He was buried at Milton, near Canterbury, where he had an estate. His fortune was considerable. He married late in life, his widow died in 1866.
[Foster's Coll. Gen. Reg. Gray's Inn; Gent. Mag. (1836), 670; Merivale's Reports; Swanston's Reports; Wilson's Chancery Reports; Jacob and Walker's Reports, ii. 9; Jacob's Reports, 633; Ch. Com. Report, App. A. 1; Times, 7 Oct. 1826; Hardy's Memoir of Lord Langdale, i. 238-43.]
BELL, Sir JOHN (1782–1876), general, was born at Bonytoun, Fifeshire, 1 Jan. 1782, being the son of David Bell of that place. It was not until 1805 that he abandoned the more lucrative prospects of mercantile life open to him by family connections, and followed the bent of his own inclination by accepting a commission as an ensign in the 52nd foot on 15 Aug. in that year. He was ordered to join his regiment in Sicily in 1806. Throughout the Peninsular war he was actively engaged in the majority of the more celebrated actions, and was wounded at the battle of Vimeiro by a shot through the shoulder. He was appointed permanent assistant quartermaster-general during the later years of the war. He received the gold cross for the battles of the Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthes, and Toulouse, and the silver war medal with six clasps for some other battles and sieges. He was employed for the last time in active service abroad against Louisiana, December 1814 to January 1815. From 1828 to 1841 he was chief secretary to the government at the Cape of Good Hope, and from 1848 to 1854 lieutenant-governor of Guernsey. The colonelcy of the 95th foot was awarded to him in 1850, which he exchanged for that of the 4th foot three years afterwards. He was nominated a C.B. as far back as 4 June 1815, and for his many services he was made a K.C.B. 6 April 1852, and a G.C.B. 18 May 1860. Immediately afterwards he became a general, and before his death he was the senior general in the army. He died at 55 Cadogan Place, London, 20 Nov. 1876, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. He married, 14 June 1821, Catharine, the elder daughter of James Harris, the first earl of Malmesbury. She was born at St. Petersburg, 29 May 1780, and was named after her godmother, the Empress Catharine. She died in Upper Hyde Park Street, London, 21 Dec. 1855.
[Illustrated London News, lxix. 541 (1876), with portrait; Men of the Time, 1875; Army Lists, &c.]
BELL, JOHN GRAY (1823–1866), bookseller, was the son of Thomas Bell, d., 1860 [q. v.], house agent and surveyor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was born at Newcastle 21 Sept. 1823, and married, in 1847, Dorothy Taylor of North Shields. In 1848 he went to London, and began business as a bookseller. He removed to Manchester in 1854, where he successfully followed his trade during the remainder of his life. He died there 21 Feb. 1866, aged 43. Bell was an earnest student of antiquarian literature, collected topographical books and prints, and issued many interesting trade catalogues. In 1850 he commenced the publication of a valuable series of 'Tracts on the Topography, History. Dialects, &c., of the Counties of Great Britain,' of which about sixteen came out, including original glossaries of Essex, Gloucestershire, Dorset, Cumberland, Berkshire. In
1851 he published ' A Descriptive and Critical Catalogue of Works, illustrated by Thomas and John Bell.' This was compiled by himself. Another of his works was a genealogy of the Bell and other families, printed for private circulation in 1866, and entitled 'A Genealogical Account of the Descendants of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster,' &c.
[Notes and Queries, 6th ser. vi. 611, vii. 78; Bell's Descendants of John of Gaunt, 1866.]
BELL, JOHN MONTGOMERIE (1804–1862), an advocate of the Scottish bar, and sheriff of Kincardine, was born at Paisley in 1804. He was educated at the grammar school of that town and at the university of
Glasgow. He was called to the Edinburgh bar in 1825, and from 1830 to 1846 assisted, with conspicuous ability, in conducting the court of session reports. In 1847 he was appointed an advocate-depute, and in 1861 sheriff of Kincardine. In 1861 he published
a 'Treatise on the Law of Arbitration in Scotland,' a comprehensive and perspicuous exposition of this branch of Scotch law, and the standard work on the subject. He died from the effects of an accident 16 Oct. 1862. In 1863 a poem, 'The Martyr of Liberty,' which he had written shortly after his call to the
bar, was published in accordance with directions left by himself.
[Catalogue of the Library of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh; Scotsman, 23 Oct. 1862.]
BELL, JONATHAN ANDERSON (d. 1865), architect, second son of James Bell, advocate, was born in Glasgow and educated at Edinburgh University. The best account of him is preserved in a volume of poems
