Author: Bell, William B.
Biography:
BELL, William Boscawen (1791-1860: ancestry.co.uk)
He was the second son of Adam Bell (d 1823) and his wife Elizabeth Robertson (d 1809); they were from Berwick Upon Tweed where they had married in 1782 before moving south and settling in Deptford, Kent. Adam was a master cooper whose address is given as the Victualling Office in Deptford and William was granted Freedom of the City of London in 1812 through his father. William was born on 1 Mar. 1791 and baptised at St. Paul’s, Deptford, on 25 Mar. He began studying at Merchant Taylor’s school in June 1801 and on 27 June 1809 he matriculated at St. John’s College, Oxford. He earned his BCL in 1817 and was made a fellow of the college. He entered Lincoln’s Inn in 1811 and was called to the bar on 23 Nov. 1818. He lived in London and in Feb. 1822 he married Mary Ann Edmonds; the exact wedding date is not known but William signed the marriage bond on 21 Feb. 1822. They had two sons and one daughter; the youngest son, Henry, died at the hot springs in Clifton aged 15 in 1847. The 1851 Census shows William lodging with a schoolmistress and her husband at 6 Britannia Terrace, King’s Road, Chelsea; no record for the death of his wife has been found. He was living at Britannia Terrace when he died on 23 Nov. 1860; he was buried on 28 Nov. in Brompton Cemetery. His play, issued anonymously, seems to be his only publication. (ancestry.co.uk 17 Mar. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 17 Mar. 2023; Alumni Oxonienses; Morning Herald 20 Apr. 1847; Sun 28 Nov. 1860; The Register of the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, 1776-1845 [1902]; A Register of the Scholars Admitted Into Merchant Taylor’s 1 [1882]) SR