Bell (Thomas) is born in East Anglia, England.

Thomas Bell marries Susan Brighton in 1631, and emigrates to Boston in 1634, settling in Roxbury, and builds a house near today’s 179 Amory Street in approximately 1635. Bell becomes a successful importer of manufactured goods and engages in trade with Barbados, and returns to England with most of his family in 1647. He dies in London, is buried at All Hallows Churchyard, and leaves a bequest to establish a school in Roxbury in 1672.*