James Bell (1804 - 1857)
Bell (1804 - 1857) was born at Francestown (NH). A son of former governor Samuel Bell (served 1819 - 1923), Bell studied at Phillips Academy (Andover, MA) and grduated from Bowdoin College (Class of 1822). Bell read law at Litchfield (CT) and was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar in 1825.

Bell opened a law office at Gilmanton (NH), home of the Gilmanton Iron Works. In 1831 he moved with his wife (Judith Upham) to Exeter, where he took as a partner young Amos Tuck. The two men had a thriving law business, in which Bell handled litigated cases.

In 1846 Bell was elected a State Representative from Exeter. But later that year Bell moved to Gilford (NH), where the Winnipesaukee Land and Waterpower Company was working to purchase lands and rights of flowage around Winnipesaukee and other lakes. Manufacturers along the Merrimack River wanted to create a reservior to tide them over summer droughts, and Bell worked on quesitons of title and reparian rights for the Company the rest of his life.

bell was a member of the state consitutional convention of 1850, and he was twice (1854, 1855) the Wig Party's unsuccessful candidate for governor. In 1855 Bell was elected to the U.S. Senate; he died in office in 1857.

Reference: Appletons' Cycopaedia of American Biography, vol.1 (1888); Charles H. Bell, The Bench and Bar of New Hampshire (1894).

References: Charles H. Bell, The Bench and Bar of New Hampshire (1894); Edward F. Parker, History of the City of Nashua, NH (1897).