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So I just purchased the book Frontiersmen and Settlers: The Bells in Scotland, Ireland and Canada by William C. Wonders.

I had always been told that the Bells came from Scotland to Ulster. Knowing that my 2x great-grandfather, Clements Bell b. 1793 in Glenavy, emigrated from County Antrim to Ontario, Canada in 1846, I was really interested in learning more about the Bells being one of the riding clans of the Borders area of Scotland.

I learned a lot already but came across something that made me think maybe my Bell ancestors were English settlers in Ulster and not from Scotland. This author states,

"In County Antrim Hume noted specific areas of Bell concentrations northwest of Randalstown in Drummaul Parish, Upper Toome Barony; south of Ballymena in Connor Parish, Lower Antrim Barony; in northern Ballynure Parish, Lower Belfast Barony; in Grange of Muckamore Parish, Lower Massereene Barony, on Antrim Bay of Lough Neagh just south of the town of Antrim; and in Glenavy Parish, Upper Massereene Barony, on the south shore of Lough Neagh's Sandy Bay. He reported that the latter families were English, but did not comment on the ethnicity of the other Bells. It seems likely that these other Bells were Scots, as Presbyterianism was the largest Protestant denomination in these four baronies."

My "Clements Bell" was a member of the Church of Ireland, not a Presbyterian which many Scots were. However, I believe I read somewhere that the Bells from the Borders were not particularly religious and in Ireland may have associated themselves with the COI just to have marriages recognized, etc. Is there anyone out there who might have some insights??