John Bell

John Bell (1691–1780) was a Scottish medical doctor and traveller to Russia, Iran, and China. While living in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Bell was a member of Russian diplomatic missions to Iran (1715–1718) and China (1719–1722). He later lived in Constantinople (1737–1747) in the Ottoman Empire as a merchant. Bell's book, Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia, to Diverse Parts of Asia, published in 1763, was widely read in Great Britain and Europe.

Life Bell, son of Patrick Bell and Anabel Stirling, was born at Antermony, near Milton of Campsie, Stirlingshire, in Scotland. He received a classical education and studied medicine in Glasgow. He said of himself, "I had a strong desire to visit foreign countries." He obtained letters of recommendation to Dr. Robert Karlovich Areskin (Robert Erskine), chief physician and privy counsellor of Tsar Peter the Great of Russia, and in July 1714 departed London to journey to the Russian capital of Saint Petersburg.

Dr. Areskin helped Bell to become a member of the Tsar's staff and Bell joined a Russian delegation, headed by Artemy Volynsky, to journey to Persia. The delegation departed Saint Petersburg on 15 July 1715 to establish diplomatic ties and commercial relationships with the Safavid empire of Persia (now Iran). It was a journey of in straight line distance, although the route was far from a straight line. The delegation traveled by land to Moscow and Kazan, floated down the Volga River, traversed the Caspian Sea by boat, and continued by land to the Persian capital of Isfahan, arriving there on 14 March 1717 after a journey of twenty months. The delegation departed Isfahan on 1 September 1717 and arrived back in Saint Petersburg on 30 December 1718.

John Bell was regarded as "a warm-hearted, benevolent man" known as "Honest John." He had an "amiable simplicity of manners" and "the most sacred regard for the truth in all he said and did."