Bell, Mrs.
Bell, Mrs. An advertisement appeared in the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle (England) for January 6, 1770 as follows:
”This is to acquaint the public that, on Monday, 1st inst., being the Lodge or Monthly meeting-night of the Free and Accepted Masons of the 22nd Regiment, held at the Crown, near Newgate, Mrs. Bell, the landlady of the house, broke open a door with a poker, by which means she got into an adjacent room, made two holes through the wall, and by that strategem, discovered the secrets of Masonry, and knowing herself to be the first woman in the world that ever found out the secret is willing to make it known to all her sex. So that any lady that is desirous of learning the secrets of Freemasonry by applying to that well-learned woman, Mrs. Bell, who has lived fifteen years in and about Newgate, may be instructed in all secrets of Masonry.”
A somewhat similar event was related in the EdinburghCourant for Dec. 2, 1772 involving a woman who concealed herself in a closet and spied on the Lodge at the Star in Watergate Street, Chester.
