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Torphichen Kirk

1750: Patrick Bell married Margaret Easton, eldest daughter of John Easton of Wester Inn, Stirlingshire, of a family well known at the time as millwrights, builders and engineers whose design and construction of harbours and bridges were well known in the British Isles.

1751: Patrick Bell entered into the possession of the mills and mill-lands of Birkinshaw. 

Birkenshaw Farm (near the mill)

1765: Patrick Bell rebuilt the mills and sold his lease in that year, moving on to rebuild the mills at Torphichen.

7 April 1767 Torphichen Mill: Henry Bell was born, fifth son of Patrick Bell and Margaret Easton.  When at school, he often played truant and, after two years at school, he hired himself as a cattle-herder in the summer months, preferring indoor schooling in the colder winter months.  One preoccupation while in the fields was to make mills and water wheels in the countryside's streams.

1780: He trained for three years as a stonemason, and then he was apprenticed to his uncle, Henry Bell, at Jay's Mill as a millwright.  He studied the modelling of ships with Messrs Shaw and Hart at Bo'ness.

1787: He moved to Glasgow and pursued his interest in ship mechanics in Bell's Hill with the engineer Mr James Inglis. Then he moved London where he worked under Scottish engineer, John Rennie.

1789: Henry Bell's father took possession of the mills of Brigh.

1790: He returned to Glasgow to work as a house carpenter and he became interested in steam powered ships. 

1791: Henry Bell entered into partnership with James Paterson and they worked as builders in Glasgow for seven years.

1793:  Patrick Bell died, leaving four children, Thomas and Henry, Margaret and Elizabeth.  He was buried in Torphichen churchyard.

1794: Henry Bell married Margaret Young.

20 October 1797: Keen to become a civil engineer, Bell made an unsuccessful application to join the Glasgow Corporation of Wrights.  He corresponded regularly with Robert Fulton, the American engineer who built the North River Steamboat and used it to operate the world's first commercial steamboat service, in New York on 17 August 1807.

1800: Bell tried unsuccessfully to interest Lord Melville and other members of the Admiralty in steam powered ships.  He was fascinated by William Symington's work and particularly the Charlotte Dundas. His passion for such boats was shown by his frequent unofficial visits to the patternmakers and constructors of Symington's steamboat machinery in the Carron Ironworks.

1803: Patrick Bell's widow, Margaret Easton died at Woodcockdale, Linlithgow, and was buried in Torphichen churchyard.

1803: His second attempt to persuade the Admiralty was unsuccessful, although Lord Nelson commented, "My Lords, if you do not adopt Mr Bell’s scheme, other nations will, and in the end vex every vein of this empire. It will succeed, and you should encourage Mr Bell."

c1807: Bell and his wife moved to Helensburgh where they built the Baths Inn (later the Queen’s Hotel) in East Clyde Street to run as a spa . Mrs Bell ran the business while her husband worked as an architect and engineer, while also pursuing his aim to build a steam-powered boat.

1807- 1809: Henry Bell was the first Provost of Helensburgh.

May 1810: Bell mortgaged the Inn, land and buildings to raise £2,000, presumably to raise capital for his steamboat ambitions.  From then on, the property passed through a series of owners while Margaret Bell continued to manage the Inn.

1811: Bell commissioned a Port Glasgow shipbuilder, John Wood, to build a paddle steamer.  The Comet  was a 30 ton vessel with a 3 horsepower engine. It was named after a great comet which had been visible for several months in 1811-1812.

6 August 1812: Comet was delivered to her home berth, 21 miles upriver at Broomielaw, a quay on the River Clyde in central Glasgow. She was a 45 foot paddle steamer of 30 tons powered by a 3 horsepower engine.  Her length of keel was forty feet, her breadth of beam twelve feet, and she drew four feet of water. She could transport forty passengers and cost £192 to build.

8 August 1812: Comet  made the first commercial steamboat journey in Europe.  The 24 miles between Broomielaw and Greenock was covered in just under three and a half hours against a headwind, a promising start to Europe's first commercially viable passenger steamboat service between Glasgow, Greenock and Helensburgh. Fare: "four shillings for the best cabin, and three shillings for the second." Sailings: three times a week, returning on alternate days, "to ply upon the River Clyde from Glasgow, to sail by the power of air, wind, and steam."

1816, Competitors followed (at one time twenty of them), offering destinations on the Firth of Clyde as far as Campbelltown, and Bell replied by offering Firth of Forth services for a short time.

By September 1819: The length and engine power of Comet had been increased by James Nicol who lengthened her by 20 feet and installed a 6 horse power engine.  Bell established a speedy service, which took four days to link Glasgow to Fort William via Oban and the Crinan Canal. Its claimed that his service paved the way for Highland and Islands tourism.

13 December 1820: Comet was wrecked by strong currents at Craignish Point near Oban.  Its engine survived for use in a Greenock brewery, but it is now in London's Science Museum.  A replica of the original Comet, made by shipyard apprentices, is now on display in the centre of Port Glasgow. The flywheel from the first engine in the ship survives and is on display on the East Esplanade at Helensburgh.

1822: There was some recognition of Bell's efforts by the Fifth Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Steam-Boats, June, 1822, Sir Henry Parnell, chairman.  He was paid £200, a mere sum compared to the money spent in developing his commercial steamship.  Since he had not taken out patents on his designs, others benefited from his efforts instead.

Henry Bell built a second Comet II.

21 October 1825:  Comet II collided with the steamer Ayr off Kempock Point, Gourock, and sank very quickly, killing 62 of the 80 passengers on board.   Bell gave up his efforts in steam navigation.

Because of financial mismanagement, Bell, once Helensburgh's first Provost, and his wife, Margaret,  lived in dire poverty in their later years, but Dr Cleland and other benefactors raised a subscription on his behalf.  As a result, he was granted an annuity of £100, which was continued to his widow.

14 November 1830: Bell died in Helensburgh where there is now a monument on the sea front dedicated to him.  He was buried in Rhu (formerly Row) churchyard, two miles from Helensburgh, on Friday 19 November, following a large funeral when the town's shops closed and flags were flown at half-mast. As his funeral cortege made its journey to the churchyard, Captain Douglass, a former captain of Bell's, ordered the firing of the three minute guns on the PS Waverley.  An obelisk, dedicated in 1872, to his memory was also erected on the rock of Dunglass, a promontory on the Clyde, about 2 1/2 miles above Dumbarton. His portrait hangs in the Hall of the Trust, Robertson Street, Glasgow.

30 April 1856: Margaret Bell died aged 86.

6 August 2012: Bicentenary of the first commercial sailing of Henry Bell’s Comet steamship.

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Interested to discover more?  Why not visit the excellent website: www.helensburgh-heritage.co.uk/ ?

Want more detail about his letters?  See The Life of Henry Bell written by his friend Edward Morris