Archibald Bell

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(1776–1854) was a Scottish advocate and miscellaneous writer.

Life

He was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

the son of John Bell WS, a lawyer on 9 March 1776 (the Dictionary of National Biography states 1755). Admitted a member of the faculty of advocates,

in 1795, he was appointed Sheriff-Depute of Ayrshire in August 1815. In 1821 he was elected a member of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. In 1833 he became a member of the Highland Society. At this time is home was 81 Great King Street in the Second New Town. He died in Edinburgh 6 Oct. 1854. He is buried in

Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on ...

on the west side of the city.

Works

He was the author of: 1. 'An Inquiry into the Policy and Practice of the Prohibition of the Use of Grain in the Distilleries,' 1808, second edition, 1810. 2. 'The Cabinet, a series of Essays, Moral and Literary' (anon.), 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1835. 3. 'Count Clermont, a Tragedy; Caius Toranius, a Tragedy, with other Poems,' 1841. 4. ' Melodies of Scotland,' 1849; the last being an attempt to supply words for the old national airs of such a correct and conventional type as not to offend the susceptibilities of the most fastidious. The verses are generally tasteful and spirited, but in no case have they been successful in supplanting those associated with the old melodies.

References

* ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Archibald 1776 births 1854 deaths Scottish writers