He was born at Raskelf, near Thirsk, Yorkshire, in 1551, and is said to have been beneficed as a clergyman in Lancashire.
[1] In 1586 he appears as the associate of Thomas Worthington and other priests in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, and elsewhere.
He was mentioned in 1592 as one ill-affected to the government, and he shared the fate of other seminary priests in being arrested.
[2] Bell dedicated his Christian Dialogue (1609) to members of the Yorkshire Puritan gentry, including Stephen Proctor, Timothy Whittingham, Timothy Hutton, and the exchequer official Vincent Skinner.
[3] They include: In his Jesuites Ante-past he states that Queen Elizabeth granted him a pension of fifty pounds a year, which James I continued.