Thomas Bell (1833 - 1880)

Born 18 Mar 1833 in York, Yorkshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Emily (Fenton) Bell — married 29 Jun 1856 in York, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

Descendants

Died 27 Oct 1880 at age 47 in Selby, Yorkshire, England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Ian Carroll [send private message]

Biography

Birth

Name Thomas Bell

Residence Place York, England

Christening Date 31 Mar 1833

Christening Place St. Saviour's, York, England

Birth Date 18 Mar 1833

Father's Name John Bell

Mother's Name Sarah ^[1]

Marriage

June 29 1856

• St Saviour, York, East Riding of Yorkshire, England
• Husband Thomas Bell
• Wife Emily Fenton
• Witnesses Francis Williams; Harriet Fenton ^[2]

Census 1861

He lived at East Parade, Haworth, Yorkshire, England

Locality: East Parade, York.

Family: BELL

All born at York.

present for census Name Sex Desig Status Age Occupation

Thomas Bell M Head mar 28 Book keeper at Gas Works

Emily Bell F Wife 30

John F Bell M Son 4

William H Bell M Son 21

Charlotte Williams F Visitor 33 Coal Agents wife

Elizabeth Williams F 1

Charlotte Williams was Emily's sister.

Curate at burial: FW Harper, junior curate

Death

Burial:

Date: 27 OCT 1880

Place: Selby, Yorkshire, England

LETTERS TO JOHN BELL IN THE COLONIES

Selby July 15 1880

My Dear John

I am afraid that you will think that we have been negligent in notwriti ng you of such a long time, but the fact is that the mails goingout are u ncertain times, one is apt to miss them and that is what wehave done, a nd now that I am writing I have not much to tell you.Your Ma and I were r ather tickled at the idea of your keeping a goodyand fruit shop and rath er suspect that you yourself would be aboutthe most constant custome r. I suppose when you gave up you could eatall the stock. Bye the bye d id you make toffy and sell it. We shouldhave vastly liked to have seen y ou in your shop. Your Ma asked meonly today if I could imagine what t he shop was like but I could notat all and you ought to have sent us a sk etch with the proprietorbehind the counter eating all the stock.

Armstrong was here last Sunday and he said he was going to write youby th is mail. It appears Mrs Taylor was married 3 or 4 months ago. Ithink Arms trong speaks a bit down about it.

We were at York last Sunday and saw Mr and Mrs Waite and they say theya re expecting Tom is on his way back. Old Waite seems to be in quitegood s pirits at the idea of him coming home again.

Fred O’Grain is going to be married in a week or so. They had got hishou se all ready for him. We have often wondered how you were off formone y. I wish you had entered into more particulars on that score aswe have b een very uncomfortable about it. We should like to know ifyou have got t he Ł5 we sent you and if you have got it cashed.

Mr Cumberland says that if it followed you to Sydney you would have topre sent it to a bank and they would get it for you from New Zealand.We thi nk that if Australia turns up as better than New Zealand it isabout ti me that you were thinking of coming home again. There can'=tbe any use st aying if there is really no employment. I think you havedone the right th ing in trying Australia because if you do not findanything you will at le ast be nearer home. It appears to me thatTrade is bad everywhere alik e. I had a man here yesterday and he hadbeen to America and worked his pa ssage home in 6 months. He said hecould not meet with a job of any kind.

Have you got your money from Rayson?

We are all of us pretty well and all of us hope that you are in goodhealt h. You said nought about it in your letter. Grandma is not sowell as s he was. St Saviourgate does not agree with her so well asour house. Daffi lls have sold 2 or 3 pianos lately but I am afraidthere business will n ot be much.

(remainder of this letter is missing).

Selby

Feb 25 1880

Dear John

Your letter arrived here on the 18th ins, which was rather sooner than we expected it and I can assure you we were fit to fight about it.Yo ur Ma and I were just going out to tea with Mr Warburton when itarrived a nd I had something to do to get her off, in fact she carriedthat letter o ff with her in her pocket.

I gather from your letter that you had on the whole an agreeablevoyage a nd have not been so very much tried by it. The Captain musthave been ve ry indulged to let you about the ship so much. I thoughyou would have h ad to stick to your own end of the ship and shouldnever have thought of h im allowing you to go up the rigging. It wouldmake it ??? so much libert y, I think I should have enjoyed the voyagemyself.

Well as to the home news, you should know that Selby is not a verylive ly place and I have not the advantage of a diary. I shall not beable to s pin you much of a yarn as you have done. However I will tellyou all th at I can think of and there are enclosed letters fromnearly all everyo ne in the house perhaps amongst all of us we shallall be able to post y ou up pretty well.

Death has been pretty busy amongst people that we know and areconnected w ith, we have lost two directors since you went, viz MrJones and Mr Adam s, Mr Tomkinson died a few months ago. Your friendWalthorne has made a pr oper mess of his business and is going to besold up this week, I never kn ew anyone manage worse than he has doneand it has all been borrowed capit al. If he had any money he wouldnever had done any good. The great Smiths on, too has made a double upand they have left Selby altogether and I thi nk they are better gone.- Altogether trade is in a shocking state, nobo dy seems to have anymoney at all and our company are losing a lot of mon ey through baddebts, which is very annoying to me - your Ma=s letter wi ll tell youthat I have got an advance of ,50 a year and without tying mys elf toany fixed engagements.

Willie's engagement expires this month and we have not got any furtherarr angement made yet. He is just going to apply for a managership atSouthwi ck in Cheshire at a salary of ,100, but of course his chanceof success wi ll be very remote indeed. I wish he could get anappointment of that kin d, he is going to write you on the 27th viaBrindisi, the mail I am writi ng you leaves on the 27th via SanFrancisco, so I don't know which lett er you will get first.

We have had an immense lot of inquiries about you since you went awayad y our letter has been pretty well handed about since it came. MrsSilversid ge had it to read and have seen Mr Silversidge since and hewishes to be v ery kindly remembered to you and he hopes you will besuccessful in meeti ng with a very good appointment, I also had someconversation with Mr Silv ersidge at the Art Class Soiree and she saysthat she should like very mu ch to see her relatives in New Zealand.No doubt before you get this lette r, you will have been to see mostof the people to whom you had lette rs of introduction. We should liketo hear of your having got something be tter than Harvesting.-

When you write I should like you to mention Selby people that you knowbec ause they have remembered - I have lent your letter to MrBattersby, he sa id he should like to pick out something to put in hispaper so th at it is not unlikely when we send you next week's SelbyTimes you will fi nd some of your own composition in it, in fact findyour name in pri nt - I should like you to give us a good descriptiveaccount of NZ as f ar as your experience will enable you.

I have sold your violincello to Mr Edward Bellerby for 45/- which wasI be lieve the sum you asked for it and I was very glad to see it goas I was a fraid it would get broken, with lying about unused, two ofthe strings h ad already - I made a present of the coffin you hadmade for it and a ve ry formidable affair it looked when put on thetruck to take away - I wou ld have sent you the money by this post butdid not know how to go about i t, I will however make some enquiriesand will send you it when I write y ou again, which I shall do by nextmail.

I am glad to hear you got that Gun so cheaply I suppose you will notha ve had any opportunity of shooting with it, I should take ca re ofit as I believe it is an excellent gun, although rather shabby - I bought a nice - I bought a nice Double Barrelled Gun a month or two agof or 7/6d it was an extraordinary good bargain and worth 3 or 4 timeswh at I gave for it. I also bought a Revolver at the same time for7/6d whi ch I have let Mr Hanstock have.

Willie and I went with Mr Todd to Helmsley 6 or 7 weeks ago on ashooti ng expedition and never got a single shot either of us and asyou may easi ly imagine were intensely annoyed about it, Since we haveboth of us h ad a day’s Rabbit Shooting at Mr Riley Briggs of OsgodlyHall and enjoy ed ourselves very much indeed, one of Mr Briggs’ Sonswas with us and a Ke eper with Ferrets and Dogs and we killed one wayor another about 10 Bra ce of Rabbits, which is very good indeed,about a fortnight ago. I we nt to Mr Hanstock’s to shoot but did notkill anything, only saw one Rabb it which I had no chance at and oneHare which I fired at twice and misse d, if I has been shooting withthe Gun you have bought I could have nail ed him I believe -

I am writing against time therefore I make many mistakes, you mustexcu se them, the fact that your Uncle Laycock came in a little whileago, pret ty well screwed and as you know when he is in that way he isvery talkati ve and he detained me a long time.

Grandma is much the same as when you left. We are all of us in verygood h ealth, except your Ma & she is rather out of sorts, with herStomach - I a ssisted Tommy with to you a letter of which I can assureyou he is immense ly proud, he says he shall run over to NZ to fetchyou home - Amy and Anni e, Charley and Emma have also sent you letter,such as they are, but I kn ow you will be very glad to receive them.We are sending by this mail, Sel by Times for last Saturday in whichyou will see an a/c of the Art Class S oiree & we are sending a WeeklyYork Herald for last Saturday and we sha ll continue sending you thesetwo Papers regularly and if there are any ot her Papers you would likesending you must let us know. Ted Swaine and Fr ed O=Grain desire meto send their kind and best wished to both you and Wa ite and Rayson.I shall be obliged to give up now as it is just Post time.

Grandma and all in the House all join me in sending our very best love & we hope to hear good news in your next letter, which we shalllook ve ry anxiously for.

Did young Wright turn up for his Parcel? And did your clothes get there in good condition.

Remember us kindly to Waite and Rayson.

Believe me, my Dear John

Your affect- Father

Thos Bell

Sources

1. ↑ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NDX3-37W : 10 February 2018, Thomas Bell, 18 Mar 1833); citing item 6 p 97, index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 1,068,543. Baxter-5479 7 November 2018
2. ↑ UK Marriage List, 1655 - 1992 Submitter Shona Grant-Taylor, 95 Waterloo Rd, Lower Hutt NZ

• Batch No.: Dates: Source Call No.: Type: Printout Call No.: Type: C071861 1813 - 1869 0990880 Film 6902551 Film Sheet: 00

Acknowledgements

• This person was created through the import of gt tree 2010-10-25.ged on 08 November 2010.