Sir Thomas Bell the Elder(1486–1566) was thrice as Mayor of Gloucester in 1536, 1544, and 1553. He served twice as Member of Parliament (MP) for the City of Gloucester in 1548 and 1553-4. He was knighted on 27 February 1546/7. He was a manufacturer of caps (i.e. headwear), one of the city's largest employers, and its wealthiest citizen. He was a great benefactor of the city and its people. A portrait of Bell the Elder is in the possession of Gloucester City Council.[1] He is not to be confused with his younger brother, also called Thomas, also prominent, Sir Thomas Bell the Younger(d.1560/1),^[1] Mayor of Bristol, who also served as Mayor of Gloucester, twice, in 1543 and 1554/5.^[2]

The Bell family, as one source suggests, was descended from the ancient de Belne family of Worcestershire, and it is possible some relationship existed with John Bell(d.1556), Bishop of Worcester. The 1623 Visitation of Gloucestershire reveals nothing as to the parentage of the Bell brothers. It does not seem likely that this family was directly related to the Bells of Berkshire, Yorkshire or Norfolk.

Thomas Bell was a native of Worcestershire and a highly successful merchant, and manufacturer of hats (capper).^[3] He also thrived in real estate having acquired significant property following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes in parternership with Richard Duke.^[4] Bell Snr. married Joan, but the marriage produced no issue.

Gloucestershire was a centre of the wool and cloth industries, and the city of Gloucester became a nexus for this trade. One branch of the wool related trade was cap manufacturing, consisting in the spinning and knitting of caps for headwear. Headwear was an essential part of normal apparel, up to the late 20th.c. He may have made the Tudor beret style flat-cap worn by Henry VIII and members of higher society, whilst the very poorest probably knitted their own. Bell Snr. was one of the 2 largest manufacturers in the city, rivalled by John Falconer. They employed large numbers of people, Bell up to 300.^[5] On his purchase of the Monastery of the Blackfriars in 1539, he transformed it into a cap factory, which was noticed contemporaneously by John Leland the antiquary who remarked "The Blakefriers stood withe in the towne not far from the castle. This hows is by one Bell made a drapinge howse."^[6] He may therefore also have made general drapery, and gloves, as is sometimes suggested. Bell's period was the high-watermark for the trade, which fell off rapidly from around the time of his death, in the 1560s.^[7]

Bell Snr. was the founder of St Kyneburgh's Hospital, long known locally in a phonetic corrupted form as "The Kimbrose". It took its name from the adjacent long-established St. Kyneburgh's chapel, which commemorated the eponymous local saint, said to have been a virgin Saxon princess who had fled from a persistent and unwanted suitor, to be sheltered by a Gloucester baker. The baker's wife grew jealous and it is said, drowned the unfortunate damsel, nevertheless replete with Christian virtue, in a well. The chapel, established before the 12th.c., likely on the site of the well, was situated inside Gloucester's city wall at the south gate, and eventually became absorbed by nearby Llanthony Priory, which held it until Dissolution, whereupon in 1543 with part of it having already been demolished, Bell purchased the site and an adjoining cottage from the Crown.^[8] By then an old man, and perhaps as a final charitable gesture to ease his path to Heaven, in 1559 Bell built an almshouse to the east of the cottage, comprising a low terrace of 5 individual rooms each with its own front door. The original cottage itself formed a 6th. almshouse, the body of the chapel being used by the almsmen for prayers. Bell drafted his will in the same year leaving it, with endowments to fund its continuation, to the city corporation. However, 3 years later in 1562, altering his plan, he settled it instead on a body of trustees, thus establishing it as a "hospital" trust or charity, who took possession after the deaths of Bell and his wife Joan (in 1566 and 1567 respectively). Under the terms of the trust deed the hospital was to maintain six poor people, one of them, if possible, to be a burgess of Gloucester. ("Hospital" in this sense refers to its function of sheltering guests, from the Latin hospes, a stranger, foreigner, hence a guest.) Bell and his wife Joan had donated as an endowment for the Hospital the site of Whitefriars Monastery, Morin's Mill in Brook Street, six houses, and the rent of another house, having a total annual value of £16-0s-4d. This was intended to finance quarterly payments of 13s 4d to each of the almspersons. By 1598 the trustees had dwindled in number to only 2, having been negligent in making reappointments, and the foundation and its administration was transferred to the City Corporation. Although the almshouses were demolished in 1862, the foundation retained its identity until 1882 when it was amalgamated within the United Hospitals.^[9]

Bell's trust deed gave annual rent charges totalling £6 10s for the poor of the 4 city wards and for the prisoners in the county and city gaols. This element of the charity was taken over by the City Corporation in 1603, but the payments continued to be made until 1825. The trust also allowed to the Corporation the annual sum of £4 for the repair of the Bristol road beyond the city boundary, as far as the Sud brook, presumably aimed to help the city traders.

Bell Snr. gave £10 to St. Mary de Crypt, Gloucester, for the poor. The principal sum was invested with the City Corporation, the revenue being distributed within the parish in bread. Bell had acquired the house of the anchoress of St. Aldate's, in the churchyard, and donated it, before 1563, to that church to fund repairs. The building was later used by the smiths' company for its hall. In 1542 Sir Thomas Bell and his wife Joan assigned property to the City Corporation to be used after their deaths for repairing Westgate Bridge and causeway, Gloucester.^[10] John Leland the antiquary commented as follows: "Bell a marchaunt of Gloucestar now livinge, consideringe to be a common-wealth bridges and cawseys be, and to the towne of Gloucester, hath gyven x li. (i.e. £10) lands the yere toward the mayntenans of these bridges" ^[6]

Bell purchased in 1548, with Richard Duke (clerk of the court from 1536 until 1554) the former chantry of St. Catherine established at that saint's altar in St. Mary de Crypt Church, Gloucester. It had been established by the will of Garet van Eck in 1506 and comprised originally 100 marks, a house, vestments and plate. Its income in 1548 was £7 6s 4d, swelled by endowments subsequently received, including a stable and garden in the city and property in Lydney and Ripple, Worcestershire. The tomb recess and tombchest of Sir Thomas Bell and his wife Joan situated in the south chapel suggests the location of the former altar to St. Catherine. Two kneeling figures from this tomb were moved to the crypt c.1840. Bell and Duke also purchased in 1548 a former obit for Richard Manchester, which owned a tenement producing income of 22s.

The pair also purchased in 1548 2 burgages formerly owned by the Chantry of St. Mary within St. Mary de Lode Church.

Bell also purchased land in Gloucester, Tredworth, and elsewhere, with a rent of 12d., in Pedmarsh field, all of which had been previously employed in supporting St. Mary's chantry at St. Nicholas' church in Gloucester.

Also purchased by Bell was a part of the endowments of St. Mary's chantry at St. Owen's church, in Gloucester.

Bell Snr. was the main purchaser of such properties in Gloucester, and thus became the city's largest private landowner.

The Monastery known as Blackfriars, Gloucester of the Dominican Friars, who wore black gowns, was founded c.1239, on a site west of Southgate St., with the city wall adjacent to the south. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries Bell and Joan his wife, purchased the site in 1539 for £240, including property of Llanthony. The buildings of the close he transformed into a factory, whilst he converted the church itself into a grand mansion, which he referred to in his will as "My howse called Bell Place". The nave and chancel were shortened and all but the eastern ends of the outer aisles were removed. Upper floors and stone mullioned windows were added, a semi-circular bay being also added to the north side of the nave. In the 1930s Bell Place was converted into 2 dwellings. Restoration work on this former church was completed in 1984, when it was opened to the public. The close buildings were converted from cap factory into dwellings in the 18th.c., and part of the west range was heightened and converted into 3 houses. Bell bequeathed Blackfriars to his niece Joan and her husband Thomas Dennis, son of Sir Walter Denys of Dyrham Park, in which family it remained until c.1700. Both the ancient gateways to the Blackfriars have been removed, one before 1724, the other having collapsed c.1750. One had become known as Lady Bell's Gate, which is memorialised in the modern street name "Ladybellegate".

The Monastery of Carmelite Friars, called Whitefriars after the colour of their apparel, was founded c.1268, near Brook St. outside the walls at the NE corner of the city. On Dissolution it was sold by the Crown to 2 speculators who sold it on to Bell and Joan. They donated the site as part of the foundation of the 1562 trust Kyneburgh Hospital. Most of the buildings were demolished by 1567, but the barn remained and played an important role in the Civil War, serving to house a battery for the city's defenders. That too was demolished c.1800, and now the site's appellation of "Friar's Ground" is the only memorial of its history.

Llanthony Secunda [2] was a second house founded by the first Augustinian Llanthony Priory in Wales. By the 16th.c. it had become the largest Augustinian house in England, and the 10th richest.^[11] On Dissolution the site itself was purchased by Arthur Porter, but many of the properties with which the Priory had been endowed were purchased by Bell in 1539, with further purchase in 1542 for £100. In 1543 he purchased the bulk of the remnant of Llanthony for £627, together with property of other monastic houses. Bell bequeathed this significant property to his niece Joan and her husband Thomas Dennis, a younger son of Sir Walter Dennis of Dyrham Park. Arthur Porter's son Sir Thomas Porter married Ann Denys, niece of Thomas Denys, Bell's heir.^[12]

Bell purchased in 1548 part of the chantry property under Llanthony.

In 1537 Bell Snr. whilst mayor, was accused by leading townsmen John Huggins and John Rastell of calling Bishop Latimer of Worcester a heretic.^[13]

Bell's donation in 1563 of a silver cup was the founding gift establishing Gloucester Corporation's collection of plate. A silver gilt roundel dated 1563 bearing the arms of Bell were displayed at Gloucester Guildhall until 1986. It was part of a set of 3 given to the Corporation in 1906. A silver seal 2 1/2" in diameter, was made in 1565 for St. Bartholomew's Hospital from a cup given to the Corporation by Bell. It depicted St.Bartholomew holding the symbols of his martyrdom. Bell redeemed plate pawned by the Dominican friars of the city.^[7]

A portrait of Sir Thomas Bell the Elder exists within the collection of Gloucester City Museum, the property of the City Council, measuring 31" by 29". He is shown wearing a short-sleeved long red ceremonial robe, edged with fur, holding a pair of gloves in his right hand. He wears a ruff-necked black garment under his robe, with a thin gold chain of 5 strands around his neck. A ring is worn on his left thumb. In the top left corner are depicted his armourials with crest below the legend:"Thomas Bell, Knight. 3 times mayor of the Cittie of Gloster". In the top right corner is the legend: "He did wel for the poore provide. His righteousness shal still remaine and his estate with praise abide surpassing gold & worldly gayne". Ironically he is not shown wearing a cap, from which valuable information might have been gathered as to the product of his manufactory. the 31

The Arms of Bell: Argent, on a chevron between three Hawks' bells gules 2 bars gemelles argent, on a chief gules a hawk's lure argent stringed or between two hawks (or martlets?) argent. The Crest is: An Arm embowed vested gules cuffed or supporting in the hand proper a battleaxe the shaft gules head argent.^[14] These arms are depicted in the portrait of Bell the Elder in the possession of Gloucester City Council.

Thomas Bell Jnr. was twice Mayor of Gloucester, in 1543 and 1554/5. During his last term, together with the city aldermen, Bell visited Bishop John Hooper of Gloucester on the evening before the bishop's martyrdom on 9th Feb.1555. Hooper thanked them for their visit and later Bell chased away people trying to record Hooper's last words at the stake. He is mentioned in Foxe's Book of Martyrs on the following dates: 1563, pp. 1059–60; 1570, p. 1682; 1576, p. 1436; 1583, p. 1509. Bell chased away people trying to record Hooper's last words at the stake. 1563, p. 1061; 1570, p. 1683, 1576, p. 1436; 1583, p. 1510.

Thomas Bell Jnr. married Sibill and had issue:

1. William Bell, married Anne Heyward of Sandhurst, Glos., and had numerous issue.
2. Jane (or Joan) Bell married Thomas Dennis of Gloucester, a younger son of Sir Walter Denys(d.1571) of Dyrham Park, and Siston Court, Glos.^[15] Thomas Dennis became the heir of Sir Thomas Bell the Elder, his wife's uncle, and thereby became for a while the main landlord in Gloucester.^[16] The Bell inheritance was largely destroyed during the Civil War when the properties, mainly situated on the outskirts of the city, were destroyed by bombardment.

Bell's niece Anne married Sir Ferdinando Gorges, a Somerset man.

This article is largely based on Victoria County History, vol. 4, Gloucester.