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 Fuller Russell John Fuller Russell John Fuller Russell (1814–1884), was a priest in the Church of England, a writer, mostly on theological subjects, especially religious ritual, and a notable art collector. He was a member of the committee of the Ecclesiological Society and had close connections to the High Church Oxford Movement. Russell was born on 18 August 1813, the son of Thomas Russell, a Congregationalist minister, whose surname was originally Cloutt. Arthur Tozer Russell was his brother. He was educated at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, where he read civil law. He became one of the first sympathisers with the Oxford movement at