Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

John Gell (1740–1806) was from the Gell and Eyre families of

Hopton Hall Hopton Hall is an 18th-century country house at Hopton, near Wirksworth, Derbyshire. It is a Grade II listed building. The Manor of Hopton, anciently the seat of the de Hopton family, was acquired by the Gell family in 1553 by Ralph Gell (1491� ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

. He served with the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, fighting in India and taking part in the occupation of

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...

.Captain John Gell (1740-1806
, National Maritime Museum, Retrieved 4 October 2008 Gell was a commander in the Royal Navy for over thirty years starting in 1762 following two years as a lieutenant. He was promoted to the rank of admiral in 1799 after completing duties in

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around t ...

and

. In 1793, Gell's squadron captured a Spanish ship which contained two million dollars and packages valued at over 200,000 pounds.

Biography

Gell was born in 1740 to another John Gell of

. His father was born John Eyre but had taken the name Gell when he inherited the Gell fortune. Although his father had assumed the name Gell, this Gell was the great Grandson of the parliamentarian soldier, the first baronet, Sir John GellGell of Hopton Hall
Rotherham web, Retrieved 4 October 2008 The children of his elder brother,

Philip Eyre Gell Philip Eyre Gell (1723–1795) of Hopton Hall near Wirksworth, Derbyshire, was a wealthy lead-mining aristocrat. Eyre Gell was the son of Isabella, co-heir to the Jessop family of Broom Hall, Sheffield, and John Eyre, and grandson of Catherine ...

of Hopton Hall were mentioned in Gell's will.

J. K. Laughton Sir John Knox Laughton (23 April 1830 – 14 September 1915) was a British naval historian and arguably the first to delineate the importance of the subject of Naval history as an independent field of study. Beginning his working life as a mathe ...

‘Gell, John (c.1740–1806)’
rev. A. W. H. Pearsall, ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2004; online edition, January 2008, . Retrieved 6 October 2008.

Midshipman

The first known reference to Gell's career is when he joins HMS ''Prince'' in 1757 and was promoted to Lieutenant on board HMS ''Conqueror'' in 1760 which was to be wrecked the same year.

Captain Gell

In 1776 he was appointed captain of the three-year-old HMS ''Thetis''. With this ship he served in the American, The Mediterranean and the Channel Fleets until he was given command of the ''Monarca''.The Literary Panorama, Obituary
1807 This ship was unusual in that it had been built in 1756 and for the first 24 years it had been part of the Spanish Navy before being captured by the British at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1780. Gell who was under the orders of

Sir Samuel Hood Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood (12 December 1724 – 27 January 1816) was an admiral in the Royal Navy. As a junior officer he saw action during the War of the Austrian Succession. While in temporary command of , he drove a French ship ashore i ...

to go to the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. However the ship lost its mast in a storm and was obliged to return to Britain for refitting.Hopton Catalogue
Wirksworth.org Captain John Gell 1785

Gell was off the Indian coast during Sir Edward Hughes' five actions against the French admiral Bailli de Suffren when Gell was in command of the 68 gunLavery, Ships of the Line vol.1. p182. HMS ''Monarca''. Gell and the ''Monarca'' did take part in the Battle of Cuddalore on 20 June 1783. The battle was the last of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

between a rival French and British fleet. The battle which took place off the coast of India near

Cuddalore Cuddalore, also spelt as Kadalur (), is the city and headquarters of the Cuddalore District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Situated south of Chennai, Cuddalore was an important port during the British Raj. While the early history of Cudda ...

was inconclusive and was remarkable in that peace had already been signed in Europe, but the news had not been heard in Asia. The 200 or so soldiers killed were lost to a war already abandoned. Gell returned to Europe in 1784 and received no command until 1790 when he was appointed to his last captaincy, of HMS ''Excellent''.

Admiral Gell

On 1 February 1793 he was appointed to be

Rear-Admiral of the Blue The Rear-Admiral of the Blue was a senior rank of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, immediately outranked by the rank Rear-Admiral of the White. Royal Navy officers currently holding the ranks of commodore, rear admiral, vice admiral and adm ...

, and raised his flag on HMS ''St George''. The ''St George'' was under the command of Captain Foley, later Sir Thomas Foley and "Hero of the Nile". Whilst in the Mediterranean with his division of the fleet, on 14 April 1793 he was able to seize a French Privateer and its Spanish registered prize the ''St Jago''. These ships were said to be one of the most valuable prizes ever brought to England. The prize was said to contain two million dollars and packages to the value of 200,000 to 300,000 pounds.The Annual Biography and Obituary for the Year
1834, Retrieved 5 October 2008 The capture of this ship and its condemnation as a prize of war (rather than being returned to its Spanish owners) was said to be one of the causes for the subsequent war with Spain. The ownership of the Spanish ship was a matter of some debate and was not settled until 4 February 1795, when the value of the cargo was put at £935,000. At this time all the crew, captains, officers and admirals could expect to share in this prize, but it was Gell who had commanded the squadron. Admiral Lord Hood's share was £50,000. The ships that conveyed her to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

were the ''St George'', , , and .Annual Register
1795, Retrieved 6 October 2008 In October 1793 at the Raid on Genoa, his division of the fleet was able to obtain the surrender of a French frigate, the ''Modeste'', which had abused the neutrality of the port of

. The battle was small and resulted in the death of one Frenchman from musket fire. The authorities at Genoa approved that the ''Modeste'' was taken as a spoil of war. After this he had to return to England for the last time due to ill health. The capture of the ''Modeste'' was to have repercussions as again in 1794 the crew of the merchant ship ''Betty'' were murdered by French forces. Hughes commissioned Gell's portrait from Sir Joshua Reynolds. He bequeathed the picture to Sir

Hugh Palliser Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, 1st Baronet (26 February 1723 – 19 March 1796) was a Royal Navy officer. As captain of the 58-gun HMS ''Eagle'' he engaged and defeated the French 50-gun ''Duc d'Aquitain'' off Ushant in May 1757 during the Seven Y ...

, who gave the painting to the Greenwich Hospital only a few years later, on his death in 1796. Gell was also involved in Hood's occupation on

. Gell also sat for a portrait in 1785, when he completed his captaincy of the ''Monarca''. This time the portrait was full length and by the visiting American painter,

Gilbert Stuart Gilbert Charles Stuart ( Stewart; December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-known work is an unfinished portrait of George Washi ...

. Stuart was attempting only his second full-length portrait under the guidance of Sir Joshua Reynolds.Works of Art - Recent acquisitions
Metropolitan Museum of Art Naval Temple, The Kymin

Retirement and legacy

Despite taking no further commands, Gell was able to make his way to be an Admiral of the White as naval promotions were strictly by seniority as superiors either died or were moved aside. In 1800 Gell was treated to an honour where his name was chosen by the Kymin Club to be among sixteen British Admirals to have their names and victories recorded on a special naval monument. The Kymin Club was a dining club presided over by the

Duke of Beaufort Duke of Beaufort (), a title in the Peerage of England, was created by Charles II in 1682 for Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester, a descendant of Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, legitimised son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of So ...

who had built a special round house on Kymin Hill east of Monmouth. At the end of the eighteenth century they arranged for a naval monument to be built to honour the sixteen admirals and the second anniversary of the

Battle of the Nile The Battle of the Nile (also known as the Battle of Aboukir Bay; french: Bataille d'Aboukir) was a major naval battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the Navy of the French Republic at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast off the ...

. When Gell died in 1806 at his home in

Crickhowell Crickhowell (; cy, Crucywel , non-standard spelling ') is a town and community in southeastern Powys, Wales, near Abergavenny, and is in the historic county of Brecknockshire. Location The town lies on the River Usk, on the southern edge ...

in South Wales, he had left no wife or children who might have inherited the Gell's holdings in Derbyshire. He left over four thousand pounds to his sisters, friends and to Philip Gell's children. His nephew Sir

William Gell Sir William Gell FRS (29 March 17774 February 1836) was a British classical archaeologist and illustrator. He published topographical illustrations of Troy and the surrounding area in 1804. He also published illustrations showing the results ...

was a noted archaeologist.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gell, John 1740 births 1806 deaths People from Derbyshire Dales (district) Royal Navy admirals Royal Navy personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars Royal Navy personnel of the American Revolutionary War