Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Mansel-Pleydell, John Clavell

by S. E. Fryer

MANSEL-PLEYDELL, JOHN CLAVELL (1817–1902), Dorset antiquary, born at Smedmore, Dorset, on 4 Dec. 1817, was eldest son of Colonel John Mansel (1776–1863) of Smedmore by his wife Louisa, fourth daughter of Edmund Morton Pleydell of Whatcombe, Dorset.

Educated privately, he entered St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1836, and graduated B.A. in 1839. He was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn on 2 May 1840, but was not called to the bar. For thirty years he was an officer in the Queen's Own yeomanry cavalry. He was one of the promoters of the Somerset and Dorset railway, and suffered considerable financial loss in consequence. In 1856 he built at his own expense the Milborne Reformatory, which was converted in 1882 into an industrial school. In 1857 he was made a fellow of the Geological Society, and was later 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 he 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 churchman. A liberal in politics till 1886, he changed his party in consequence of the home rule bill. He died at his Dorset residence on 3 May 1902.

Mansel-Pleydell married twice: (1) on 6 June 1844, Emily (d. 4 Nov. 1845), daughter of Captain A. Bingham; and (2) on 21 June 1849, Isabel, the daughter of F. C. Acton Colville (sometime captain in the Scots guards and A.D.C. to Lord Lynedoch in the Peninsular war). He celebrated his golden wedding on 21 June 1899. Of three sons, two survived him.

Mansel-Pleydell was a keen student of geology, botany, and ornithology. To the County Museum of Dorset he presented many valuable geological finds made by himself, including a perfect fore paddle of the Pleiosaurus macromerus and the tusks and molars of the rare Elephas meridionalis. He was the author of:

1. 'The Flora of Dorsetshire,' 1874; 2nd edit. 1895.
2. 'The Birds of Dorsetshire,' 1888.
3. 'The Mollusca of Dorsetshire,' 1898.

He also contributed many papers on natural science and archaeology to the journals of learned societies.

[The Times, 5 and 20 May 1902; Who's Who; The Eagle (Mag. of St. John's Coll. Cambridge), June 1902; Quart. Journ. of the Geol. Soc. 1903.]

S. E. F.