BELL, John (1809-1851), of Thirsk Hall, Thirsk, Yorks.

John Bell came from a long-established Thirsk family, who had first settled in the town in the sixteenth century. His great-grandfather, Ralph Bell, served as the borough’s MP from 1710 to 1717.1HP Commons 1690-1715, iii, 168-9. The Bells were extensive local property-owners, and John Bell succeeded his father as lord of the manor of Thirsk in 1822.2W. Grainge, The Vale of Mowbray: A Historical and Topographical Account of Thirsk and its Neighbourhood (1859), 73; Leeds Mercury, 4 May 1822. Bell’s obituary in the Leeds Mercury described him as ‘an inoffensive and peaceable man, a good landlord, and one liberally disposed to the local charities’.3Leeds Mercury, 15 Mar. 1851. Among the causes he supported in Thirsk was the building of local schools.4Grainge, Vale of Mowbray, 140-1; Northern Liberator and Champion, 31 Oct. 1840. Bell took a keen interest in hunting and horse-racing.5Grainge, Vale of Mowbray, 142; Newcastle Courant, 28 June 1839. In June 1840, he was among a group of Earl Waldegrave’s friends who attended Epsom races, dined at Strawberry Hill, and sought further amusement at Kingston fair. Waldegrave and another of the party, William Duff, were later sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for a serious assault on a police constable during the group’s return from the fair. A memorial to the queen in August 1841 on behalf of the imprisoned Duff denied his involvement, accusing instead another man and Bell, who was alleged to have kicked the policeman in the chest. However, the memorial was rejected and no further action was taken.6The Times, 4 May 1841; Morning Chronicle, 17 Aug. 1841; Bristol Mercury, 28 Aug. 1841.

Bell was first returned for Thirsk in 1841, although he had taken an interest in politics before this, having attended the inaugural meeting of the North Riding Liberal Registration Association in 1837, at which a district association for Thirsk was also established.7C.J. Davison Ingledew, The history and antiquities of North Allerton, in the county of York (1858), 134. In 1840, he took the lead in promoting William Harland as Liberal candidate for Thirsk, challenging the dominance of the Frankland interest. When Harland had to withdraw after falling from favour with Thirsk’s Liberals due to his votes in the Commons, Bell’s professed reluctance to stand himself was finally overcome. After Sir Robert Frankland Russell advised the Conservative candidate he was backing to retire, Bell was returned unopposed.8Leeds Mercury, 22 Aug. 1840; The Times, 20 June 1841.

Bell was described by The Examiner in 1841 as a ‘staunch Reformer’, and by a local history published in 1859 as a ‘moderate liberal’, who was ‘a constant advocate for general education, liberty of conscience, the press, and general reform; although opposed to vote by ballot, and the repeal of the corn laws’.9The Examiner, 20 June 1841; Grainge, Vale of Mowbray, 73, 108. He is not known to have spoken in parliamentary debate, although he voted in some of the key divisions of this period, supporting the Maynooth grant, 20 May 1845, and the Factories Bill, 22 May 1846. In 1842, he went into the same lobby as Cobden to support Russell’s motion condemning the sliding scale, 16 Feb., and he was in a minority of 90 against the third reading of the Corn Importation Bill, 7 Apr. In 1843, he voted against Villiers’ motion for the immediate abolition of the Corn Laws, 15 May, but the following month he again supported Russell in a vote on the issue, 13 June. In 1846, however, he voted against repeal of the Corn Laws, 27 Feb. and 15 May, ‘and gave to his constituents great satisfaction on that account’.10Gent. Mag. (May 1851), i, 556. For Bell, the agricultural interests of his constituency outweighed party loyalties. The Anti-Corn Law League had managed to hold a ‘large and respectable meeting’ at Thirsk in 1844, but this was counteracted by a ‘crowded’ meeting, at which the Thirsk Agricultural Protection Society was established.11Leeds Mercury, 24 Feb. 1844. Despite his vote against Corn Law repeal, Bell did not change parties, nor become an out-and-out Protectionist, for in 1846 he supported the Liberal ministry to defeat Lord George Bentinck’s motion opposing a reduction in the sugar duties, 28 July. He also rallied to ministers against Bentinck’s Railways (Ireland) Bill, 16 Feb. 1847.

Bell was re-elected unopposed in 1847, but does not appear to have attended Westminster again. His friend, Joshua Crompton12Add link here: J.S. Crompton, former MP for Ripon., had already observed signs before his return of Bell’s failing mental health. In July 1849, a Commission of Lunacy declared him to be ‘of unsound mind’, with witnesses having testified to Bell’s violent outbursts and his delusions, which included believing that he was a bird.13The Times, 7 July 1849; Daily News, 10 July 1849. Bell nevertheless remained as Thirsk’s MP until his death (from paralysis) on 5 March 1851.14The Times, 10 Mar. 1851. He was buried in the family vault at Thirsk parish church.15Leeds Mercury, 15 Mar. 1851. His nephew, Frederick Macbean (who took the name of Bell), succeeded to his property and as lord of the manor.16Grainge, Vale of Mowbray, 74; VCH Yorkshire, North Riding, ii, 58-70 [www.british-history.ac.uk].