ceedings in ‘The Huntingdon Peerage,’ 4to, London, 1820, pp. 413, and the narrative of his various adventures, which are given at length, displays a suspicious luxuriance of imagination not altogether in keeping with what professed to be a grave genealogical treatise. To the unsold copies a new title-page was affixed in 1821, with a genealogical table and additional portraits (Lowndes, Bibliographer's Manual, ed. Bohn, i. 149). Bell was also employed by Mr. J. L. Crawfurd to further his claim to the titles and estates of Crawfurd and Lindsay, and, if we may credit the common report, received no less a sum than 5,036l. for prosecuting the suit. He was cut off before he could bring the matter to a decisive issue, and dying insolvent, the unfortunate claimant's money was in a great measure lost (The Crawfurd Peerage, by an Antiquary, chap. iv.; Dobie, Examination of the Claim of J. L. Crawfurd, p. 15). According to Lady Anne Hamilton (Secret History of the Court of England, i. 324, ii. 108), Bell, with other minions, was delegated by Lord Sidmouth in 1819 to incite the starving people of Manchester against the ministry—if that were needed—and by their means the meeting of 16 Aug. was convoked which led to the massacre of Peterloo. The circumstances attending his death as narrated in the journals of the day were somewhat tragic. An action to recover a sum of money advanced to him by an engraver named Cooke was tried on 18 Oct. 1822, and a verdict passed against him; on the same evening he died. His younger brother was Sir George Bell, K.C.B. [q. v.]
[Gent. Mag. vol. xc. pt. ii. p. 521, vol. xci. pt. i. p. 44, vol. xcii. pt. ii. p. 474; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. xii. 69, 234, 278, 475, 6th ser. i. 66; Annual Reg. (1877), p. 153.]
BELL, JACOB (1810–1859), founder of the Pharmaceutical Society, and patron of art, was born in London on 5 March 1810. His father, a prominent member of the Society of Friends, first established the pharmaceutical business which, in the hands of the son, acquired a world-wide fame. At the age of twelve Bell was sent to a Friends' school at Darlington to be educated. He exhibited a decided faculty for composition both in prose and verse, and at the age of sixteen gained the prize in a competition for the best original essay on war. In conjunction with a schoolfellow, he also founded a manuscript journal devoted to literature and the events of his school life. His education completed, he entered his father's business in Oxford Street, London, but at the same time diligently attended the lectures on chemistry at the Royal Institution, and those on the practice of physic at King's College. He also devoted his leisure to the study of practical chemistry, and converted his bedroom into a laboratory, fitting it with a furnace and other apparatus. His tastes appear to have been of a varied character, for at one time he gave much attention to comparative anatomy, at another to outdoor sports, while, in a third instance, he studied art under H. P. Briggs, R.A. His faculty for art was considerable, especially upon the grotesque and humorous side. His taste for the works of eminent painters was very early developed, and before he was five-and-twenty he had formed the nucleus of a collection which afterwards became famous. He also strongly interested himself in the question of copyright as affecting artists, and gave valuable advice and assistance in this direction.
In 1840 Bell visited the continent, having as his travelling companion Sir Edwin Landseer, whose health was then in an unsatisfactory condition. The friends travelled through Belgium and up the Rhine to Switzerland, but at Geneva Bell himself was taken ill with a very severe attack of quinsy. The seizure caused him to be detained at Geneva for six weeks, and it laid the foundation of an affection of the larynx, from which he suffered much in after years. Returning to London by way of Paris, he witnessed in the latter city the solemnities which celebrated the arrival of the remains of the first Napoleon.
Bell was a vigilant guardian of the rights of his fellow-traders, and it was chiefly owing to his efforts that in the year 1841 Mr. Hawes was compelled to withdraw a measure which he had submitted to Parliament for the purpose of ‘amending the laws relating to the medical profession in Great Britain and Ireland.’ This measure, if carried, would have pressed heavily upon the chemists and druggists throughout the kingdom. At this time Bell conceived a scheme for a society which should act as an effectual safeguard for the protection of the interests of the trade, and at the same time assist in raising it to the status which it already occupied in other countries. Accordingly, at a public meeting held 15 April 1841, the formation of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain was resolved upon. Bell subsequently issued a pamphlet showing the necessity for such a society. Great difficulties were encountered in the formation of the society, but they were all surmounted by Bell's tact and ability. In the formation of provincial branches of the society he also took a deep interest; and for the
