Background
He was born at Warrington in Lancashire, in 1524, was educated at Oxford University, where he was ordained priest in Queen Mary"s reign.
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James Bell
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University of Oxford.
Career
This lady, being a Catholic, induced him to be reconciled to the Church. He laboured zealously as a missionary priest for two years among the poorer Catholics, in nearly all of the Catholic Houses and Mass-centres in Lancashire,
In January 1584, while traveling on foot from one Catholic house to another, he asked directions of a man who turned out to be a spy. Bell was apprehended by a pursuivant at Golborne, and imprisoned in Salford Gaol.
He was later brought to trial at the Lent Assizes at Lancaster.
Bell was about sixty years of age, and somewhat hard of hearing. He did not hear all that was said to him, and did not always reply.
He behaved with great courage, and on being convicted said to the judge: I beg your lordship, for the love of God, to add to the sentence that my lips and the tops of my fingers may be cut off for having sworn and subscribed to the articles of heretics, contrary both to my conscience and to God"s truth."
Bell was hung and quartered, at Lancaster Castle on 20 April 1584. Fr.James Bell was among the 108 martyrs beatified by Pope Pius XI on 15 December 1929.
Blessed James Bell is commemorated on the Martyrs" Plaque in Lancaster Cathedral.
In a stained glass window of Saint Mary"s Church, Warrington. There is a statue of him in the Lady Chapel of Saint Werburgh"s Church, Birkenhead and up until its demolition in the early 1990"s, Street Benedict"s Church, Warrington had a building named the "Bell Hall" near its former school.
