Robert Bell
One of the earliest and chief
members of the Honourable East India Company and very
active in its affairs.
He was born in Norfolk and married
Alice Colston and his son was also named Robert Bell.
The vestry was not happy with the
way he was conducting vestry business in 1626 and he left
the parish in disgrace. However he continued to be well
thought of elsewhere and he was knighted in 1630.
He had built ships for the
Navy and helped crush piracy and at Court had been
appointed a gentleman of the Privy Chamber. He had the
'privilege' in 1619 of lending money to Prince Charles
(Charles I).
His son Robert went to Jamestown,
Virginia in the "Thomas and John" in 1635. He married
Mary Neale (daughter of John Neale) and they had four children. Robert
died in 1678 in Northampton County, Virginia.
See The Black Death, the Plague and Churchyard
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