Robert Bell (Speaker of The House of Commons) - Death and Commemoration

Death and Commemoration

Unfortunately, he was not afforded the opportunity of enjoying his success, for very long. While presiding as judge, at the Oxford assizes, (afterward deemed the Black Assizes), a tragic event would end his life; when he became exposed to prisoners of foul condition during the trial of a book seller who had slandered the Queen. This stench is thought to have caused a pestilent vapour and Bell (along with an estimated 300 others) caught gaol fever., (Camden, Annals, bk. 2.376)

He then moved on to Leominster, and after presiding over the assize in that district, fell ill; where on the 25thof July, he made good use of his last hours, drafting a codicil to his will, where he made his 'Loving wife Dorothie sole executor' and directed the selling of certain property for payment of debts, and future provisions for his family:

Preceding this loss, he had devoted his time and attention with expanding his family home, and had commissioned The Guild of Glaziers? with the production of heraldic stained glass panels, representing the various marital alliances that were shared by the Beaupre's and the Bell's. The panels of Arms were originally borne and incorporated around the entry way of Beaupre Hall, Norfolk, and were later cut down and relocated to windows in the rear of the Hall; perhaps after 1730 when the antiquary, Beaupre Bell, succeeded to the property.

After his death in 1741, Mr. Greaves succeeded, who had married Beaupre Bell's sister (of whom we owe for saving the glass relics). Their daughter Jane brought it by marriage to the Townley family, who held Beaupre Hall until it passed into the hands of Mr. Edward Fordham Newling, and his brother, who anticipated the Hall's ruin, and wished that the stained glass panels would be placed in the care and possession of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, where they are currently on display.

One may find that two panels of similar design had been commissioned in 1577:

1. The Arms of Robert Bell and,
2. The Arms of Bell impaling Harington: (the Harington Arms are depicted with the cadency mark 'a label'); in all likelihood John Harington, first Baron Harington of Exton (1539/40–1613) who married Anne (c.1554–1620), the daughter and heir of Robert Keilwey, Lent Reader, Treasurer and member of the Inner Temple.

Sir John's father, Sir James Harington of Exton Hall, Rutland, married Lucy, daughter of William Sidney of Penshurst, Kent.

William Sidney's son, Henry Sidney lord deputy of Ireland, was a neighbour of John Peyton and Dorothy daughter of John Tyndale. The Peytons' second son, John Peyton "served in Ireland under their friend and neighbour Sir Henry Sidney of Penshurst, and in 1568, he was again in Ireland with Sidney, then lord deputy and had become a member of Sidney's household."

After Bell's untimely death in 1577, John Peyton married Bell's widow Dorothy, where from her estate, Peyton gained position and status in the county of Norfolk, and later became lieutenant of the Tower of London.