BELL, ANDREW (1753-1832), British divine and educa tionist, was born at St. Andrews, Scotland. He graduated there, was a tutor in Virginia, U.S.A., and from 1789 superintendent of an orphan asylum at Madras. There scarcity of teachers led him to introduce the system of mutual tuition by the pupils. In 1797, after his return to London, he published a small pamphlet, An Experiment in Education, explaining his views on the subject. Little public attention was drawn towards the "monitorial" plan till Joseph Lancaster (q.v.), the Quaker, opened a school in Southwark, conducting it in accordance with Bell's principles, and improving on his system. Similar schools were established in great numbers ; and the members of the Church of England resolved to set up similar institutions in which their own principles should be inculcated. In 1807 Bell was called from his rectory of Swanage, in Dorset, to organize a system of schools in accordance with these views, and in 1811 he became superintendent of the newly-formed National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church. He was made a prebend of Westminster and master of Sherburn hospital, Durham, and was buried in West minster Abbey. His great fortune was bequeathed almost en tirely for educational purposes.
See J. D. Meiklejohn, An Old Educational Reformer.