Thomas Bell (mayor of Gloucester)

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.

[6] After purchasing the Monastery of the Blackfriars in 1539, he transformed it into a cap factory, which was noticed at the time by John Leland the antiquary, who remarked, "The Blakefriers stood withe in the towne not far from the castle.

The monastery known as Blackfriars, Gloucester of the Dominican Friars, named from the black habits they wore, was founded c. 1239, on a site west of Southgate Street, with the city wall adjacent to the south.

The buildings of the cloister, including the scriptorium, he transformed into a factory, while he converted the church itself into a grand mansion, completed by 1545,[11] which he referred to in his will as "My howse called Bell Place".

[12] The nave and chancel were each shortened by about half, either side of the central crossing, of which the southern member, extending into the cloister, was removed.

One had become known as Lady Bell's Gate, which is commemorated in the modern street name "Ladybellegate", onto which the western cloister faces.

[15] The Monastery of Carmelite Friars, called Whitefriars after the colour of their apparel, was founded c. 1268, near Brook St. outside the walls at the NE corner of the city.

Most of the buildings were demolished by 1567, but the barn remained and played an important role in the Civil War, serving to house a battery for the city's defenders.

[18]John Leland the antiquary commented as follows: "Bell a marchaunt of Gloucestar now livinge, consideringe to be a common-wealth bridges and cawseys, and to the towne of Gloucester, hath gyven x li.

Its income in 1548 was £7 6s 4d, swelled by endowments subsequently received, including a stable and garden in the city and property in Lydney and Ripple, Worcestershire.

The tomb recess and tombchest of Sir Thomas Bell and his wife Joan situated in the south chapel suggests the location of the former altar to St. Catherine.

Bell and Duke also purchased in 1548 a former obit (Latin meaning he is dead, similar to a chantry in purpose) for Richard Manchester, which owned a tenement producing income of 22s.

She married King Ealhfrith, co-regent of Northumbria (who attended the Synod of Whitby in 664),[21] but left him to establish an abbey at Castor,[22] near Peterborough, Northamptonshire, of which she became the first abbess.

She had been one of the signatories, together with her brother Wulfhere, of the founding charter of Burh Abbey, dated 664, per William Dugdale's Monasticon.

This version may well be apocryphal, and sounds like many a tale contained within a mediaeval Lives of the Saints; though it is not the one given for St Kyneburg, nor is in the Rev.

St Kyneburgh's Chapel was established in early times at Gloucester dedicated to that saint, and was transferred with all its lands to Llanthony Secunda Priory by Roger Earl of Hereford between 1143 and 1155.

[32] In 1559, by then an old man, perhaps as a final charitable gesture to ease his path to Heaven, Bell built a "Hospital" or almshouse to the east of the cottage, comprising a low terrace of five individual rooms each with its own front door.

[34] By 1598 the trustees had dwindled in number to only two, one of whom was Denys, having been negligent in making reappointments, and they sought and were granted licence to convey the trust assets to the ownership and management of the Mayor and Burgesses of Gloucester.

The Kimbrose almshouses were demolished in 1862, yet the Kimbrose nevertheless retained its identity until 1896 when the first Charity Commission Scheme came into effect and the 4 Gloucester Hospitals were merged into a holding entity called the United Hospitals, governed as one entity under the direction of eighteen trustees under the new title "Gloucester Municipal Charities".

In 1990 the entity changed its name again to "Gloucester Charities Trust", the headquarters of which is still based on the site of St Margaret's, one of the 4 original hospitals.

[2] Kimbrose Way in today's Gloucester, to the SE of Blackfriars, memorialises the original ancient site, but no trace of the almshouses remains.

Bell had acquired the house of the anchoress of St Aldate's, in the churchyard, and donated it, before 1563, to that church to fund repairs.

A document entitled Memorandum of the charitable and other memorable deeds done by Sir Thomas Bell, knight is held within the Gloucestershire Archives (GBR/G/5/1.

They were both buried in St Mary de Crypt Church, Gloucester, where their tombchest is situated in a tomb recess in the south chapel.

Bell's donation in 1563 of a silver cup was the founding gift establishing Gloucester Corporation's collection of plate.

[38] He is shown wearing a short-sleeved long scarlet mayoral robe, edged with fur, holding a pair of gloves in his right hand.

He wears a ruff-necked black garment under his robe, with a thin gold chain of 5 strands around his neck.

In the top left corner are depicted his armourials with crest and below the legend:"Thomas Bell, Knight.

His righteousness shal still remaine and his estate with praise abide surpassing gold & worldly gayne".