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"The Parson" in terrier circles means only one man, John Russell.
He was born in Dartmouth, South Devon on December 12th 1795 of a fox hunting family and it was inevitable that he should develop a passion for hunting himself, being a man of his class and time.

As a boarder at Blundell's School, Tiverton at the age of sixteen he kept a pack of four and a half couples in secret with the assistance of another pupil Robert Bovey and the village Smith.
He hunted the pack to the delight of the local farmers.

At Oxford John Russell found the centre of a great hunting world and took all the opportunities his finances would allow to hunt with the Beaufort, the Bicester and the Old Berkshire where his contact with men such as Philip Payne, Stephen Goodall, Will Long and their like served only to encourage his passion for the Sport. It was while at Oxford that he acquired Trump, owned by a local milkman, said to be the animal "that Russell had only seen in his dreams".

Davies, Russell's biographer, writing at the turn of this century said of Trump:
"In the first place the colour is white with just a patch of dark tan over each eye and ear, while a similar dot, not larger than a penny piece, marks the root of the tail.
The coat, which is thick, close and a trifle wiry, is well calculated to protect the body from wet and cold, but has no affinity with the long, rough jacket of a Scotch Terrier. The legs are straight as arrows, the feet perfect; the loins and conformation of the whole frame indicative of hardihood and endurance while the size and height of the animal may be compared to that of a full-grown vixen fox."

After gaining his Bachelor's and Master's degrees Russell became a deacon and was subsequently ordained in 1820. Returning to Devon as a curate, his yearly stipend of £60 did not prevent him from keeping his own pack of six couples. Even his marriage in 1826 was no hindrance to hunting, for his bride, Penelope Bury, was as keen a hunter as himself. Shortly after his marriage the Reverend Russell took up the curacy of his father's parish at Iddelseigh in North Devon remaining there until 1832 when he moved to the living which was to be his for the next forty five years at Swymbridge and Landkey. He died at Black Torrington, his final Rectorship, on the 28th April 1883.

Thus it was that the country best known and hunted by the Parson was that of the wooded slopes, green fields, red soils, rock outcrops and moorlands of Devon itself. The terriers he bred, mainly white, long in the leg, rangy and racy, with the stamina to run with hound best suited his needs as a fox hunter and the country he hunted.