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- John Todd Russell was the only son of Mary Owen Todd and James Russell. He was born on May 4, 1800, and according to William Townsend in Lincoln and the Bluegrass, grew to be over six feet tall. He was sent to school at Eton then Princeton. According to Robert J. Breckinridge (in political speeches and pamphlets of 1840), he impregnated his grandmother's octoroon slave, Milly, during the summer vacation of 1816. His family always denied this accusation of "amalgamation." According to Charlotte Mentelle in her biography of M.O.T.R. Wickliffe, he received letters from England about his inheritance from the Bedford estate, and went to Baltimore to find out. His mother decided that it would be too expensive to claim the title, and the project was abandoned. He was already ill from a debilitating "liver" disease, and on October 12, 1822, he died.
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