The Rev. William Bell (1780 – 1857) is best known from his extensive diaries and his "Hints to Emigrants" – a collection of letters from Upper Canada published in 1824. Fifteen volumes of Bell's original diaries repose in the Douglas Library at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. Our present work begins with a two volume digest of Bell's diaries, which he produced around 1845 - 1849, and concludes with his "Hints to Emigrants." Original pagination is preserved.
William Bell was born in Aidrie, near Glasgow, the eighth and youngest child of an architect and builder. In 1816, the military settlement around Perth, Upper Canada, requested a minister, Bell was ordained by the Presbytery of Edinburgh in May 1817. One month later, Bell, his wife Mary, and their six children sailed for Upper Canada.
There are differing opinions about the Rev. Bell’s fit with the emigrant community. Bridgman, for instance, believes that "Bell found it difficult to fit into a diversified society, believing as he did that the minister held a unique position in the community and should be recognized as the unquestioned arbiter of all moral standards. His intense sense of divine mission, coupled with an irascible disposition and sanctimonious temperament, led him into repeated clashes with most of his neighbours and associates.”
Reid, on the other hand, finds that "Bell’s adjustment, as revealed in his journal, was remarkably smooth in many regards. On the most basic level, the minister adapted well to the harsh physical surroundings which he faced right from the start … Bell appeared to accept, equally calmly, the crude condition of life and worship in his first decade on the frontier.”
The reader of Bell’s diaries and his "Hints to Emigrants" is likely to find evidence for both views of this fascinating, complex character. The work includes an Appendix containing three letters written by Bell’s eldest son, Andrew. Rev. Bell died on 16 August 1857 in Perth, Upper Canada.
Allen’s Upper Canada Sundries makes available attractive and affordable eBook editions of early publications, primary source materials, and original research concerned with the life and times of Upper Canadians (1791-1841).