Thomas Bell (Mayor of Gloucester)

Sir Thomas Bell the Elder (1486–1566) was a cap manufacturer, mayor of Gloucester, and member of Parliament. He was 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 (c. 1515-1572), of Otterton, Devon, Clerk of the Court of Augmentations.

He was thrice Mayor of Gloucester (for 1535–36, 1543–44 and 1553–54) and served four times as Member of Parliament (MP) for the city (1545–47, 1547–52, 1553 and 1554–55). 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.[1] He is not to be confused with his younger brother (possibly half-brother), also called Thomas, also prominent, Sir Thomas Bell the Younger (d. 1560/1), Mayor of Bristol, who also served as Mayor of Gloucester in 1543 and 1554/5.

The 1623 Visitation of Gloucestershire reveals nothing as to the parentage of the Bell brothers. The Gloucester family possibly was descended from the ancient de Belne family of Worcestershire. Evidence from armourials does not suggest any link to John Bell (d. 1556), Bishop of Worcester. It does not seem likely that this family was directly related to the Bells of Berkshire, Yorkshire or Norfolk.

Gloucestershire was a centre of the wool and cloth industries, and the city of Gloucester became a nexus for this trade. One branch of the wool related trade was cap manufacturing, consisting in the spinning and knitting of caps for headwear. Headwear was of course an essential part of normal apparel, up to the late 20th century. Bell may have made the Tudor beret style flat-cap worn by members of higher society (as illustrated) or possibly the coarser style cap, later known as the "Statute Cap" which was the model approved by the 1571 statute making the wearing of caps compulsory on Holy Days, a measure designed to support the manufacturing industry. Bell Snr. was one of the largest manufacturers in the city, rivalled only by John Falconer (d. 1545), thrice Mayor of Gloucester.[2] They employed large numbers of people, Bell up to 300. On his purchase of the Monastery of the Blackfriars in 1539, he transformed it into a cap factory, which was noticed contemporaneously by John Leland the antiquary who remarked "The Blakefriers stood withe in the towne not far from the castle. This hows is by one Bell made a drapinge howse." He may therefore also have made general drapery, and gloves, as is sometimes suggested. Bell's period was the high-water mark for the trade, which fell off rapidly from around the time of his death, in the 1560s. From his business he became the wealthiest citizen of Gloucester.

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