Hugh Bell was an Irish emigrant to Upper Canada

Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...

. He was married to Elizabeth Wiggins also of Ireland. They had a daughter Sarah Ann Bell. In 1834 he built a tavern in what was then known as "the Corners" on the north side of Richmond Road on the site of what is today the Bells Corners Public School. When the first post office opened in the area it had to adopt a more formal name and it was named Bell's Corners after Hugh Bell. Bell played an active roll in local politics and served as councillor, assessor, and tax collector. He often hosted Nepean Township

Nepean Township, Ontario

Nepean Township is a historical township in Eastern Ontario, Canada.Originally known as Township D, it was established in 1792. In 1800, it became part of Carleton County and was incorporated as a township in 1850. The first settler in the township was Jehiel Collins, from Vermont, who settled in...

Council meetings in the 1830s and 1840s. He remained in business there until 1863.

Hugh Bell died on 10 August 1872 at age 74 and is buried in the Bells Corners Union Cemetery.