Obadiah Bell
| Obadiah Bell BA | |
|---|---|
| Born | c1746 |
| Died | 1790 (aged 43-45) |
| Roles | Headmaster |
| Years at BGS | 1769-1790 |
| Predecessor | William L Lewis |
| Successor | John Banks |
| Parents | Robert Bell |
Obadiah Bell (died 1790) was appointed as headmaster of Boston Grammar School on 28 September 1769 and was licensed to the school on 3 October 1769. He was at the school until his death in 1790.
Family
Bell was a Lincolnshire clergyman's son: his father was Robert Bell, of Metheringham.
Before BGS
Bell was admitted to Lincoln College, Oxford, matriculated 10 April 1764, aged 18, B.A. 1767.
Appointment
At the end of August 1769 the mayor of Boston notified his council colleagues he would "proceed to the Election of a Head Grammar School Master at the Guildhall on Thursday the Twentyeighth Day of September next".
Bell was elected "in the room of" William L Lewis, "who hath resigned". He was described as "late of Heighington", so may briefly have been master of the grammar school there, a Lincolnshire village school which continued to attract boys from Boston and around even after Bells move to Boston Grammar School - an indication of the sorry state into which the school had sunk. In 1777, out of 88 boys at Heighington Grammar School, at least three were from Boston, one from Kirton and others from further afield, including from London.
Bells conditions of employment were the same as previously for Thomas Bateman. With William Smith, the Town Clerk, as witness, he signed the assembly book, and agreed to "enter upon the said School from the Twentyninth Day of September instant".
While at BGS
Briefly curate of Wilksby (ordained Deacon to the curacy of Wilksby 20 October 1767 and priest 24 December 1769), Bell became vicar of Frampton in 1772 (instituted 4 August 1772), three years after being ordained priest. His twenty years at Boston Grammar School left little mark, and ended with the school in no less desperate a state than when he took over.
He kept a manservant, as is shown by a 1780 list of Lincolnshire people required to pay tax for doing so.
Some repairs were carried out to the schoolhouse in Bell's time but, to judge by their frequency, either the work was done very much on a piecemeal basis or it was very badly executed. Thus in 1775, the erection bailiff was ordered to repair the "floor, roof and windows"; two years later he was to repair "the windows, floor and hearth... and to provide a Lock for the Door"; in January 1779 he was to carry out repairs "where wanting in the Tiling and Seiling"; in the spring of 1783 it was the turn of the "Tiling and Stove Chimney Piece" to be attended to; and three times more within a twelve-month period the bailiff was ordered "to repair the Grammar School", once being required "to make the Conveniences according to the Estimate of the Surveyor... amounting to £3-19s-6d".
November 1775 found Bell "desired to attend at the next Hall, Complaint having been made to the Corporation of his having made an improper use of the School-Yard". He did not do so, explaining that he was "obliged to be out of Town this Day", whereupon it was ordered "that Mr Bell be desireed to attend the next Hall". but the minutes of that next meeting make no mention of the subject. This, it seems, may have been the beginning of a long-running dispute between the master and the corporation over the fact that he had a doorway opening into the mart yard to establish "a conveniency" for the boys.
Just what a deplorable state Boston Grammar School had reached when Bell died in 1790 is revealed by this comment by the kings counsel to whom the corporation turned for advice on the appointment of a successor:
The school at present is almost entirely lost owing, it is presumed, to the Inattention and improper conduct of two or three of the late masters.
Those Mr I Mansfield, of The Temple, had in mind, though he did not name them, must have been Bell, Thomas Bateman and James Muscut.