Hi Harlow, Perhaps this may provide a clue. There is mentioning of the Bells in New Castle in Brewster's "Rambles about Portsmouth," Vol. 2, 1869: A public house was kept [by] Mr. BELL on New Castle, by the shore, in the early 1800s where folks on holiday could take 'apartments' and go fishing, and such things as 'out-door bowling' were made available on the property. An interesting account of a winter excursion by foot from Portsmouth over to New Castle by an unnamed 'esteemed citizen of Portsmouth' puts the date on Feb. 17, 1817 whereupon he crossed over to New Castle on a natural ice-bridge and stopped at "George Bell's who furnished us with a dinner of fine fresh cod..." There is also a reference to a Capt. Andrew Bell who bought a house in Portsmoth in what appears to be the time-frame of 1813. Good luck on your research... Bob Jackson ---- Robert Moseley Jackson, Jr. Member: Internat'l Directory of Photography Historians Researching: German Empire Exhibition, 1893 World's Exposition, Chicago. Also Researching: Moseley, McAdam, Brainard, Delano, Barry, Burns, Hutchinson, Hyde - of Boston & New Hampshire. ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.