Andrew Bell (engraver)

Andrew Bell (1726–1809) was a Scottish engraver and printer, who co-founded Encyclopædia Britannica with Colin Macfarquhar.

[2] Despite his small stature, he deliberately rode the tallest horse available in Edinburgh, dismounting by a ladder to the cheers of onlookers.

[citation needed] After Macfarquhar died in 1793, Bell bought out his heirs and became sole owner of the Britannica until his own death in 1809.

He quarrelled with his son-in-law, Thomson Bonar, and refused to speak with him for the last ten years of his life.

[citation needed] He married Anne Wake who was the daughter of an excise officer in 1756.