John Bell

a Worcestershire man born as it seems, had most of his education in Balliol coll. to which he was partly in his life time, but more at his death, a special benefactor. Afterwards he became Chancellor of the diocess of Worcester, in the place of Dr. Thom [•] Hanybal, an. 1518. and about that time Archdeacon of Glocester, and Warden of the collegiate Church of Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire. At length his abilities being made known to K. Hen. 8. he was by him employed beyond the Seas concerning state affairs, was made Doctor of the Laws there, one of the Kings Counsellors at his return, a chief agitator for the King in defence of his divorce from his first Wife Qu. Catherine, especially in the University of Oxon, by endeavouring to gain the opinion of the members thereof concerning that matter, (as I have told (h)(h) In Hist. & Antiq. Univ. Oxon. lib. 1. p. 255. a. you elsewhere) and in 1531. was incorporated Doctor of his faculty, as he had stood beyond the Seas. In 1539. he was elected Bishop of Worcester, the temporalities of which being restored (i)(i) Pat. 31. Hen. 8. p. 3. In Off [••] praerog. Cant. in reg. Kitchin, Qu. 18. to him on the fourth of Aug. the same year, he was soon after consecrated. In 1543. he abdicated or rather resigned his See, but for what cause is yet uncertain: Whereupon retiring to Clerkenwell near London, lived there for some years, 1556 and dying on the eleventh day of August, in fifteen hundred fifty and six, was buried on the north side of the Chancel belonging to the Church of Islyngton near London, By his last will (k) and test. dated 10. of Aug. 1556. he bequeathed very liberally to the poor people of Stratford upon Avon before-mention’d, to the poor of Bromesgrave in Worcestershire, Tadcaster, Wymbersley, &c. at which places ’tis probable he had been beneficed. He also gave 100 marks to certain poor Scholars of Oxon and Cambridge, in which last University he seems to have received a part of his education. One Joh. Bell D. D. was Dean of Ely, and dying 31. of Octob. 1591. was buried in the Cath. Ch. there, but what relation there was between him and the Bishop, I cannot tell.