SIR ISAAC LOWTHIAN BELL
(Son-in-law of Hugh Lee Pattinson)

An iron-master belonging to Washington. Part of the site of his works is now built over by the chemical factory.
    Washington Hall, now called Dame Margaret's Hall, was built by Sir Isaac in 1854. He set up what is believed to have been the first aluminium metal manufacturing plant in the country, then with R.Newall and Bowman, his brothers-in-law, who married daughters of Hugh Lee Pattinson, set up the first wire rope-making machine. Sir Isaac once rode in his carriage to Newcastle Exchange with an aluminium hat.
    For some years he was a Member of Parliament. In 1872 a seven-year-old sweep was suffocated in the Hall chimney. The Shaftesbury Act was passed soon after and Sir Isaac resigned the seat. On one winters night he came out of the Hall to find his coachman frozen stiff on the box-seat of his carriage
    When the Bells left Washington and moved to Yorkshire, the Hall stood empty for a number of years. In 1891 Sir Isaac gave it as a free gift to be a Home for Waifs and Strays and to be known as Dame Margaret's Hall. '

God bless the Squire and his relations for keeping . .
us in our proper stations.