Sir Philip Gell, 3rd Baronet

Sir Philip Gell, 3rd Baronet (6 July 1651 – 15 July 1719) of Hopton Hall near Wirksworth, Derbyshire was a lead-mining magnate and an English politician.[1]

Sir Philip Gell c.1664

Philip Gell was the son of Sir John Gell, 2nd Baronet of Hopton, Derbyshire and Katherine Packer (daughter of John Packer of Denington Castle, Berkshire).[2] The family's fortune was founded on the local lead industry, through their ownership of the lead tithes in the mines of Bakewell, Hope and Tideswell.[3]

Gell was a trading agent in Smyrna in Turkey in 1674 when his elder brother died. On his journey home to England, he was captured by privateers and marched across the desert to Tripoli. He was freed by the English fleet of Sir John Narborough. Gell married Elizabeth Fagg in 1678.[4]

In 1681 Gell was elected Member of Parliament for Steyning in Sussex.[5] Gell inherited the baronetcy on the death of his father in 1689 and succeeded his father as MP for Derbyshire in 1689 during the Convention Parliament.[6]

Sir Philip Gell died in 1719 without any children and the estate passed on to John Eyre, son of Sir Philip's sister Catherine (who had married William Eyre). John Eyre assumed the surname Gell and he died in 1739 and the lands of Hopton Hall were inherited by his son Philip Eyre Gell (1723-1795), who was High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1755. Philip Eyre Gell left the Hopton estate to his son Philip Gell MP (1775-1842).[7]

The archive of documents from the Gell family of Hopton Hall is held by the Derbyshire Record Office.[7]