The son of Adam Bell, master cooper, he was a government contractor who worked with Joseph Hume of the Victualling Office; he and his wife Mary Ann (née Tebbut) were friends of the Hazlitts.

REFERENCES TO John Robertson Bell:

William Hazlitt to Peter George Patmore; [21 April 1822] in Memoirs of William Hazlitt. With Portions of his Correspondence 2 vols (London: Richard Bentley, 1867)