James Bell

James Bell (1769 – 3 May 1833) was a Scottish geographical author.

Biography He was born in Jedburgh in 1769. At the age of eight he went to Glasgow, where his father, the Rev. Thomas Bell, was appointed, in 1777, minister of Dovehill Chapel. A sickly child, he managed to acquire an education. His first employment was as a weaver, serving an apprenticeship. In 1790 he went into trade on his own account, as a manufacturer of cotton goods. In the mercantile depression of 1793, he gave up his business, and for some years was as a warper in the warehouses of manufacturers. His father gave him a small annuity which allowed him to study.

About 1806 he began to earn a livelihood as tutor in Greek and Latin to university students. Subject to attacks of asthma to which he had always been subject, he left Glasgow about ten or twelve years before his death and retired into the country, living in a cottage at Campsie, Stirlingshire, twelve miles north of Glasgow. There he died on 3 May 1833, and was buried.