Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bell, William (fl.1599)
BELL, WILLIAM (fl. 1599), lawyer, was born in Hampshire, and educated at Warwick and Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected to a fellowship, which, however, being a Roman catholic, he was unable to hold. Subsequently he turned his attention to the law, studying at Clement's Inn for two years. He then appears to have returned to his native county, where he came to hold the office of clerk of the peace. He is said to have died at Temple Broughton (perhaps the same as the place now known as Broughton) in that county. His son, a Franciscan of the order of friars minor and warden of the college of St. Bonaventura at Douay, published in 1632 an (octavo volume containing his fathers will, a statement of his theological opinions, and his pedigree.
[Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib.]