John Clavell Mansel-Pleydell

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

Born at Smedmore, Dorset, on 4 December 1817, he 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, 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 on 2 May 1840, but was not called to the bar. For thirty years he was an officer in the Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry. He was promoted from lieutenant to captain on 26 July 1856. He was one of the promoters of the Somerset and Dorset Railway, and suffered financial losses.

In 1856 Mansel 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 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 in religion, and a Liberal in politics until 1886, when he changed his party after the Home Rule Bill.

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