John Clavell Mansel-Pleydell (1817–1902), originally John Clavell Mansel, was a Dorset antiquary, known for contributions to geology, botany, and ornithology.

Life

Born at Bramshaw, Dorset, on 4 December 1817, he was eldest son of twin boys (brother George was the younger twin) of Colonel John Mansel (1776–1863) of Smedmore, Dorset by his wife Louisa, fourth daughter of

Edmund Morton Pleydell Edmund Morton Pleydell (?1693-1754), of Milborne St. Andrew, Dorset, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1723 and 1747. Pleydell was the fourth but eldest surviving son of Edmund Pleydell of Midgehall, Wiltshire an ...

of Whatcombe, Dorset. Educated privately, with Henry Walter as a tutor, he entered St. John's College, Cambridge in 1836, and graduated B.A. in 1839. Mansell was admitted a student of

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

on 2 May 1840, but was not

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

. For thirty years he was an officer in the

Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry The Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army founded in 1794 as the Dorsetshire Regiment of Volunteer Yeomanry Cavalry in response to the growing threat of invasion during the Napoleonic wars. It gained its first ro ...

. He was promoted from lieutenant to captain on 26 July 1856. He was one of the promoters of the

Somerset and Dorset Railway The Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, also known as the S&D, SDJR or S&DJR, was an English railway line connecting Bath (in north-east Somerset) and Bournemouth (now in south-east Dorset but then in Hampshire), with a branch from Evercreec ...

, and suffered financial losses. In 1856 Mansel built at his own expense the Milborne Reformatory, which was converted in 1882 into an

industrial school Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

. In 1857 he was made a fellow of the

Geological Society The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

, and was later also a fellow of the Linnean Society. He succeeded on his mother's death to the family estate of Whatcombe, Dorset, and to landed property in the Isle of Purbeck in 1863. In 1872 he assumed the additional name of Pleydell, his mother's maiden name. He founded the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club in 1875, and was its president till his death. In 1876 Mansel-Pleydell was high sheriff of Dorset, and he was a member of the county council from its establishment in 1887 till his death. He was an

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

in religion, and a Liberal in politics until 1886, when he changed his party after the

Home Rule Bill The Irish Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government (or "home rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the e ...

. Mansel-Pleydell died at his Dorset residence on 3 May 1902.

Works

Mansel-Pleydell was the author of: * ''The Flora of Dorsetshire'', 1874; 2nd edit. 1895. * ''The Birds of Dorsetshire'', 1888. * ''The Mollusca of Dorsetshire'', 1898. He also contributed papers on natural science and archaeology to the journals of learned societies.

Legacy

Mansel-Pleydell presented many geological finds made by himself to the County Museum of Dorset. These included a fore paddle of a '' Pleiosaurus macromerus'',Paleobiology Database, ''Pleiosaurus macromerus''.
/ref> and the tusks and molars of a ''

Mammuthus meridionalis ''Mammuthus meridionalis'', or the southern mammoth, is an extinct species of mammoth native to Europe and Central Asia from the Gelasian stage of the Early Pleistocene, living from 2.5–0.8 mya. Taxonomy The taxonomy of extinct elephant ...

''. After his death, in 1902, a fund was raised to commission a portrait of John Clavell Mansel-Pleydell. This fund was over-subscribed by £83.00. His successor as the president of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, Lord Eustace Cecil, donated a gift of £300.00. The funds were combined in the Mansel-Pleydell & Cecil Memorial Trust, for the promotion of the study of natural history, archaeology and physical sciences in Dorset. Originally, a small cash prize and a silver medal were provided for the winners of two competitions: one focussing on natural history and archaeology, and one on chemistry. Over the years the two fields were combined, and the medals were replaced by larger cash prizes. Income of the Trust is now also used for activities of the Dorset Museum. The first awards in 1906 were for W. Parkinson Curtis, who published about the ringed plover, and for Ernest W. Short, who published on "electricity as applied to household purposes." Since then more than 200 prizes were awarded.For a complete list of prizes awarded by the Mansel-Pleydell & Cecil Memorial Trust click on the link on this page:

Family

Mansel-Pleydell married twice: # on 6 June 1844, Emily (died 4 Nov. 1845), daughter of Captain A. Bingham; and # on 21 June 1849, Isabel, the daughter of F. C. Acton Colville, Captain in the Scots Guards. He celebrated his golden wedding on 21 June 1899. Of three sons, two survived him.

Notes

;Attribution

External link

Homepage
of the Mansel-Pleydell & Cecil and the Drew Memorial Trusts {{DEFAULTSORT:Mansel-Pleydell, John Clavell 1817 births 1901 deaths English antiquarians English ornithologists English botanists English geologists Fellows of the Geological Society of London High Sheriffs of Dorset Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry officers Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge