His exhibition was temporarily withdrawn; but he entered Manchester College, on the Hackney foundation, in September 1822, under the name of Cloutt (his father's alternative surname), among his fellow-entrants being Robert Brook Aspland and James Martineau.
John Kenrick, his classics tutor at Manchester College, York, wrote (1 June 1824) that Russell had made the acquaintance of Francis Wrangham, archdeacon of Cleveland, and had decided to study for orders.
In 1825 Russell entered as a sizar at St John's College, Cambridge, and took the Hulsean prize in his freshman year.
In 1852 he became vicar of Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, exchanging this benefice in 1863 for the vicarage of St. Thomas, Toxteth Park, Liverpool.
Russell's career as a hymn-writer began early, his first hymns being included in the third edition of his father's Collection.
He is known for the addition in 1851 of a sixth verse, designed to improve its theology, to the well-known hymn, Nearer my God, to Thee (1841), by Sarah Fuller Adams.