After traveling to Continental Europe for confirmation and consecration, avoiding a trip to the metropolitan in Norway, he returned to the Irish Sea as a legal bishop.

A native of Mann, an island in the Irish Sea south of Galloway in Scotland, for 18 years Russell was the abbot of Rushen Abbey.

[1] Clement made it clear that the bishopric of the Isles was still subject to Trondheim, and Russell must send a proctor to Norway to obey on his behalf.

[1] In 1362, Russell complained to Pope Urban V that his cathedral on Mann had been occupied as a fortress by the Lord of Mann, and petitioned the pope to order that de Monteacuto restore the cathedral to the control of the clergy; the same letter also complained that, because of wars [between the Scots and the English], there were not enough men literate [in Latin] to fill benefices, and so Russell requested permission to ordain eight illiterates to priesthood.

The Manx Chronicle reported his death as follows: He died on the 21st day of the month of April 1376, at Ramsheved, and was buried in the monastery of St. Mary of Furness.