Bell, John, 1783-1864

John Bell was born in Newcastle on 7 October 1783, first son of John Bell (1755-1816), a land surveyor and bookseller, and Margaret, the daughter of John Gray of Combfield House, co. Durham. He married Barbara, the daughter of Thomas Pringle of Newcastle, on 22 November 1806; they had nine children. His brother was Thomas Bell (1785-1860), land surveyor and book collector. Thomas Bell had fourteen children with his wife Hannah, among them John Gray Bell, bookseller.

On leaving school John and Thomas worked with their father in his business in Union Street, Newcastle. John left to establish his own business on the Quayside in 1803. He began collecting coins, antiquities and ephemera on a range of subjects, including the book trade, and started a numismatic society in Newcastle which ran for only a short time. He published two undated charts of British silver coinage.

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