BELL, William (bef. 1600-c.1664), of King Street, Westminster.

Nothing is known of Thomas Bell’s origins. He may have come from Yorkshire, but if so he must have settled in the Westminster parish of St Margaret’s when little more than a boy.1Vis. London, 63. He became a freeman of the Apothecaries’ Company in 1619 and moved through the ranks, eventually becoming master for the year from August 1641.2GL, MS 8200/1, ff. 24v, 39v, 40v, 173, 351v. His path was not entirely smooth, however. In February 1632 he asked to be discharged from his post as assistant as he and his family were leaving London for the country, and in August 1636 he declined to serve as the Company’s upper warden ‘in regard of some urgent business’.3GL, MS 8200/1, ff. 289, 359. By this time, Bell was involved in local affairs. He served as churchwarden of St Margaret’s from 1628 to 1630 and he was appointed to the sewers commissions, first for Westminster in December 1634 and then for Middlesex in July 1637 and June 1638.4Walcote, Mems. of Westminster, 126; C181/4, f. 191; C181/5, ff. 81v, 115. In August 1637 he enlisted the help of Sir Robert Pye I* and Thomas Fauconberge* to be excused from serving on a local commission, although it is not clear which one.5CSP Dom. 1637, p. 372. His residence in King Street had brought him into contact with Edward Nicholas† by the mid-1630s, and when Nicholas left Westminster on account of the plague in the summers of 1637 and 1638, Bell looked after his house and sent him word of measures to assist the poor people of the neighbourhood.6CSP Dom. 1636-7, p. 75; 1637, p. 372; 1638-9, p. 26.

Bell was first returned MP for Westminster, alongside John Glynne*, in a hotly contested election in March 1640, allegedly because he had ‘least relation to the court, for the stream runneth that way’. He retained his place despite a challenge from Robert Holborne*, one of the unsuccessful candidates.7HMC De L’Isle and Dudley vi. 235, 236; CSP Dom. 1639-40, p. 522. Bell played only a minor role in the brief session that followed. On 23 April he was ordered to ensure his parish church of St Margaret’s was prepared for administering the sacrament to MPs, and two days later he was instructed to make a note of those who attended communion.8CJ ii. 9b, 12a. After the dissolution of the Short Parliament, in May 1640, Bell was consulted by the privy council about several problems in his parish, including disputes between vintners and a property lease.9CSP Dom. 1640, p. 240; SP16/455/25-6, 67. In the same month he supported his brother, Thomas, also an apothecary, in his petition to be excused from serving as sheriff for the City of London as he was too poor.10CLRO, Rep. 54, f. 179v.

Bell was re-elected with Glynne for Westminster in October 1640.11CSP Dom. 1640-1, pp. 157-8. Bell’s parliamentary career mostly concerned local business, interspersed with matters of greater national importance. On 9 November 1640 he was named to the committee to ensure the proclamation removing Catholics from London was enforced.12CJ ii. 24b. The same day he was ordered to arrange communion for MPs at St. Margaret’s; and ten days later he and Glynne were added to the committee on communion.13D’Ewes (N), 46; CJ ii. 24a, 31b. When the committee reported on 20 November, Bell was appointed, with four others, to collect the tickets of MPs who attended the sacrament.14CJ ii. 32b. During the next few months, Bell does not appear to have been involved in parliamentary business. On 27 April 1641 he was named to a committee on a bill to allow the forfeiture of the lands of John James, and on 3 May 1641 he took the Protestation.15CJ ii. 128b, 133a. A week later he was appointed to the committee to search ‘all cellars and other secret places’ near Parliament to thwart a plot by those ill-affected to Parliament.16CJ ii. 141a; Procs. LP iv. 292, 295, 303. Later in May he was named to committees on the regulation of Thames boatmen and patentees for the wine trade.17CJ ii. 152b, 157a. He was one of the treasurers for the money subscribed by MPs towards the ‘public service’ on 5 July, and on 11 August he joined Pye and William Wheler* as receivers of the same fund.18CJ ii. 198b, 252a; Procs. LP v. 494, 500. On 9 September, before the recess, he was ordered to view the buildings named in a petition of the inhabitants of St Clement Danes parish in Westminster.19CJ ii. 284b.

When Parliament returned after its adjournment, Bell was named to a committee to consider ways to provide the Westminster and Middlesex guards with sufficient ammunition (25 Oct.), and a few days later he was named to a committee concerning the guards allocated to the prince of Wales.20CJ ii. 294a, 303a. At the end of October he was involved in preparations for the sermon to be preached by Dr Burgess at St Margaret’s on the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot.21CJ ii. 299a. In early November he advised the House that ‘the woman who used to make clean the church had one of her house died of the sickness’, and asked whether they wished to congregate elsewhere.22D’Ewes (C), 81. Bell’s motion that the 6d. allowed to collectors of the subsidies ‘for passing the certificates’ should be paid into the court of the exchequer was accepted by the House on 13 December, and Bell and Wheler were sent to inform the exchequer barons of this ruling.23D’Ewes (C), 275; CJ ii. 340a. On 17 December, Bell, Pye and Wheler were ordered to make arrangements for St Margaret’s to be used for the forthcoming fast day sermon.24D’Ewes (C), 309; CJ ii. 348a. The attempt on the Five Members and the king’s subsequent departure from London caused considerable anxiety at Westminster. When the Commons ordered extra locks on the door under the stairs at the entrance of the Commons’ chamber on 12 January 1642, Bell was given responsibility for the keys and ordered to organise a search the area every morning.25CJ ii. 372a. His attendance in the House during the following spring was patchy, and his next appointment was not until 8 April, when he was named to a committee on a bill for making Christchurch Tuthill into a parish separate from St Margaret’s, Westminster.26CJ ii. 517a. On 9 June it was appropriate that, as master of the Apothecaries’ Company, Bell was sent by the Commons to thank them for their contribution to the livery company loan for the relief of Ireland.27CJ ii. 615a.

After the outbreak of war, Bell was involved in matters of local security. On 7 October he joined Pye and Glynne on a small committee to look into the escape of prisoners from the Gatehouse.28Add. 18777, f. 24; CJ ii. 799a. On 22 October 1642, as the field armies squared up to each other at Edgehill, Bell was appointed to a committee to search for and disarm disaffected citizens in Westminster.29CJ ii. 818b. On the same day he was named to a committee to investigate the number of horses in Westminster that could be requisitioned for the army.30CJ ii. 819b. On 28 October he was also appointed to a committee to consider the provision of suitable quarters for the parliamentary soldiers in London to guard the suburbs from a possible royalist attack.31Add. 18777, f. 45v; CJ ii. 825a. On 2 November Bell was named to a committee to provide sufficient hospital places for injured soldiers, and he subsequently took an order concerning prisoners to Surgeons’ Hall.32CJ ii. 832a, 847a. On 10 November he was authorised to call to account all collectors who retained money intended for setting up posts and chains against enemy cavalry in London and the suburbs, and he repaid those who had advanced money for this later in the month.33CJ ii. 842a, 868a. On 5 December, Bell was named to another committee to procure horses for the army and to search stables and inn to seize those hidden from the authorities.34CJ ii. 876b. On 9 December he was appointed to the committee to report on the amount of money in the exchequer.35CJ ii. 881b.

Bell played little part in parliamentary affairs in the early months of 1643, but he was present in the House at the end of March, when he was added to the committee for dispatches to consider abuses by the Marshalsea court in Southwark, and ordered to enforce the ordinance for observation of fast days.36CJ iii. 20a, 23b. Bell took the Oath and Covenant on 6 June.37CJ iii. 118a. On 11 July he became a member of the Honourable Artillery Company, and on 3 August he was included in the Middlesex commission for levying money for the maintenance of the army.38Ancient Vellum Bk. 70; A. and O. Bell’s support for Parliament was not unequivocal, however. In September he defended the decision of Sir Ralph Verney* - whose family he advised on medical matters - not to sign the Solemn League and Covenant, writing to him that ‘I bid them take notice from me that you were no delinquent… and I told them how the case stood with you, whereupon the whole House was very well satisfied with it’.39Mems. of the Verney Family i. 297. He himself took the Covenant on 3 October.40CJ iii. 262a. As before, Bell’s primary concern in the autumn of 1643 was his locality. On 13 September he was named to a committee to consider a scheme to allow ‘poor strangers’ in London to leave the country.41CJ iii. 238b. In September and October Bell was also appointed to committees on the problem of providing London and its suburbs with fuel caused by the disruption to supplies by the royalist army in the north east.42CJ iii. 257b, 261a. Bell again joined Glynne and Wheler in arranging a fast day at St Margaret’s at the end of October, and in December he was named to a committee on an ordinance to establish a garrison at Uxbridge.43CJ iii. 288a, 341b.

Bell appears to have been almost completely absent from the Commons for the first nine months of 1644, as during that time he was named to only one committee: that to consider the complaints of carters serving the army, on 20 May.44CJ iii. 500b. He was clearly active in other ways, however, as on 13 April 1644 he joined Isaac Penington* and Richard Browne II* in signing an order of the committee for maimed soldiers to enforce payment.45Add. 22619, f. 181. Later in the year, Bell was involved in the provision of surgeons and medical supplies to the army. On 30 September he was ordered to take care of an order to pay the Barber-Surgeons’ Company for medical chests and the Apothecaries’ Company for medicaments.46CJ iii. 644b. When a surgeon was sent to the army in October, Bell was ordered to provide medicines to him, and in November he was given charge of preparing surgeons’ chests more generally.47CJ iii. 658b, 673a; Whitelocke, Mems. i. 318; LJ vii. 74v. Bell was also involved in business affecting London and its suburbs. On 15 October he was named to the committee on the City proposition for the government of London, and on 18 October he was appointed as one of the assessment commissioners for Middlesex.48CJ iii. 665a; A. and O. At the end of the month he was named to a committee on raising money for maintaining the fortifications around London and Westminster.49CJ iii. 686b. On 4 November Bell and Wheler were ordered to make sure the gallery at St Margaret’s was reserved for the use of MPs and peers during fast day sermons.50CJ iii. 686b.

In the opening months of 1645 Bell was again consulted on the supply of surgeons and medicine for the army. On 30 January he was given the care of furnishing surgeons with good quality medicaments for the new campaigning season, and on 8 February he was chosen to hear the complaints of the surgeons, and why they did not attend their posts with the army.51CJ iv. 37a, 44a. On 17 February Parliament ordered that Bell and Sir Arthur Hesilrige* would ensure the furnishing of surgeons’ chests for Sir William Waller’s* army.52LJ vii. 203b. On the same day, Bell was named as commissioner for the New Model ordinance in Middlesex and on 21 February he was included in the assessment commission for Middlesex and Westminster.53A. and O. He was not a supporter of the New Model, however, and with its advent his involvement in military affairs declined abruptly, as did his attendance in the House. In August he was appointed to a committee to hear claims to money from Scottish officers, and his next mention in the Journals was in connection with the payment of the gallery keepers at St Margaret’s church.54CJ iv. 250a, 377a. Most of Bell’s activity during 1646 and 1647 was similarly parochial. In August 1646 he was named to a committee on a petition from the new parish at Tuthill Fields, and in the same month he was appointed to a committee to ensure fast days were properly observed in Westminster.55CJ iv. 632a, 653a. In February 1647 the Committee for Compounding paid money to Bell and Wheler for the gallery keepers at St Margaret’s; in September they received £200 for repair of the church; in December they were given more money for the church officers; and in February 1648 they were awarded further sums for the ‘officers attending’ the church.56CJ v. 43b, 314b, 402a; CCC 802, 806; LJ ix. 623a. From the late spring of 1648 Bell was again involved in military affairs. On 27 May 1648, in the aftermath of the royalist rising in Kent, he was appointed to a committee to examine the state of the Westminster militia; on 3 June he was instructed to disperse money collected at a recent fast day to distressed widows; and on 10 July he was named to a committee to consider several petitions concerning the militia of London and its relationship with the trained bands of the suburbs.57CJ v. 575b, 582b, 630a. In a sign of Bell’s political allegiances, on 23 September he was appointed with the leading Presbyterian, Sir Gilbert Gerard*, to speed up the assessment collections for army arrears in Middlesex.58CJ vi. 30b. On 25 November Bell and another opponent of the New Model, William Wheler, were ordered to bring in the Westminster assessment arrears, and on 2 December Bell was one of a number of moderates named to the Westminster militia commission.59CJ vi. 88b; A. and O. His opposition to the army was never explicit, however, and he was never forcibly excluded from the House; he chose instead to absent himself after Pride’s Purge in December 1648.60Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 367.

Bell remained resident in Westminster during the commonwealth, but did not serve on any local commissions. In October 1652 he was elected alderman for the Ward of Faringdon Without, on the nomination of Samuel Avery* and Christopher Packe*, and soon gained a reputation as a champion of the lesser livery companies.61CLRO, Rep. 62, f. 200v-201, 202; Beaven, Aldermen of London i. 160; J.E. Farnell, ‘The Politics of the City of London 1649-57’ (Univ. of Chicago PhD thesis, 1963), 217, 227, 233 He attended meetings regularly until April 1653 when, at his own request, and possibly to avoid being elected as sheriff, he was discharged from the bench with a fine of £200.62CLRO, Rep. 62, f. 281v. During the protectorate, Bell stood aloof from public affairs, although he was appointed to two sewers commissions for Middlesex, in January 1655 and July 1656.63C181/6, pp. 69, 176. He apparently took his seat when the secluded members were returned to the Long Parliament in February 1660, but he was not appointed to any committees, and his portrayal by one royalist satirist as ‘apothecary to the body politic’ was a gross exaggeration.64Mystery of the Good Old Cause (1660), 5 (E.1923.2). Bell was again appointed to local commissions at this time, including those for the Westminster assessment on 2 March and its militia on 12 March.65CJ vii. 858b; A. and O. He was present at the dissolution of the Rump on 16 March.66The Grand Memorandum (1660, 669.f.24.37).

Bell’s activities after the Restoration are obscure, although he remained in Westminster and was apparently unmolested by the authorities. In August 1660 he was again appointed to the local sewers commission, and in the same month he petitioned the king for confirmation of the lease of a property adjoining his house in King Street, Westminster, which he had acquired during the commonwealth, and this was granted in January 1661.67C181/7, p. 38; CTB i. 18, 193. Bell died in about 1664. In his will, which was drawn up in September 1653, Bell left £40 for his burial ‘without any pomp or vain glory’ in St. Margaret’s church, and £10 to be distributed to the poor of the parish. To his two surviving sons, William and Thomas, he left property in London and Westminster and land in Middlesex. He also made a charitable bequest to the parish of Kingerby in Lincolnshire, although no other connection with that county has come to light.68PROB11/314/416.