time with her beloved sister, Lady
Elizabeth Noel, at Tichfield, in Hampshire. There she became engaged to
Mr. Russell, younger son of the Earl of Bedford. They were married in
1669, but she still retained the name of Vaughan till in 1678, on the
death of his elder brother Francis, William succeeded to the courtesy
title of Lord Russell, when she assumed that of Lady Russell.

Lord Southampton, her father, was a man of high character and great
influence. During the civil troubles he took no very decided part until
after the misfortunes of Charles I., when his loyalty overmastered all
other feelings. In the first disputes between the king and the
parliament he disapproved of the high-handed measures of the Court, and,
disliking the government of Strafford and the principles of Archbishop
Laud, he was considered to be one of the peers attached to the popular
cause. But, like Lord Falkland, he could not heartily join the party
opposed to the king, whom he accompanied to York and to Nottingham. He
was at the fight at Edgehill, and thence went to Oxford, where he
remained with the Court during the rest of the war. He was hopeless all
along of the success of the royal cause, and was ever the strenuous and
unwearying advocate of accommodation and peace. When the execution of
the misguided king took place, he was one of the four faithful servants
who obtained permission to pay the last sad duty to his remains. From
that time he retired to his seat at Tichfield, taking no further part in
public affairs. When Cromwell rose to supreme power he greatly wished
to meet Lord Southampton, but the meeting was avoided by the earl, and
he continued in retirement. His daughter was educated on strict
Protestant lines, with every predilection for the doctrines which her
mother's family, professing a faith persecuted in their own country,
were likely to encourage. Southampton, though attached to the Church of
England, was most tolerant towards Dissenters, so much so that Clarendon
in his History, while describing him as "a man of exemplary virtue and
piety, and very regular in his devotions," says, "He was not generally
believed by the bishops to have an affection keen enough for the
government of the Church, being willing and desirous that something more
might be done to gratify the Presbyterians than they thought right."
This spirit of her father was probably the source of the Christian
charity as well as piety of Lady Rachel's life, appear