John Clavell Mansel-Pleydell (1817–1902), originally John Clavell Mansel, was an English antiquary, known for contributions to geology, botany, and ornithology.
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Life
Born in 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 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.