He was one of the first gentleman officers of the Royal Navy regularly bred to the sea. In 1671, he was named Lieutenant at the age of eighteen and was promoted to Captain in the following year. In the Third Anglo-Dutch War he saw active service in the North Sea in 1672 and 1673. Russell later served in the Mediterranean in the operations against the Barbary Pirates with Sir John Narborough and Arthur Herbert from 1676 to 1682. In 1683 he ceased to be employed, as all of the members of the Russell family had fallen into disfavour with the King after the discovery of Lord Russell's connection with the Rye House Plot.
Russell became First Lord of the Admiralty in 1694, remaining in that post until 1699. He served in the Mediterranean from 1694 to 1695 and was created Baron Shingay, Viscount Barfleur, and Earl of Orford in 1697. These titles all became extinct on the childless Orford's death.
On the orders of King William III, he was the first British commander to over-winter at Cadiz (rather than sailing his squadron home in the autumn) and so inaugurated a policy that led to the acquisition of a British Mediterranean base at Gibraltar in 1704.
