This information is taken from a post to Rootsweb made by Merrill Bourne in 2003. She lists her original source for the obituary as the The Chronicle and Gazette [published in St. George's, Grenada], Saturday September 8th 1877. You’ll note that Thomas Bell, is not a native of Grenada, having been born in Madeira [ERRATA: Merrill Bourne contacted me to say that the family's Bible lists Malta, NOT Madiera as Thomas William Bell's birthplace] , a Portuguese archipelago in the north Atlantic ocean:
Deaths:
Died at Dumfries house Carriacou, on Monday the 3 rd. instant, Thomas
William Bell, Esquire, Police Magistrate and Coroner for the Northern
district, aged 58 years, leaving a wife, children and grand children to
mourn their irreparable loss.
The Packet:
Death has removed, since last packet, one of our most esteemed
colonists. Thomas William Bell, Esq. Police magistrate of Carriacou,
died on Monday, the 3rd. instant, after a very short illness. Mr. Bell
came out to Grenada in 1839, in Messrs. Hankey’s ship, the Helen , as an
interpreter to a batch of Maltese immigrants, who were brought here
through the exertions of the late Henry Edward Sharpe, Esq. Then
Proprietor of Corinth and providence estates, in St. Davids Parish,
conjointly with Messrs. Thompson Hankey and company, and Messrs.
Davidson, Barkely and Company. Of London. The failure of this experiment
was attributable , we learn on good authority, to the uncalled for and
improper interference of the Stipendiary Justices of that day. Mr. Bell,
after several years occupation as a clerk and merchant, settled himself
on his property of La Vallette in St. Andrews, where he soon became
distinguished as a grower of spices, which had become a specialty in
Grenada, through the perservering exertions of the late Robert Kenedy at
Belone, George Macfarlane at Peggy’s Whim, and Alexander Brim at
Hampstead, Mr. Bell, with such advantages and examples, soon established
his name which up to now stands high in the London and other home
markets, as a grower of spices. Mr. Bell leaves a large family, who have
been trained to follow his industrious example, and a widow with young
children, all of whom have to deplore the loss of an affectionate
parent. With these, the community deeply sympathise, as all who knew Mr.
Thomas William Bell will miss his genial friendly manner. His remains
were interred at Carriacou on Monday evening. The Health of the colony is good.
