Thomas Bell

Thomas Bell (16 December 1785 – 30 April 1860) was a land surveyor, antiquary and book seller.

He was also a prodigious collector of books, having accumulated more than 15,000 volumes by the time he died. These were auctioned off later the same year.

Life Thomas Bell was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. His father was John Bell (1755–1816), like the son a land surveyor and book seller. His mother, born Margaret Gray, was from County Durham. Thomas Bell had a brother, John Bell (1783–1864), two years older than he was, and whose life would in some respects follow a parallel course to his own. On leaving school both John and Thomas Bell worked with their father in the latter's book selling business along Union Street, later joined by a third brother, James Maddison Bell. Eventually the brothers took over the business from their father, but in the meantime John Bell (1783–1864) moved out in 1803 to set up in business on his own, which evidently left their father's business increasingly dependent on Thomas Bell who also increasingly took over his father's surveying work.