Elizabeth Dowager Lady Mansel was the daughter of John Bell, a distant relation. I have not managed to discover much about him so far. I know he lived in Harefield, Middlesex, which is a strange coincidence as we live in neighbouring Ruislip. This made me want to learn more about the family.

John Bell of Harefield

Harefield is a small village so I was intrigued as to where the Bells may have lived in Harefield.

I have been trying to find a copy of his Will. His daughter married William Mansel, 10th Baronet, so they must have had money and connections, therefore some evidence should have survived.

I found one result on the National Archives website, which took me back to The London Archives:

reference CLC/B/192/F/001/MS11936/351/539052

Collection: Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance Group

Created 3 Jan 1788

Insured – John Bell, Harefield Common, Harefield, Middlesex, Esq.

Unfortunately the item is a physical document which hasn’t been digitised. I’m not sure how much information will be in the record, so unsure if it worth making an appointment to view it.

Strangely, I found other relatives mentioned in this group of records recently. Presumably this means they owned property and wanted to insure their property and the contents in case of loss through fire?

According to The London Archives, fire insurance policy registers generally give the following information:

• policy number
• date of policy
• name, occupation and address of policy holder
• brief description of the property being insured
• premium paid

So hopefully I can find out more about John Bell at some point, it sounds like it could be worth a visit.

We were able to re-visit the pretty parish church of St Mary’s in Harefield today. One of my relatives, Elizabeth Bell, was married to William Mansel in the church in 1791. I have been unable to find any information about her or her parents, John and Elizabeth Bell.

We popped into the church (dog-friendly so the dog came too!) and discovered a marble monument on the wall as well as a hatchment for John Bell.

Here is the marble monument:

and here is the hatchment to John Bell near by:

The coat of arms is rather lovely, featuring three bells on the left side and three stags heads of the right, and we may be able to use this to discover more about John and Elizabeth Bell.

Edited – I contacted the College of Arms about the coat of arms of Thomas Bell. I received an immediate response that there was a charge of £350 for them to do any research on my behalf. I kindly declined the offer and will add this to my list of areas to research one day 🙂