BELL, ANDREW ( 1753-183;2). A Scottish edu cational reformer. He was born at Saint An drews, and was educated at the university there. From 1774 to 1781 he lived as a tutor 'in Vir ginia. hut returned to Great Britain, and took orders in the Church of England. In 1787 he went to India, where he obtained within two years appointments to no less than eight army chaplainships. While at Madras, in 1789, he was intrusted with the management of an in stitution founded by the East India Company for the education of the orphan children of the European military. As he found it impossible to secure properly qualified assistants, lie at last resorted to the expedient of conducting the school through the aid of the pupils them selves. Hence originated the far-famed 'Monito rial System' (q.v.). He superintended this in stitution for seven years, when the state of his health forced him to return to Europe. In 1797
he published a pamphlet entitled An Experiment in. Education, Made at the Male Asylum of Madras, which attracted little attention until Joseph Lancaster published a tractate on educa tion (1803) recommending, the monitorial sys tem and admitting Bell to have been the original inventor of it, an admission which he after wards retracted. The Church founded the Na tional Society for the Education of the Poor, in 1316, and appointed Bell superintendent. lie afterwards became a prebendary of Westminster, and Master of She•burn Hospital, Durham. He left £120,000 for the purpose of founding various educational institutions in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leith, Aberdeen, Inverness, Cupar. and Saint An drews. Consult Meiklejohn, Au Old Educational Reformer (Edinburgh, 18S1 ) .