Individual Biography

John Bell

• Formal Name:
• First Date: 1820
• Last Date: 1821
• Function: Bookseller
• Locales: Winchester
• Precis: Bookseller in Winchester (1787-1836), ostensibly first merchant to conduct a book store there.
• Notes: Bookseller
  Winchester
  Bookseller in Winchester (1787-1836), ostensibly the first to conduct a book store there.
  John Bell was the son of an early settler of the town of Winchester, also named John, who served in the Virginia Line during the Revolutionary War. The scion kept a dry-goods store there, which was located on Boscawen Street near its intersection with Loudon after 1807; it was a location that came to be known as "Bell's Corner" as his son and heir continued his business there for many years as well. His newspaper advertisements, from the start of the town's first weekly in 1787, show that many books were available in his store; however, Bell did not specify titles, only the genres of his wares, mixed in among his broad descriptions of the store's other goods. Occasionally, Bell was a part of national subscription-publishing efforts by book-printing firms elsewhere, resulting in his name appearing as a "publisher" of such imprints – a misidentification which has led some bibliographers to report his presence in Richmond, and not Winchester.
  Bell's life-long presence there gave the merchant a considerable reputation in the public sphere. He was an elder of the town's Old Presbyterian Church and served briefly as a justice of the county court; he was also a member of several committees appointed by the corporation council to oversee public-works projects, most notably in building Winchester's fire-fighting system of engines and hydrants. That standing was enhanced by his marriage to the daughter of the county's leading state-court judge, Robert Sherrard, in 1796, and by the large family that the union produced. Bell was still an active figure in the Frederick County seat when he died in April 1836; his shoes were filled promptly by his son, John N. Bell, who would soon develop a similar prominence in Winchester.
  
  Personal Data
  
  
  
  Born:
  ---
  1768
  Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia
  
  Married [1]:
  Jan. 12
  1792
  Mary Sherrard @ Winchester, Virginia
  
  Died:
  Aor. 2
  1836
  Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia
  Children:
  John N.; Robert; Nancy; Sarah D.; and other unrecorded sisters.
  
  Sources: Imprints; Russell, Winchester. Cartmell, Shenandoah Pioneers.
  
• Related Bios: None

This version of the Index of Virginia Printing was a gift from the estate of the site's creator, David Rawson. The content contained herein will not be updated, as it is part of the Library of Virginia's personal papers collection. For more information, please see David Rawson Index of Virginia Printing website. Accession 53067. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia .