Sir Thomas Bell 1486-1566

SIR THOMAS BELL may well have been one of the largest employers of labour here in the sixteenth century. He, like Alderman John Falkner was a manufacturer of caps, and at the Dissolution he purchased the site of the Blackfriars (which had but eight friars then remaining), and adapted it as a 'factory' for the production of this article of apparel. Even at that time he seems to have had some 300 men at work, which gives some idea as to the extent of his business. He had been granted the site in consideration of the sum of £240 5s.4d., and then proceeded to alter it into a 'handsome mansion which was called Bell's Place'. Leland, writing the middle of the sixteenth century stated 'This House is made by one Bell a Drapery House' which implies that perhaps caps formed but part of his output.

The will of Sir Thomas Bell refers to 'My howse called Bell place with all buyldings to the same belongynge withe one grounde to the same adjoyninge called the churchyard & one other grounde called the neyther orchard next adioyninge to the Barbicane together with all orchards & gardeynes and other thappurtenances to the same howse called Bell place ... '

His memorial in St. Mary de Crypt informs us that he 'lyving here, gave food to many a one, And left behynd provision for the same'. For this purpose he had the chapel of St. Kyneburgh, near the South Gate, converted into an almshouse. 'Of lyme and stone an almes-house hath he made For sixe poor folkes ... And hath the same with lyvely hood endewed That aye shall ask ... one of these six was to be reserved for 'a decayed burgess'. The only part of the old chapel which he did not immediately convert was, he tells us 'the Roome & place where sometymes the belles did hange comenlie called the steple'. He left orders that the six inhabitants were to assemble 'into the bodie of the Chappell there called sometynes Sainte Keneboroughes chappell in the mornyinge between the howres of Seven & eight of the clocke & saye ffyve pater nosters & a Crede'. The charity is now part of the United Hospitals, and his arms were carved over the entrance doorway of St. Margaret's Almshouses in London Road. St. Kyneburgh's Almshouses have long since disappeared, but were more recently known as the Kimbrose Hospital, unfortunately built in a confined locality and abutting on the old City gaol.

He also left money for the prisoners in the local gaols and to poor people generally, and he owned numerous houses in the city which were used by him for their upkeep. The extent of his property is conveyed by his lengthy and interesting will, which also describes some of the clothing, which he left to various relatives. For instance, to his 'cosyn' Thomas Dennis he left 'my velvet gowne & my velvet Coate, a damaske gowne furred with black conye, a damaske gown faced with black velvet, a dublet of Crymsyn satten & a satten gowne furrd with foynes, a coate of branchid damaske garded withe velvet & a tawny damaske dublet with skyrte'.

Much concerned with local affairs, Bell became Mayor of Gloucester on three occasions, in 1536, 1544 and 1553, whilst he represented the City in Parliament in the reigns of Edward VI and Philip and Mary. He was knighted on Shrove Tuesday, 27 February 1546/7. There had formerly been a kneeling figure of Sir Thomas Bell, wearing a scarlet gown and with a gold chain around his neck (perhaps similar to that in his portrait), together with a kneeling figure of his wife, with his coat-of-arms between them, in St. Mary de Crypt church, but this has long ago disappeared. He died 26 May 1566, aged 80, whilst Dame Joan Bell died 12 June 1567. She is perpetuated today as a street named after the gateway leading into their Blackfriars property, Ladybelle Street.