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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2016
Henry Bell has long enjoyed a minor but honourable place in the history of English architecture. His principal work—the Customs House at King’s Lynn — figures in every book on seventeenth-century architecture, and his status as a provincial designer of some accomplishment—first defined by Mr Geoffrey Webb in 1925—has lately been recognised both by Miss Margaret Whinney and by Sir John Summerson. Very little, however, has so far been known about his career: the nature of his training and even the means of his livelihood have been obscure: the dates of his birth and death have been wrongly stated ever since his monument was accidentally destroyed in 1741: his literary activities have been wholly forgotten: and one important episode in his architectural career has only recently been rediscovered. It is the purpose of this article to set out such facts about Henry Bell as the writers have succeeded in establishing from documentary evidence. Others will no doubt come to light in the future, but meanwhile the evidence here presented will, it is hoped, give a fuller and more accurate portrait of Bell than has hitherto been available to architectural historians.
1. G. F. Webb, “Henry Bell of King’s Lynn”, Burlington Magazine, July 1925; Summerson, John, Architecture in Britain 1530–1830 (1955), p. 151 Google Scholar; Whinney, Margaret & Millar, Oliver, English Art 1625–1714 (1957), p. 225 Google Scholar.
2. Venn, J., Biographical History of Gonville & Caius College, i (1897), p. 411 Google Scholar. His cousin Edmund went up at the same time. Their tutor was a Mr Adamson.
3. See Appendix I.
4. Cf. Pratt’s remarks on the subject (The Architecture oi Sir Roger Tratt, ed. Gunther, 1928, p. 60).
5. His will is P.C.C. 144 Lloyd.
6. See Sotheby’s account-book in the Northants. Record Office (1077/3), and Hillen, H. J., History of the Borough of King’s Lynn (Norwich 1907), p. 738 Google Scholar. According to Hillen the framework of the mill was brought from Holland in 1638, and it was destroyed by fire in 1737. Its sails can be seen on the extreme right in Bell’s engraving of Lynn from the west.
7. P.R.O. Port Books E. 190.
8. King’s Lynn, Common Council Minutes.
9. It is possible that Bell had previous military experience, for on 13 March, 1667, a Henry Bell was commissioned as Ensign to Sir Herbert Lunsford’s Company in the Holland Regiment ( Dalton, C., English Army Lists & Commission Registers i, 1892, p. 85 Google Scholar).
10. Walpole (Cholmondeley) Papers, letters 216, 227, 266, 276, 283, 291, cited by kind permission of the Marquis of Cholmondeley. The affair is discussed by J. H. Plumb, Sir Robert Walpole i (1956), pp. 103-4.
11. Letter 321.
12. Historical MSS. Commission, Portland vi, p. 163 Google Scholar.
13. See his will (Appendix II below).
13a. Those in the Bodleian will be found in Gough Maps 24 and 44 and in MS. Gough Norfolk 21.
14. Statutes at Large iii (1763), p. 384 Google Scholar; Commons Journals ix, pp. 367, 370–1, 378, 380Google Scholar.
15. On this subject see Webb, G. F. in R.I.B.A. Journal, 27 May, 1933, p. 580 Google Scholar.
16. The Diary of Robert Hooke, ed. Robinson, & Adams, (1935), p. 245 Google Scholar.
17. For Hooke’s work as a surveyor see T. F. Reddaway, The Rebuilding of London after the Great Fire (1940).
17a. The Journeys of Celia Fiennes, ed. Morris, (1949), p. 118 Google Scholar.
18. Northants Natural History & Field Club xxvi (1932), p. 103 Google Scholar.
19. Northants Quarter Sessions Rough Minute Book 1668–78. For extracts from this record we are indebted to the County Archivist, Mr P. I. King, and his staff.
20. History of Northants, i (1791), p. 433 Google Scholar.
21. Wren Society, xix, p. 58 Google Scholar.
22. For reasons given in Colvin, H. M., Biographical Dictionary ol English Architects 1660–1840, p. 327 Google Scholar.
23. Bradbrooke, W., “The Reparation of Bletchley Church in 1710”, Records of Bucks, xii (1927–33), p. 248 Google Scholar.
24. Stuart and Georgian Churches (1948), pp. 17–18, 21.
24a. Mary Baldwin in Archaeological Journal, cx (1953), p. 183 Google Scholar.
25. Cottesbrooke Hall, Northants., and the internal eleyations of Kimbolton Castle, Hunts., both have decorative features similar to the Northampton Sessions House, and may have been influenced by it even if insufficient grounds exist for their attribution to Bell himself.
26. Notably by E. M. Beloe in his book Our Borough, Our Churches (Cambridge 1899), and by Arthur Oswald in Country Life, 20 July, 1951.
27. Bradfer-Lawrence, H. L., “The Merchants of Lynn” in A Supplement to Blomeheld’s Norfolk, ed. Ingleby, C. (1929), pp. 156–60Google Scholar.
27a. Ibid.
28. Hillen, H. J., op. cit., p. 564 Google Scholar.
29.
30. Hillen, op. cit.
31. Bodleian, MS. Gough Norfolk 21, f. 101.
32. Beloe, op. cit., p.
33. MS. Gough Norfolk 21, f. 101v.
34. Beloe, , op. cit., pp. 183–4Google Scholar.
35. Evelyn’s Diary, ed. de Beer, E. S., iv (1955), p. 114 Google Scholar.
36. E.G. by Roger Hooke (above), by Peter Le Neve ( R.I.B.A. Journal 3rd, ser. xviii, p. 430 Google Scholar), and by the 2nd. Earl of Oxford ( Hist. MSS. Comm., Portland vi, p. 163 Google Scholar).