Sir Robert Bell

Robert Bell
Speaker of the British House of Commons
In office 1572–1576
Preceded by	Sir Christopher Wray
Succeeded by	Sir John Popham
Serjeant-at-Law
In office 22 January 1577 – 25 July 1577
Preceded by	Sir Edward Saunders
Succeeded by	Sir John Jeffery
Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer
In office 24 January 1577 – 27 July 1577

Sir Robert Bell SL (died 1577) of Beaupre Hall, Norfolk, was a Speaker of the House of Commons (1572–1576), who served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

He was legal counsel (1560) and recorder (1561) for King's Lynn, legal counsel for Great Yarmouth (1562-1563), and justice of the peace of the quorum for Norfolk (1564). He became a bencher in the Middle Temple in 1565 and was elected Autumn Reader that same year and Lent Reader in 1571. In 1576 he was appointed Commissioner of Grain, Musters by 1576 and in 1577 he was knighted and appointed Serjeant-at-Law and Chief Baron of the Exchequer.

Robert Bell is reported to have married:

1. Mary Chester, daughter of Anthony Chester.[1][3]

2. Elizabeth Anderson (d.1556-58?), widowed daughter in law of Edmund Anderson, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.[3]

3. Dorothie, daughter and co-heiress of Edmonde Beaupre', Esq., d. 1567, and Katherine Wynter, widow of John Wynter (Captain of the Castle of Mayett, France), daughter of Phillip Bedingfeld of Ditchingham, Norfolk.[1][4][5]

Bell may have been privately tutored or mentored by John Cheke, a close friend and kinsman of William Cecil, (Lord Burghley). Cecil (Lord Burghley), was Queen Elizabeth's 'chief advisor', who has been 'appraised as' "the probable behind the scenes architect of the '1566 succession question." Cecil is credited with nominating Bell to the succession committee to represent the House of Commons and also with recommending Bell for Speaker in 1572. John Cheke was also a relative and close friend of Peter Osbourne, a fellow Exchequer colleague of Bell's, whose daughter Anne, married Bell's first son and heir Edmond.

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