William Bell (February 1625 – July 1683) was the Archdeacon of St Albans, a short distance to the north of London, between 1671 and 1683.
However, Oxford was a bastion of Royalism during the English Civil War which had ravaged the country since 1642, and after they had captured the king in 1647, an increasingly assertive parliament appointed a team of "Visitors" who descended on Oxford and expelled large numbers of academics, including Bell, from their positions.
[2] He is believed to have traveled to the European mainland in 1649, but was back in England by 1655 which was the year in which he was disqualified from a benefice in Norfolk.
The Restoration of a (new) king in 1660 ushered in an improvement in the fortunes of William Bell who found himself appointed Chaplain to the Lieutenant of the Tower, a well connected politician called Sir John Robinson.
[2] In 1671 he was appointed Archdeacon of St Albans, a post he held for twelve years till his death in July 1683.