Sir Edmond Bell (Knight)

Sir Edmond Bell Of Castle Acre and Beaupre Hall, Norfolk. (bap 7 Apr 1562 - bur 22 Dec 1607). He was a MP of Aldeburgh, Justice of the Peace for Norfolk c. 1599, Knighted 1603.

He was baptised 7 April 1562, the first son and heir of Sir Robert Bell and Dorothie daughter of Edmonde Beaupre, Of Outwell/Upwell, Norfolk, and Catherine Bedingfield. He was probably educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

The first mention of Edmonde Bell, dates from 1567, where he is found recorded in his Grandfather's will, who bequeaths certain property to him, "books of law and Greek." It is likely that by age fifteen, Edmonde had been partially prepared and fashioned for a career in his family's profession, when he suffered the loss of his father from the terminal effects of what was then called "Jail Fever". Two years later, his mother married Sir John Peyton, a man whose military career was highly esteemed. Peyton, appears to have developed a closer relationship with Edmond's younger brother Robert,... who was groomed as a soldier and later become a captain of a company in the low countries. Around this time, Edmonde may have been busily engaged abroad in pursuit of his academic career at the university level.

By 1583, it is known that he received his patrimony, which included extensive properties throughout Norfolk, and the manor of Castle Acre, where Edmonde dwelled and duly made his family seat. Perhaps this event is timed with his first marriage to Anne Osborne. By 1586, he became MP for Aldeburgh, where he was active in mercantile affairs, "investing heavily in privatering", specifically, the building of ships (gunboats) that incorporated advances in Naval Architecture. These investments did not prove lucrative, however, and perhaps were forfeited, in part as a consequence of the Spanish invasion of 1588, where Bells' Naval assets may have been sacrificed in service to the Crown. Following this period he is found tenaciously engaged as one of the commissioners entrusted with draining the fens, which eventually proved a success. He was knighted by King James I, on Friday the 13th of May 1603 together with ten others including, William Dethick, Garter King of Arms.

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