Henry Glassford Bell (5 November 1803 – 7 January 1874) was a Scottish lawyer, poet and historian.

Born in Glasgow, the son of advocate James Bell, he received his education at the Glasgow High School and at Edinburgh University.

As a poet, he became intimate with Delta Moir, James Hogg, John Wilson (Christopher North), and others on the staff of Blackwood's Magazine, to which he was drawn by his political sympathies.

[1] In 1831 he published Summer and Winter Hours, a volume of poems, of which the best known is that on Mary, Queen of Scots.

In 1839 he was appointed sheriff-substitute of Lanarkshire, and in 1867 succeeded Sir Archibald Alison to the post of sheriff of the county,[3] an office which he filled with distinguished success until his death in 1874.