Henry Nugent Bell (1792–1822) was an Irish

genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their Lineage (anthropology), lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family ...

Biography

He was the eldest son of George Bell, Esq., of Belleview,

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of and had a population of 63,585 as of 2021. Enniskillen is the ...

(Inner Temple Admission Register). He followed the profession of a legal antiquary, and, in order to obtain a recognised status, entered himself at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...

, 17 Nov. 1818. In the same year he acquired considerable distinction by his successful advocacy of the claim of Mr. Hastings to the long-dormant earldom of Huntingdon ; the estates, however, with the exception, it is said, of a mill in Yorkshire, had died from the title, and were legally invested in the

Earl of Moira Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ''countess'' is used. The titl ...

's family. Bell published a detailed account of the proceedings in ''The Huntingdon Peerage'',The Huntingdon Peerage, on Google Books.
/ref> 4to, London, 1820, pp. 413, and the narrative of his various adventures, which are given at length, displays a suspicious luxuriance of imagination not altogether in keeping with what professed to be a grave genealogical treatise. To the unsold copies a new title- page was affixed in 1821, with a genealogical table and additional portraits. Bell was also employed by Mr. J. L. Crawford to further his claim to the titles and estates of Crawford and Lindsay, and, if we may credit the common report, received no less a sum than 5,036/. for prosecuting the suit. He was cut off" before he could bring the matter to a decisive issue, and dying in- solvent, the unfortunate claimant's money was in a great measure lost. According to Lady Anne Hamilton, Bell, with other minions, was delegated by Lord Sidmouth in 1819 to incite the starving people of Manchester against the ministry, and by their means the meeting of 16 Aug. was convoked which led to the

Peterloo massacre The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Eighteen people died and 400–700 were injured when the cavalry of the Yeomen charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who ...

. The circumstances attending his death as narrated in the journals of the day were somewhat tragic. An action to recover a sum of money advanced to him by an engraver named Cooke was tried on 18 Oct. 1822, and a verdict passed against him ; on the same evening he died. His younger brother was Sir George Bell, K.C.B.

References

* ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Henry Nugent 1792 births 1822 deaths 19th-century Irish people People from County Fermanagh Irish genealogists