For as long as we could remember, our grandmother Mary Julia Bell Grayson (1909-2001) kept a string of bells hanging from a ceiling hook between the dining room and living room of her apartment. Each time we brushed past it would emit a sweet tinkling sound. After she died, one of her granddaughters purchased a similar string for each sibling as a way to honor and remember her. It never occurred to me that her bells might have had some family name significance.
The Bell Surname
Bell Name Origin: Scottish and northern English: from Middle English in various applications; most probably a metonymic occupational name for a bell ringer or bell maker, or a topographic name for someone living ‘at the bell’. This indicates either residence by an actual bell (e.g. a town’s bell in a bell tower, centrally placed to summon meetings, sound the alarm, etc.) or ‘at the sign of the bell’, i.e. a house or inn sign.
Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press via Ancestry.com
Rev. Thomas Bell of South Carolina
The first of our ancestral Bells in America was the Reverend Thomas Bell (ca.1714-1756), a native of Cambuslang, Scotland, a town southeast of Glasgow. There Thomas was apparently influenced by the English preacher and evangelist George Whitefield at the 1742 Cambuslang Wark, a notable period of revival during “The Great Awakening.” (An interesting aside: Whitefield grew up the son of the keepers of “The Bell Inn” in Gloucester.) The Rev. Whitefield had recently returned from the American Colonies where there was a need for qualified ministers of the Gospel.*
A Presbyterian Church history ** tells us that Archibald Simpson of Glasgow, “a man of uncommon piety and industry in his [later] ministerial work between Charleston and Savannah,” heard in his Scottish boyhood (between 1744 and 1748) the sermons of “Mr. Fisher and Mr. Bell of Cambuslang.” Thus Thomas was already a noted homilist before he (and later Archibald) were called to the English Carolina Colony. The history continues,
During this period of time Mr. Thomas Bell was pastor of the PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF JAMES ISLAND [South Carolina]. Mr. Simpson often visited him on his way to Charleston. [From Simpson’s diary:] “Saturday, August 23d, 1755, to James Island. Kindly received by Mr. Bell. Lord’s-day, 24th , preached, and baptized Mr. Bell’s child. One of the hottest of days… Lord’s-day, November 9th , Mr. Bell preached his action sermon from John v.14”
Do You Want to Be Well?
I would have liked to have heard our ancestor’s “action sermon.” In John 5 Jesus asks a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years, “Do you want to be well?” Despite the man’s mumbled excuses (and ignorance of his inquisitor), Jesus healed him. In verse 14 Jesus again comes to the man and says, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you.” How would Thomas have used this verse to call his congregation (and us, his descendants) to action? Perhaps in the midst of our ordinary lives he would ask, “Do you want to be well? Do you even realize you need healing?” If he learned anything from the great communicator George Whitefield, one can imagine Thomas’ sermons were attention-getters.
That its Sound May Be Heard
Bells are found sparingly in scripture. The “clanging gong” of 1 Corinthians 13 comes to mind, but that is hardly a bell. We are encouraged to ‘ring out our joy” in Psalms 20, 85, and 90. Finally, bells are specifically mentioned in Exodus 28. In it Aaron and the priests were commanded to wear special vestments:
“On its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, around its hem, with bells of gold between them, a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, around the hem of the robe. And it shall be on Aaron when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the Holy Place before the LORD.” (verses 33-35)
Bells emit a pleasant, joyful sound. They can also be somber and sorrowful. Bells summon up thoughts of calls to dinner, Salvation Army kettles, liberty and the Fourth of July. They are often rung during Eucharistic consecration and tolled during funeral services. Church bells peal to commemorate Christmas services, weddings, and civic celebrations. Bells are designed so that “its sound may be heard.”
A String of Bells
Mr. Simpson notes that he baptized Thomas’s child in 1755. According to family histories, Thomas had two children. This baptized child would have been his daughter Elizabeth, who to our knowledge remained childless herself. From Thomas’ son and namesake (1753-ca.1845) came the string of Bells from which we, his descendants, now hang. As we now ponder our individual strings of bells and think about our beloved grandmother, may we each strive to be heard, not as a clanging gong or clashing cymbal, but a sweet ringing sound, calling those around us to a life of action for the love of God and neighbor.
Adapted from A String of Bells: Stories of a Southern Family © 2020 by Nick J. Guevara, Jr.
*Many thanks to researcher and friend Bob Ellis, who dug into Thomas Bell’s origins, confirmed some old family history, and provided much of the historical background for this post.
**History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Volume 1 (George Howe, 1870) pgs. 272, 278
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