Mary Bell

   Mary was a daughter of William Montgomery and Margaret Briherly and a granddaughter of Capt. James Montgomery and Anne Thompson of Southwest Virginia. Her great grandfather, Hugh Montgomery, was born in Scotland and was said by his family to be closely related to Genl. Richard Montgomery of the Montgomery family of Hessilhead, Scotland, a cadet branch of the great Scottish house of Eglinton of Ayrshire. Mary was married to Hugh Ferguson Bell on July 20, 1786 at Montgomery's Station, Clarksville, Tennessee County, North Carolina. She died in 1819 at Clarksville, Montgomery County, Tennessee and is probably buried in the old graveyard now known as City Cemetery.

   Mary's name has also been given as Margaret, but in an 1843 interview given by her husband, old Hugh Ferguson Bell himself, to Dr. Lyman C. Draper, Hugh's wife is positively identified as Mary Montgomery, daughter of William and Margaret Montgomery formerly of Southwest Virginia (Draper Manuscripts, Dr. Lyman C. Draper). However, her middle name may have indeed been Margaret.

Sources: Draper Manuscripts (Draper Papers), Dr. Lyman C. Draper, 1843;