Thomas Bell

Who was Thomas Bell?

Sir Thomas Bell the Elder was an English cap manufacturer, mayor of Gloucester and MP. He was a manufacturer of caps in Gloucester and one of the city's largest employers and wealthiest citizens and a great benefactor of the city and its people. He is described in contemporaneous documents as a "capper". He invested much of his wealth in real estate released on the Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes in partnership with Richard Duke, of Otterton, Devon, Clerk of the Court of Augmentations.

He was thrice Mayor of Gloucester and served four times as Member of Parliament for the city. He was knighted on 27 February 1546/7.

He appears to have held orthodox Roman Catholic religious views as in 1537, while mayor, was accused by leading townsmen John Huggins and John Rastell of calling Bishop Latimer of Worcester a heretic.

A portrait of Bell the Elder is in the possession of Gloucester City Council. He is not to be confused with his younger brother, also called Thomas, also prominent, Sir Thomas Bell the Younger, Mayor of Bristol, who also served as Mayor of Gloucester in 1543 and 1554/5.