Our Namesake, Private John Bell

b 1732,  Coleraine, Ireland

d  1778, Bedford, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire

The John Bell Chapter, NSDAR, of Madison, Wisconsin, is named for the great, great grandfather of our founding regent, Mary Louisa Atwood. John Bell came to America with his mother and three siblings in the late 1730s to join his father, who had left Ireland a few years earlier. The Bell family settled in a new community in New Hampshire  known as Narragansett, No. 5, which was incorporated as Bedford in 1750. The early inhabitants of the town were mainly Scotch-Irish immigrants from the north of Ireland.

The Bells first lived in a log cabin by an orchard before building their home in an area that came to be known as Bell’s Hill. They produced large quanitities of butter, selling to or trading with neighbors and markets as far away as Boston. In 1756, John married Sarah Bell of Londonderry and they had eleven children. Sadly, only three of these children lived to adulthood, married and had children of their own.

During the French and Indian War (1754-1673), John was a sutler at Ft. Number Four and other locations in New Hampshire. Sutlers were civilian merchants who sold provisions to the soldiers. After the war, the Bell family became known for selling molasses and rum to their neighbors. 

 John was a Selectman on the Bedford City Council when the council voted on January 16, 1775 to adopt the measures of the First Continental Congress. A committee was quickly formed to execute the measures. Next, a deputy was appointed to attend the Provincial Congress, where a Delegate would be chosen to represent the Province at the Second Continental Congress on May 10. However, before Congress could meet, the war had already begun.

On the night of April 18, 1775, British troops marched from Boston toward Concord to seize weapons and gunpowder that the Americans had stockpiled. When the Bedford townspeople learned that the British were firing on Americans in Concord,  John Bell was one of the first Bedford men to join the army in Cambridge and march to defend Concord.

General Gage, who was the governor of Massachusetts at this time, also hoped to capture some Patriot leaders. But Dr. Joseph Warren of Boston learned of this plan. He sent Paul Revere and William Dawes to alert the countryside and gather the Minute Men, so few munitions and no Patriot leaders were found. The next day, as the British soldiers began their retreat to Boston, a stray shot was fired from a British gun. The British troops panicked. This panic led to more firing from the British and a confrontation with Patriots at the North Bridge.  Two colonists and three redcoats were shot dead. This was the "shot heard around the world" that began the American Revolution--and John Bell was there.

John was back in Bedford by May 11 and became a member of his local Committee of Safety. Committees of Safety enforced the decisions of the provincial congresses, called out the militia when necessary, and gathered military intelligence during the revolution.

The New Hampshire Committee of Safety passed a resolution requiring Selectmen of each town to obtain the signatures of all males over the age of twenty-one for the Association Test. This “test” forced a citizen to agree that he supported the American cause. Those who refused were identified as Tories and not looked upon favorably by their neighbors. Among those who signed the Association Test on March 14, 1776, were John and his son, Joseph. 

We, the Subscribers, do hereby solemnly engage, and promise, that we will, to the utmost of our Power, at the Risque of our Lives and Fortunes, with ARMS, oppose the Hostile Proceedings of the British Fleets, and Armies, against the United American COLONIES.

John was one of the Bedford Selectmen who signed  the following document:  

COLONY OF N. HAMPSHIRE,  COMMITTEE OF SAFETY, April 12, 1776.

To the Selectmen of Bedford: - In order to carry the underwritten resolve of the Honorable Continental Congress into execution, you are requested to desire all Males, above twenty-one years of age (lunatics, idiots and negroes excepted), to sign the Declaration on this paper, and when so done, to make return thereof, together with the name or names of all who shall refuse to sign the same, to the General Assembly, or Committee of Safety of this Colony.M. WEARE, Chairman.

Private John Bell next served under General Stark at the Battle of Bennington in August of 1777. The battle resulted in major casualties to Major-General John Burgoyne’s British Army that could not be replaced. This moment was important because it proved the Americans could hold their own against regular European troops.

John, his son, Joseph, and two of his nephews all served with bravery during the American Revolution. The last records to be found on John Bell are from the Battle of Bennington. He died in 1778 and his wife, Sarah, passed away eight years later, in 1886. The location of their burial site and graves is unknown.