded in the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer and probably some of the prominent Puritan writers of the time, such as Richard Baxter.

Rachel’s Relationships←⤒🔗

At the age of 17 Rachel was married (an arranged marriage, as negotiated between their families) to Francis Vaughan, heir to the Earl of Carbury. He was a 16 year-old and rather immature youth, given to uncontrolled passions and somewhat undisciplined. It is likely Rachel was unhappy as a young wife. After 13 years of marriage, and the death of two infant children, she was widowed when Francis died of the plague in 1667.

After two years of widowhood, and at the age of 37, Rachel remarried, to William Russell, second son of the Earl of Bedford. The two had fallen passionately in love – and married for love, as both sets of their parents had done themselves. William was a man of few words, and apparently very shy in Rachel’s presence during their courtship. However, Rachel encouraged him, writing to a friend, “If I love once, I shall do so ever.”

She and William enjoyed the most harmonious and happy of marriages. Together they had three children – two daughters and a son. William apparently had a deep and steadfast heart, and was faithfully devoted to both his wife and children. To all who knew him he was a fine, honourable Christian man, who was universally respected. The death of his older brother made him heir to his father’s title, and his involvement in affairs of state accordingly increased. He had clear and strong convictions in political matters, and worked hard as an elected member of the House of Commons during the 1670s. Often, he had to be away, and during his absences he and Rachel wrote long and affectionate letters to each other. These letters give detailed evidence of the happiness of their marriage, and of their deepening walk with Christ. In one letter Rachel wrote:

I write this to my dear husband, because I love to be busied either in speaking of him or to him. It is an inexpressible joy to consider I shall be with the person I most and only long to be with before another week is past. I should condemn my sense of this expected happiness as weak and pitiful if I could tell it you. No, my best life, I can say but little; but think all you can, you cannot think too much: my heart makes it all good.

My best life, you that know so well how to love, and to oblige, make my felicity entire by believing my heart possessed with all the gratitude, honour, and passionate affection to your person any creature is capable of. What have I to ask, but a continuance, if God see fit, of these present enjoyments; if not, a submission without a murmur to His most unerring Providence, having a thankful heart for the years I have been so perfectly contented in? Let us cheerfully expect to be together to a good old age. Excuse me if I dwell too long on this; it is from my opinion that, if we can be prepared for all conditions, we can with the greater tranquility enjoy the present, which I hope will be long; though when we change it will be for the better, I trust, through the merits of Christ. Let us daily pray it may be so, and then admit of no fears. He knows best when we have had enough here.

Rachel’s Fears←⤒🔗

Rachel clearly had some fears in her heart for the future. The times they lived in were turbulent; and already, in her lifetime, there had been three great revolutions in the way England was governed. There was still uncertainty and danger during the reign of Charles II. He was increasingly sympathetic to the Catholic cause during the later years of his rule (his younger brother James actually converted to Catholicism) and many Englishmen feared a return to something like the persecutions of Mary. It was still possible for a man to face death for his religious convictions. Lord William Russell was a passionate supporter of England’s political freedoms, and in particular was a champion of the right to dissent from the King’s views. These views led to his implication in a plot to murder Charles in the early 1680s. Though innocent, he was imprisoned, and found guilty by a court acting improperly.

Rachel left no stone unturned in her efforts to save her husband from threatened execution. She wrote letters, pleaded, and even pulled every string she had access to in order to win an audience with the King. She begged him, on the basis of all her family had done to serve his father’s cause, and even to shelter him when “on the run” in the 1640s, to spare William’s life. But he remained unsympathetic. Through all this William remained faithful to his convictions. He would not say things to excuse his own actions at the expense of others. He even refused the offer of a friend to take his place in prison and allow him to escape abroad, because this would have appeared as an admission of guilt on his part. He preferred to die for what he believed in.

From the beginning, William knew how powerful his enemies were, and believed his cause was hopeless. This did not dim his gratitude for all Rachel was doing on his behalf – but he warned her that she should expect the worst. For her part, Rachel never gave way to depression or uttered one vain regret. Once the blow she had feared had fallen, she turned all her considerable energies to encouraging and strengthening her husband. It seemed that danger cleared her sight for action. She believed it would help him if she were allowed to sit at his side during the public trial, ready to do anything he wanted. This was a most unusual thing for a wife to do – but she asked, and was granted permission. “My resolution will hold out”, she wrote to him, “Pray let yours.” And it did. It was no small trial for her to sit there, day after day, and hear the accusations brought against him to secure his condemnation to death. She even acted as a note-taker for him when William asked permission of the court for someone to do this. This loving action sent a thrill of admiration through the crowd in the courtroom. But William was condemned to death.

Rachel’s Selflessness←⤒🔗

Rachel’s strength held out until the end. She managed to discipline herself not to give way to grief or anguish as long as he remained alive. William expressed great joy at the selflessness of her spirit. He said parting with her was the hardest thing he had to do; for he was afraid she would hardly be able to bear it. While he lived, the efforts to save him had filled her thoughts; but when that was over, he feared that the strength of her feelings would be too much for her. The day before his execution Rachel spent the whole day with him in his prison cell. “Stay and sup with me,” he said to her just before the evening meal; “let us eat our last earthly food together.” At 11 pm they parted. William kissed Rachel several times, but there were no tears. Their sorrow was too deep for that, and they parted in silence. When she had gone, William said, “Now the bitterness of death is past.” And then, though a man of few words, he ran into a long and moving discourse on the blessings she was to him as his wife. It was a great comfort, he said to a friend, to leave his children to such a mother’s hands. Her courage and behaviour “in this extremity” he said, “was beyond all.”

The next morning he died, after delivering a speech on the scaffold. Rachel had helped him prepare it, and it was one of the tasks that kept her going afterwards to have it printed and distributed. But, as William had predicted, the aftermath of his death prostrated her. There was nothing more to do, and she almost collapsed with grief. For months she lived in retirement in her country estate; only having the strength to write letters to a few trusted minister friends. But slowly, over time, their helpful counsel (much of which has been preserved) drew her back to living for the Saviour in service to others. As one biographer has put it,

The blank of his loss was never filled, but more and more to her it became a door into the heavenly world whither her faith followed him; more and more her heart was drawn up in love to the God and Saviour to whom he had gone.

Her faith deepened, and the spiritual lessons learned from such suffering became strength that she was able to give others. First came the ability to weep, from the heart, with others who wept. Then, after time, as the consciousness of William’s own joy in heaven brightened her heart, she was also able to rejoice with those who rejoiced. She had a warm heart, and a wise one. Many of her friends remarked on her calm good sense; and this she used to good effect in her dealings with her (still young) children as they grew up. In her later years she remarked that she counted it “the biggest blessing to love and be beloved by those she loved and respected.” In her lifetime many, both those who shared her convictions and those who did not, commonly honoured her as “one of the best of women.”

Rachel’s Example←⤒🔗

What impresses us the most in Rachel Russell’s devoted life? Surely, the selfless strength she showed at the time of her husband’s imprisonment and death. How many of us put ourselves in her situation as we read this part of her story? I’m sure we all asked, “How could I do this?” as we read, tears pricking at our eyes? But isn’t there a sense, a true and sure sense, in which we could? Hasn’t our Lord promised us strength for the time of trial? Hasn’t He promised us that when sorrows and stress come, He will give us words to say, and whatever we need to do what is necessary? We know that He will never leave us or forsake us.

But there is more. Rachel’s cares were for far more than her own personal peace. She was actively working in every way she could to smooth her husband’s path in the difficult choice he was making. This was real selflessness in action. Her real concern was that he, standing firm in his convictions, would be free of anguish as far as she was concerned. Of course a man about to die for his faith will worry about his loved ones. But the steadfastness of those loved ones, and their confidence in the rightness of his choice must be an enormous strength and comfort. Instead of being a burden, such a wife becomes a pillar of support. And this wife was a wonderful support.

Have we ever stopped to think how cheerfully bearing the consequences of any sacrifice our husband wants to make will make his own hard decision about that much less difficult? It is what promising to love “for better and worse till death us do part” means­ and Rachel had promised these very words at her wedding service in 1669. Whenever anyone close to us suffers, we surely make their load much easier for them when we keep ourselves from giving way to grief as Rachel did.

But there also comes a time when there is nothing more we can do – when it is all “over.” William died. And then, we must go on without the other to comfort, support, and help. This is when the going, dreadfully hard before, becomes agonising. This is when Rachel’s grief almost submerged her. But what enabled her to rise above it? It was that old truth – that we do not live to ourselves, or for ourselves. Others needed her – her children, and other sufferers. There is so much truth in Paul’s reminder to the Corinthians that God “comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” (2 Corinthians 1:4). This was true for Rachel in her great trouble – and it can be true in our lives in our troubles – both great and little.

Lady Rachel Russell was called to give up what – in this life­ was closest to her loving heart. More than that, she gave of herself to strengthen that closest one in his determination to do what would lead to her loss. Surely this must have called forth from her the greatest acts of love that ever a wife, designed as a helper for her husband, could give. For that, and for her example to us, we have God Himself to thank.

P.S. If you’d like to know more about the life of Rachel, and of her husband, William, and their children, the two sources I used are: Sketches of the Women of Christendom, by the author of Chronicles of the Schonberg-Cotta Family, and Lady Rachel Russell: ‘One of the Best of Women’ by Lois G. Schwoerer.