2 vols., 1844; ‘Thoughts on Animalcules,’ 1846; ‘Geological Excursions round the Isle of Wight and along the adjacent Coast of Dorsetshire,’ 1847—all 8vo. Most of these went through more than one edition; of the ‘Wonders’ six were published in the first ten years.
Mantell was elected into the Linnean Society in 1813, and into the Geological Society in 1818; from the latter he received the Wollaston medal in 1835; he was one of its secretaries in 1841–2, and a vice-president in 1848–9. He was elected F.R.S. in 1825, and received a royal medal in 1849; he was enrolled an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1844, having become M.R.C.S. in 1841, and was granted, in the last year of his life, a pension from the crown.
Mantell was not only a popular lecturer and writer, but also the first to demonstrate the fresh-water origin of the Wealden strata, and by his researches among them to discover four out of the five genera of Dinosaurs known at the time of his death. But his chief service to science was ‘as a working geologist, as a discoverer, as a collector, and as one who, in the infancy of geological science, placed before the world the means by which others could write a thesis or found a system.’ The Royal Society possesses a portrait of Mantell by J. J. Masquerier.
[Obituary notices in Presidential Addresses (Lord Rosse) to the Royal Society, 1852, pp. 26–31, and to the Geological Society (Quart. Journ. Geolog. Soc. vol. ix. pp. xxii–v); Gent. Mag. 1852, pt. ii. pp. 644–7; Lower's Sussex Worthies, pp. 158–9; Agassiz and Strickland's Bibliographia Zoologiæ et Geologiæ, pp. 539–42; Royal Soc. Catalogue of Scientific Papers, iv. 219–20.]
MANTELL, JOSHUA (1795–1865), surgeon and writer on horticulture, born in 1795, was younger brother of Gideon Algernon Mantell [q. v.] He adopted the medical profession, was admitted a licentiate of the Apothecaries' Company, London, in 1828 (Med. Direct. 1845), and practised as a surgeon at Newick in Sussex.
He was devoted to floriculture, and founded the Newick Horticultural Society. About 1834 he was thrown from his horse, and received an injury to his brain which necessitated his removal to an asylum at Ticehurst, where he died in 1865.
Mantell was the author of an article on 'Floriculture,' issued both separately and in Baxter's ' Library of Agricultural and Horticultural Knowledge,' 2nd edit. 8vo, Lewes, 1832 (4th edit. 1846), of which work and 'The Farmer's Annual' he is said to have been the principal editor.
[Brit. Mas. Cat.; Gent. Mag. 1865, pt. i. p. 800.]
MANTELL, Sir THOMAS (1751–1831), antiquary, born in 1751, was the only son of Thomas Mantell, surgeon, of Chilham, Kent, by Catharine, daughter of John Nichols, rector of Fordwich. He belonged to the Kentish branch of the Mantells. Pegge the antiquary was his godfather. Early in life he settled at Dover in his father's profession, but retired on being appointed agent for prisoners of war and transports at Dover. In 1814 he was appointed agent for packets at Dover, a post at that time demanding unremitting attention. He was for many years a magistrate at Dover, and six times its mayor. He was knighted on 13 May 1820 during his mayoralty. He died at his house in Dover on 21 Dec. 1831, aged 80, and was buried in the family vault at Chilham. He married Anne, daughter of William Oakley, but left no family.
Mantell was elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1810. He investigated the tumuli in various parts of Kent, and was a collector of antiquities. His publications are: 1. 'Short Directions for the Management of Infants,' 1787. 2. 'Case of Imperforate Anus successfully treated' in 'Memoirs of Medicine,' vol. iii. 1792. 3. 'An Account of Cinque Ports Meetings, called Brotherhoods and Guestlings,' Dover, 1811, 4to.; reissued with additions as 'Cinque Ports, Brotherhoods, and Guestlings,' Dover, 1828, 4to. 4. 'Coronation Ceremonies . . . relative to the Barons of the Cinque Ports,' &c., Dover, 1820, 4to.
[Gent. Mag. 1832, pt. i. pp. 88, 89, 651; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
MANTON, JOSEPH (1766?–1836), gunmaker, was, according to the specification of a patent granted to him in April 1792, then established in business in Davies Street, Berkeley Square, London; his name does not appear in the 'Directory' until two years afterwards. He remained in Davies Street until 1825, and his shop, No. 25, became widely known to shooters. Colonel Peter Hawker [q. v.] was a great friend and admirer of 'Joe Manton,' as he was almost universally called, and his 'Instructions to Young Sportsmen' abounds with references to Manton's skill. Blaine (Encyclopedia of Sports and Pastimes, 1840, p. 748) is more cautious, but admits that 'had he never done more than invent his breech and his elevated rib his name would have been associated with the fowling-piece as long as fowl remained to be killed.' The possession of one of his guns was an object of ambition to sportsmen.
