In the chapter about Hurst we learnt how the house West of the Woking Road (now Willow Grange) belonged to the Russell family during the 16th and 17th centuries. Their name occurs frequently in various manorial and parish documents of those days for both Worplesdon and Burpham. For example, in 1562, the fourth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, sixteen Worplesdon men gathered at Kingston before the Queen's Surveyor of her lands in Surrey to attest to the Bounds and the ancient Customs of the Manor. Amongst the signatories was John Russell.

  Russells owned land throughout the parish, giving their name to Russell Place at Woodstreet and Russell-in-the-Wood (Old Gables). In the parish registers we find Thomas of Woodstreet, Robert of the Wood, Robert of the Frenches and John of Bullocke Lane as well as Thomas of Hurst and even James of Horsell.

  Thomas Russell of Birpham. The earliest Russell positively identified with Burpham rather than Worplesdon was Thomas Russell of Birpham who was mentioned in the will of John Russell, the eldest, of Worplesdon in 1582. There is no way of determining whether this was "old Thomas of Hurst" whose widow, Alice, was buried on 2nd April 1595; or "Thomas of Hurst" who was buried on 22nd June 1600; or "Thomas the Elder of Hurst" who made his will on 9th September 1600.

  From this will, however, we can be sure that the latter had three sons, and three daughters. The sons were James, Abraham and John. The daughters all married into prominent local families. Joane married John Strudwicke in 1582, Agnes married Thomas Slyfeilde in 1589 and Alice married John Lee in 1596.

  The next Thomas Russell to acquire the description "of Hurst" seems to have been "Young Thomas then of Burgham" who leased Fagothers from the Lord of the Manor in 1592. We have been unable to establish his relationship to Thomas the Elder.

  In 1593 Young Thomas married Joane Dawlton, who bore four daughters and three sons. Alice died in infancy, but Agnes survived to marry Richard Bromefield. The third child was a son who must have died at birth because the entry of his burial records that he "came not to baptism". Then came Elenor who married John Smallpeace and had two sons, Thomas and John. Elenor was followed by Thomas (the heir) and Peter and finally the seventh child, Jone, was another infant mortality.

  Young Thomas died in April 1619 and, as was then the custom, he made his will on his deathbed. It is this document which throws light on his family as well as on his goods and chattels. The latter are also well documented in the inventory for probate which was compiled a month later.

  After the customary bequests to the parish church and to the poor of the parish (five shillings each), and twenty shillings "to be bestowed at my burial in bread and beere" he specified the items of furniture which he bequeathed to his eldest son Thomas. These included "a Joyned Bedstead, a Joyned presse, and Cupboard and Bedstead, flockbed and all other furniture belonginge to the said Bed which I now lye on, in the Chamber over the hall. And also my Bullen Brasse Furnace, my biggest brasse pott savinge one, one great Iron spitte my greate dresser Table standing in my Kitchen with all settles and formes in the same".

  Thomas, who was almost 18, would receive the rents of seven acres of land for his maintenance when he became 21. But once he had attained the age of 25 he would receive £20 and "all my lease landes whatsoever, either in mine owne occupation or in the occupation of John Crosse". If he died earlier this bequest would go to his younger brother, Peter, at the age of 23. Every member of his family received a specific bequest, including the surviving daughters of Thomas the Elder and his two brothers William and James.

  Peter of Hurst. On Thomas' death his younger brother became Peter of Hurst. This was clearly a name which he and his wife Margrete wanted to pass on because two sons, who both died in infancy, were baptised with this name; then they had three daughters before a third son survived to bear it. He was followed by a daughter and finally by twins, Thomas and Jone. It seems likely that it was this Thomas, born in 1643, who was named in the Churchyard Rails register of 1678 and the last to use the suffix "of Hurst".

  We do not know what became of this branch of the Russell family but their property appears to have been acquired by William Crosse and his descendants until the end of the 18th century when that family also ceased to be connected with Hurst. The next known occupant of the "Russell" house was James Smallpiece in 1823, who may have been descended from Elenor Russell and her husband John Smallpeace.