"J. R." Simpson in the 1867 auction notice must be Thomas Roper Simpson, who is listed at the Bell in Kelly's 1865 Suffolk directory, but not as a fishmonger. He is correctly named as a landlord in CAMRA's
Suffolk Pubs Guide, unlike Samuel Smith (1844), who may have been confused with Samuel Smyth of the Golden Lion. White's 1844 directory puts Samuel Mullett at the Blue Bell (as the Bell used to be called).
Samuel Mullett,
late landlord of the Bell Inn, Cornhill, was mentioned by the Suffolk Chronicle (SC) in 1847 [1 May]. He was apparently succeeded by Samuel Berry, who had to sell his entire furnishings, fixtures and stock (alcohol, cigars etc.) as a bankrupt in 1848 [SC 3 June].
William B. Head, the innkeeper in the 1851 census, was there by 1849, when he was fined for harbouring "several notoriously bad characters" [Ipswich Journal (IJ) 13 Oct.]. He was described then as
William Beache Head, landlord of the "American Stores," late the "Bell" Inn, Cornhill, although his middle name is Beachy in an advertisement placed in 1856, after he had taken the Victoria Hotel in Berners Street [SC 1 Nov.].
Samuel Mullett resurfaces in 1852 as
owner of the American stores, complaining to the local council about his flooded cellar, and a similar complaint came from Mr Harris,
landlord of the Bell Inn, Cornhill [IJ 3 April]. I suppose they were both referring to the same cellar, as Thomas Harris was evidently at the American Stores until he relinquished the business a few months later. Like Samuel Berry's in 1848, his auction notice [IJ 30 Oct. 1852] itemised a long list of furniture, fixtures, utensils, wine and spirits, as well as
foreign and British cigars, porter, stout, ales, vinegar, &c. I emphasise the cigars because I think the indistinct words below the bell in the attached photograph could be:
DEALER in
British & Foreign
CIGARS
Jamaica rum and "Foreign Havannahs" were among the goods specified in 1848, potentially explaining why the establishment was named after the Americas.
I don't know whether the aforesaid Samuel Berry was the broker S. Berry of Orwell Place, Ipswich, who wanted to hear from creditors and debtors of Thomas Harris (
late of the American Stores, Cornhill) by January 1853 [IJ 18 Dec. 1852].
William Suthers is at the Bell in White's 1855 directory and is quite likely to have been there at the time of the fire in September 1854. He had certainly moved in by November of that year, when Mary Ann Smith, a habitual drunkard, was charged at Ipswich Police Court [IJ 2 Dec.] but he went to the nearby Corn Exchange Tavern by 1858 [East Suffolk Mercury, 28 Aug.] and Thomas Rackstraw is at the Blue Bell, Cornhill, in Kelly's 1858 directory [p. 643].
Essex-born William Spinks and his wife Victoria (m. 1859) were there in 1861, possibly remaining until the arrival of Thomas Roper Simpson, who was still the innkeeper in 1871 and may have been the tenant who had "bolted and taken away everything he could lay his hands upon", leaving the Bell empty in 1873 [IJ 11 Jan.]. Samuel Mullett was then negotiating with the town council to sell the Bell, together with an adjoining butcher's shop and the saddlery, having become the sole owner of all those properties by 1872 [IJ 27 April].
I can't say I've come across John Pell before. Nor can I throw any new light on the cause of the fire in September 1854, beyond observing that health and safety in the Victorian era of candles and oil lamps depended more on common sense than regulations. The Ipswich Journal stated on 7 October that Mr Batley's house was on the western side of Mr Newton's and that Mr Scrivener, a tobacconist, "occupies the shop next to Mr. Newton's". Two Westgate Street tobacconists are listed in Whites' 1855 directory [p. 142]: F. Scrivener (cigar manufacturer, living in High Street) and Joseph Bird, who is enumerated in the 1851 census between innkeeper William B. Head and plumber & glazier Henry B. Batley.
Henry Baring Batley had come to 3 Westgate Street (three doors from the Cornhill) in 1846 [SC 4 July 1846 & IJ 9 March 1850]. He appears to have let a shop and dwelling house at that address "with good Warehouses, and a large paved Yard" [SC 17 Feb. & 31 March 1849] initially (very briefly) to Thomas Wild, a fruiterer, in 1849 [SC 17 Feb. & IJ 24 Feb.] and a few years later to Mr Scrivener, the tobacconist [SC 17 Dec. 1853].
If the even numbers were on the opposite side of the road, this would suggest that Charles Newton was at 1a Westgate Street, perhaps taking the place of Joseph Bird after he had moved a few doors along in 1853 [IJ 27 Aug.]. But the numbering system seems to have been different in the 1850s. I hope to learn more about it soon.
David
