Bellville is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Austin County, within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. The city's population was 4,097 at the 2010 census. Bellville was named for Thomas B. Bell, one of Stephen F. Austin's earliest colonists, after he and his brother James Bell donated land for the new county seat established by voters in 1846. The original county seat was located in San Felipe.