I am beginning to think the J. Bell that murdered his wife....a made up story. I can't find anything about it...not on the times online or the Colchester Chronicle.... 
Patti, hi, according to a book I read once, Jim Bell was a farmer, married, for a second time, to a very much younger wife who, for reasons best known to herself, took herself and their baby daughter to live with her parents. He found out where she had gone and went there armed with a gun. He shot her and then turned the gun on himself. The child survived.