Born in Glasgow on 5 November 1803, Bell was educated at Glasgow High School and Edinburgh University. He edited the Edinburgh Literary Journal 1829-31 and published his book "The Life of Mary Stuart" in 1830.
On marrying in 1831, Bell abandoned literature as a profession. After practising at the Bar 1832-39, he became a Sheriff-Substitute at Glasgow until 1868 when he succeeded Sir Archibald Alison as Sheriff of Lanarkshire. He retained an interests in the arts, being a founder of the Royal Scottish Academy, writing an introduction to an 1865 edition of Shakespeare and publishing (in 1866) a volume of poetry.
Having been widowed in 1847 - this marriage produced one son and five daughters - Bell remarried in 1871. When he died on 7 January 1874, he was accorded a public funeral and interred in the nave of Glasgow cathedral.
HENRY GLASSFORD BELL, for many years one of the most prominent citizens of Glasgow, was born there on 5th November, 1803. He was the eldest son of Mr. James Bell, who, though a member of the Scottish Bar, was resident in Glasgow at the date of the birth of his eldest son. He received the rudiments of his education at the High School of Glasgow, but later on the family removed to Edinburgh, and young Bell completed his education at the University of the latter city with the view of passing as an advocate. Mr. James Bell became connected with the "Edinburgh Observer," and to this paper his son became, at an early age, a contributor, until latterly a special page was allotted to him for literary articles and notices. Some of these attracted no inconsiderable attention at the time, and notably certain papers on the Drama; and to the end of his life Mr. Bell retained a warm interest in dramatic representations, as well as in all the great actors of the day, with some of whom he formed intimate friendships. No doubt it was due to his literary connection with, and interest in the Drama that he was present at the Edinburgh Theatrical Fund dinner in 1827, which has become historical, for there Sir Walter Scott avowed the authorship of the Waverley novels: and Sheriff Bell always referred to that announcement, and the tumultuous enthusiasm which it evoked, as one of the most thrilling associations of his life.
While still at the University of Edinburgh he printed, for private circulation, a thin volume of poetical pieces which he inscribed to Lord President Hope. But his most permanent literary employment, and that with which his name will always be associated, was the editorship of the "Edinburgh Literary Journal." His connection with that periodical began in 1829, and terminated in 1831. In a remarkable obituary notice which appeared in the February number of the "Journal of Jurisprudence," and which, we believe, came from the pen of Mr. Campbell Smith, Advocate, appears the following picturesque tribute to his conduct of the "Literary Journal," where the writer contrasts Mr. Bell's judicial life, when for many years it was his business to settle the never-ending flow of Glasgow litigation, with that brief period when literature was his sole occupation:- "We can well believe that the old Sheriff, looking back occasionally during his last twilight of seclusion, may have thought the time of his editorship about the happiest, and probably not the least useful, time of his life. The quarrels of Glasgow, which he saw burning and hissing and sputtering before him one after another for weeks and months and years, have mostly gone into darkness, like bad lucifer matches or wretched farthing candles; . . but the pages of the "Edinburgh Journal" are still luminous, and in them can be read the literary history of 1829, 1830, and 1831; and various utterances of talent, and even of genius, which are capable of cheering a vacant or lonely hour, and lifting the reader above the cares and sorrows of every-day life, from the sensations of the animal to the aspirations of the immortal. His own contributions to these six volumes are the most diversified, and they are certainly among the best; and that is no mean praise, when it is remembered that among the contributors were the Ettrick Shepherd and Professor Wilson, Thomas Campbell and Thomas Aird, Professor Tennant and Dr. Gillespie, Robert Chambers and Robert Carruthers, Sheridan Knowles and Alaric A. Watts, Dr. Moir (best known as "Delta"), G. P. R. James, the novelist, and David Vedder and Robert Gilfillan, two of our vernacular poets. But, then, some of them only gave fractions of their scrap-books, while he gave the strength of his mind."
In addition, however, to the literary reputation which he gained, he also acquired (no doubt in some measure due to his connection with the "Edinburgh Journal") acquaintance, and in some cases friendship, with literary men and women of eminence - a circumstance to which he always referred with pride and satisfaction. We cannot do better than quote his own words, taken from an eloquent speech which he made at the Scott Centenary Banquet in August, 1871:- "Perhaps you will regard it as a pardonable vanity which induces me here to mention that I have handed the kettle to Joanna Baillie to replenish her teapot in her home at Hampstead; that I have walked round the Calton Hill by moonlight with Mrs. Hemans; and that I not only frequently met but exchanged many letters with the captivating L. E. L.; that I have heard Moore sing some of his most exquisite songs; that Campbell has recited to me "The Battle of Hohenlinden"; that I have listened, many a time and oft, to the Ettrick Shepherd warbling his wild, fresh, moorland ditties; that I have spent days and nights, both in town and country, with the most brilliant and delightful man who ever trod this earth, John Wilson; and that I was the means of first giving to the world an unpublished poem of Shelley, which he had left and forgotten in the hands of James Ballantyne, of Edinburgh." Selections of the best of his pieces in the "Edinburgh Journal" were published in two small volumes, entitled, the "Portfolio" and "Summer and Winter Hours." The latter consisted entirely of poetical pieces, some of which are still well known, e.g., "Mary Queen of Scots " and "The Uncle." The first of these has been declaimed in theatres and many schools and from hundreds of platforms, and has been beautifully illustrated by the well-known Scottish artist, Robert Herdman; the latter is a favourite piece of Henry Irving's, which he not infrequently recites in private, the ghastly horror of the piece suiting the dramatic genius of the great actor, who sprang to celebrity by his acting of the murderer in "The Bells." Of the prose pieces, " Mynheer von Woodenblock " was no doubt the origin of the celebrated doggerel song, "The Cork Leg," while the "Dead Daughter" and "The Living Mummy" seem to have suggested to Edgar Allan Poe two of his most famous and weirdest romances.
In 1830 Mr. Bell published, as a part of "Constable's Miscellany," his Life of Mary Stuart, his only extensive prose work. He had a great and enthusiastic admiration for the loveliest of queens, and believed most thoroughly in her absolute innocence. His elaborate and eloquent defence of Queen Mary was a great literary success. It quickly ran into a second edition, and was translated into French; it was also reproduced in America. In the year 1831, Mr. Bell married Miss Stuart, only daughter of Captain Stuart, of Shierglass, Glengarry. Probably this circumstance had something to do with his abandoning literature as a profession, and on the 20th November, 1832, he passed for the Bar. Between 1832 and 1839 he practised at the Bar with a certain measure of success. "He had cases sufficient to keep him from despairing and sinking out of sight," says Mr. Campbell Smith in the obituary notice already referred to. He also got into the Edinburgh Town Council, in whose proceedings he took an active part. In 1839, however, he left the Bar, accepting the offer of Sir Archibald Alison to become a Sheriff-Substitute at Glasgow. He had given hostages to fortune, and felt impelled to accept what was a certainty; but, knowing what we now do as to his legal capabilities, it cannot be doubted that, had he been able to stay and work on at the Bar, he would have attained the Bench of the Supreme Court. No doubt, however, in many respects, the post of Sheriff of Lanarkshire is at least as important as that of a puisne judge.
Of the conscientious and able discharge of the duties of his office, both as Sheriff-Substitute and Sheriff-Principal, there can be but one opinion. He leaves behind him the name of a great mercantile lawyer, and his intimate study of the many nice questions involved in bankruptcy, cause frequent reference to his opinions in connection with this class of cases. A lawyer who had ample and special opportunities of judging how Mr. Bell discharged his work in the capacity both of Sheriff-Substitute and Sheriff, thus writes of him:- "The older members of the legal profession in the West of Scotland hold the opinion that Sheriff Glassford Bell was the best judge that ever sat in the Sheriff Court of Glasgow. Approaching every case without a shade of bias he listened so quietly to the arguments on either side that it was only when his decisions - always remarkable for their clearness - were made that it was seen how carefully and fairly he had weighed the matter at issue. So much reliance was placed upon his judgments that it was a common custom of procurators to agree beforehand to accept his ruling and carry the case no farther. Early in his career he had to grapple with new and difficult questions under the Poor Law and Bankruptcy Acts, in relation to which many of his judgments have become leading cases. His popularity was increased by the absence of self-assertion, reticence in all matters not directly relevant, and the invariable courtesy to witnesses, which were all leading features of all proceedings in his Court. He always kept abreast of his work, and may be said to have died in harness, respected by every member of the legal profession who had ever come in contact with him." Although his reputation as a judge on questions of abstract law stood deservedly high, still, perhaps, his forte was not so much the decision of difficult legal points as the application of sound principles of law to the many complicated and shifting phases of fact involved in questions of conflicting evidence. From 1839 to 1868 Mr. Bell was a Sheriff-Substitute. There are now five Sheriff-Substitutes in Glasgow; while Sheriff Bell for many years, along with a single colleague, conducted the whole work of the Sheriff Court, except the appeals, and such other duties as the Sheriff, Sir Archibald Alison, chose to undertake. In those days there was no shorthand reporting of the proofs in ordinary actions, which has made such an immense change for the better in regard to physical labour imposed on the Sheriff-Substitutes.
During Mr. Bell's period of office as Sheriff-Substitute, the post was one of almost unintermitting toil, yet, notwithstanding, he took part in many public meetings, and an interest in every matter affecting the welfare of Glasgow. He was a patron of the Fine Arts, and one of the originators of the Royal Scottish Academy. He gave a course of lectures on Art, among which those on Michael Angelo and Raphael, subsequently delivered before the Philosophical Institute and the Glasgow Architectural Society, attracted considerable attention. He occasionally delivered other lectures, one of the most notable of which was that on Wordsworth. He also wrote an introduction of considerable length to an edition of Shakespeare brought out in the year 1865. He was eminently successful as a public speaker, to which, no doubt, his commanding presence and sonorous voice contributed; and two of his addresses, namely, those to the Juridical Society and as president of the Athenaeum, were subsequently published.
His annual speech at the Trades' Hall dinner was always one of the chief events of that social meeting. It was his habit to give a resume of the legislation of the preceding session as affecting Scotland. He was fond of travel and angling, and in his rare holidays he sometimes took a tour abroad and sometimes went on fishing excursions. He also liked scientific games, and more especially chess and whist. In the former game he was for many years regarded as second to no player in Scotland. He was not only witty himself, but the cause of wit in others. He had a fund of anecdote and a genial play of humour, and, what is a more invaluable quality in a host, a ready appreciation and enjoyment of the talents of his guests. At his table met men distinguished in different ways, and it was his delight to educe their peculiar abilities to the entertainment of their fellow-guests as well as his own. In the year 1866 he brought out a volume of poems -some sad, some humorous - entitled, "Romances and Minor Poems." A critic, well qualified to judge, thus writes of this book:- "The best verses in this volume, though somewhat less elastic than those of his youth, are obviously more mature, condensed, and searching. They are the reflex of a mind that has seen more of life and become perplexed by mysteries, to which its former easy solutions have proved vain. Alongside of 'The Requiem,' 'The Nameless Earl,' 'Implora Pace,' and 'The Unrecorded Chronicle,' 'Mary Queen of Scots,' here again reprinted, seems comparatively superficial rhetoric."
Long previous to Sir Archibald Alison's death Mr. Bell was generally regarded as his probable successor, and so far back as 1852, when there was a proposal to raise the Sheriff of Lanarkshire to the Bench of the Supreme Court (which proposal, however, fell through) "it was indicated," says the writer in the "Journal of Jurisprudence" from whom we have already quoted, "to Lord Advocate Inglis that, in the opinion of the best heads of Glasgow, Mr. Bell should be appointed to be his successor." On Sir Archibald Alison's death in 1867 Mr. Bell almost immediately received the appointment, with the unanimous assent, not only of the legal profession, but of the whole community.
Mrs. Bell died in the year 1847, and in 1871 Mr. Bell again married, his second wife being Miss Marian Sandeman, the eldest daughter of a well-known Glasgow merchant. By his first wife he had six children - one son and five daughters - two of whom predeceased him. By his second wife he had no family, and she still survives.
For a considerable time Mr. Bell had suffered from a disease in his right hand, which had, however, caused little more than inconvenience, until certain alarming symptoms showed themselves, and on the 8th November, 1873, under the advice of his medical attendants, the hand was amputated. Shortly after the operation dangerous complications took place, but these passed away, and he was in the full expectation of returning to his duties when he was seized with paralysis, and expired on the 7th January, 1874. Mr. Bell was accorded a public funeral, and was interred in the nave of the grand old Cathedral of Glasgow; and it is not too much to say that by very many of its inhabitants, even by those who had no actual acquaintance with him, his death was felt to be not only a public but a personal loss.
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