A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices/Bell, Sir Robert
This "sage and grave man," as he is called by Camden, was Reader in the Middle Temple in the autumn of 1566. He was born of an old Norfolk family, but in what year does not appear. He was made a Serjeant-at-Law in 1565, and was knighted the same year. He was a good lawyer, and his arguments are noticed in Dyer's and Plowden's Reports, but he was more famous as a politician. He represented King's Lynn in Parliament during the reign of Elizabeth, and so greatly was he respected in the House that on 8 May, 1572, he was elected Speaker. This great position he filled with credit till the year 1577, when on 24 Jan. he was called to the Judicial Bench as Chief Baron. He died at Leominster of a malady arising, it was said, from the stench of the prisoners in the court at the Assizes at Oxford, which he had just been attending.