Bertrand Russell humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought". Bertrand Russell was born on 18 May 1872 at Ravenscroft, Trellech, Monmouthshire, into an influential and liberal family of the British aristocracy. His parents, Viscount and Viscountess Amberley, were radical for their times. Lord Amberley consented to his wife's affair with their children's tutor, the biologist Douglas Spalding. Both were early advocates of birth control at a time when this was considered scandalous. Lord Amberley was an atheist and his atheism was evident when he asked the philosopher John Stuart Mill to act as Russell's secular godfather. Mill died the year after Russell's birth,
John J. Dewey John J. Dewey John Jay "J.J." Dewey (September 9, 1822 – April 1, 1891) was an American physician and Minnesota territorial legislator. Dewey was born in Butternuts, New York. He was educated at Hamilton Academy and Albany Medical College in New York state. In 1847, he moved West to the newly settled areas Wisconsin and the young settlement of Saint Paul, in what later became the Territory and State of Minnesota. He practiced medicine there and opened the first drug store in Saint Paul settlement. In 1849, Dewey served in the Minnesota Territorial Legislature, House of Representatives representing Saint Paul.