regretted. In accordance with his request he was buried near the grave of his friend, W. M. Thackeray, in Kensal Green Cemetery.
[Notices in Home News for May 1867, in Encyclopædia Britannica, ninth edition, and in Chambers's Cyclopædia; Atlas for 27 Dec. 1829; Catalogue of the British Museum Library.]
BELL, ROBERT CHARLES (1806–1872), line-engraver, was born at Edinburgh in 1806. At an early age he was articled to John Beugo, the friend of Burns, and whilein his studio he also attended the classes at the Trustees' Academy, then under the direction of Sir William Allan. After leaving Beugo he engraved a series of Scottish views and a considerable number of vignette portraits, the best known of which are those of Professor Wilson and Dr. Brunton; but the works which brought him more prominently into notice were 'The Rush Plaiters,' after Sir George Harvey, and the plates which he engraved for the Royal Scottish Association, among which were 'The Widow' and 'Roger and Jenny,' after Sir William Allan; 'The Expected Penny,' after A. Fraser; 'The Quarrel Scene in The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow,' after Sir J. Noel Paton; and 'Baillie McWhirter at Breakfast,' after J. Eckford Lauder. The largest and most important plate he ever undertook was 'The Battle of Preston Pans,' after Sir William Allan, upon which he was engaged at intervals for some years, and which he had only just completed at the time of his decease. Several of his best plates appeared in the 'Art Journal' between the years 1850 and 1872. They included 'The Duet,' after Etty; 'The Philosopher,' after H. Wyatt; 'The Bagpiper,' after Sir David Wilkie; and 'The Young Brother,' after Mulready, from the pictures in the Vernon Gallery; 'Teasing the Pet,' after that by Mieris in the Royal Collection; 'Sancho Panza,' after that by C. R. Leslie in the Sheepshanks Collection; 'Words of Comfort,' after Thomas Faed; 'Renewal of the Lease refused,' after Erskine Nicol; and 'Within a Mile of Edinbro' Town,' after John Faed. He died in Edinburgh on 5 Sept. 1872. His son, Mr. Robert P. Bell, A.R.S.A., is a well-known Scottish painter of figure subjects.
[Art Journal. 1872, p. 284.]
BELL, THOMAS (1733–1802), divine, was born at Moffat on 24 Dec. 1733, and there attended the parish school. He was sent to the university of Edinburgh while still a mere youth. He completed his secular course and continued his theological at his university. But instead of seeking license from the national church he applied to the 'Presbytery of Relief,' recently founded by Thomas Gillespie. He was licensed in 1767, and in that year was settled as minister of the Relief congregation at Jedburgh as successor to the son of Thomas Boston, of Ettrick. He remained in Jedburgh for ten years, having made for himself a wide local reputation. In 1777 he was translated to a large congregation of the Relief church in Glasgow.
He found sufficient leisure to learn Dutch. The Dutch divines were then held in high repute in Scotland for their evangelical 'soundness in the faith.' The fruits of his new acquisition were seen in various faithful and readable translations from the Dutch. In 1780 he published 'The Standard of the Spirit lifted up against the Enemy coming in like a Flood.' In 1785 appeared his erudite and powerful treatise, 'A Proof of the True and Eternal Godhead of the Lord Jesus Christ.' The Dutch original of Allinga on the 'Satisfaction of Christ' (1790) is improved in his translation. He likewise translated from the Latin 'The Controversies stated in Great Britain under the Unhappy Names of Antinomians and Neonomians.' This was posthumously published, as well as 'A View of the Covenants of Works and Grace,' and 'Sermons on various Important Subjects' (1814). He was father of James Bell, the geographical writer [q. v.] He died at Glasgow on 15 Oct. 1802.
[Struthers's History of Relief Church and Annals of Glasgow; Memorials of Relief Church, Jedburgh; Church Records at Jedburgh and Glasgow.]
BELL, THOMAS (1785–1860), antiquary, was the son of Richard Bell, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and was born at that town 16 Dec. 1785. For many years he followed the business of land valuer and surveyor. He was a diligent antiquary and the collector of an extensive library, which was dispersed at Newcastle after his death. Though he left no published writing, his library was enriched by his manuscript genealogical and antiquarian compilations, and he assisted most of the local topographical writers of his day in their undertakings. The Rev. John Hodgson was much aided by him in the 'History of Northumberland.' He was a promoter of the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society, and one of the founders of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, and continued to take an active interest in both societies as long as he lived. He died in his native town 30 April 1860, aged 74.
[Gent. Mag. August 1860, p. 196; Sale Catalogue of the Bell Library, 1860; J. G. Bell's Descendants of John of Gaunt, 1855.]
