A MAHOGANY AND GILTMETAL MOUNTED MANTEL CLOCK, the case of architectural outline, with baluster-turned column uprights below a shaped cresting, on a stepped platform and paw feet, the circular white enamel Arabic dial signed indistinctly, French, 19th Century -- 11½in. (29.2cm.) high

Lieutenant-Colonel John Chandos-Pole, OBE (1909-1993) Lieutenant-Colonel Chandos-Pole was Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire from 1967 until 1984. Born in Derbyshire, he was educated at Eton and Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 1933 he joined the Coldstream Guards, in which his father had served with distinction. He commanded both the 1st and 2nd Batallions of the Coldstream Guards and became aide-de- camp to Lord Bradbourne when he was, respectively Governor of Bombay and Bengal and later Viceroy of India. He spent his war service in Europe and was wounded during the advance on Brussels in 1944. He later served in Palestine where he was again wounded. In 1951 he was awarded the OBE. He retired from the Army in 1953. He and his wife devoted the rest of their lives to the county of Northampton, where he was first Deputy-Lieutenant, then Lord Lieutenant and a Justice of the Peace. They also bred prize Aberdeen Angus cattle and racehorses. Newnham Hall was bought by the Chandos-Poles in 1952. Many of the contents descend from the Gell family of Hopton in Derbyshire. The Gell family has been assoicated with Derbyshire since the reign of King John, when a Robert Gyll is recorded as a juror at Wirksworth in 1209. The family name spelt variously was established as Gell in t he late 15th Century, and is recorded as landowners at Hopton as well as other lands in the county. Anthony Gell, a bencher of the Inner Temple, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I, and to whom a grant of arms was made in 1575. His brother Thomas gave ¨50 to the defence fund against the Spanish Armada. Thomas married Millicent Sacheverell. Their son John (1593-1671) became Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1635 and in 1641/2 created baronet. John was an active Parliamentarian, an able commander, but with moral defects. In 1645 he was charged with military misconduct, and later in 1650 imprissoned for misprision of treason, and released in 1652. His younger brother Thomas (1594-1656) was recorder and MP for Derbyshire, who served under his brother during the civil war of 1645. John's son, also called John (1612/3-1689) was MP for Derbyshire fr om 1671-1689, and he in turn was succeeded by his son Philip (1651-1719). Philip married Elizabeth Fagg, but they had no children, so the estate passed to his sister Temperance (1656-1730), a lady of a charitable disposition, on whose death without issue the family name was assumed by her heir John Eyre. John Eyre Gell had been appointed High Sheriff of Derby in 1691, and was married to Isabella Jessop, by whom he had six children. In 1738 John was succeeded by his eldest son Philip, who married the poetess Dorothy Milne in 1774, to whom a son, also called Philip was born in 1775. The elder Philip was brother to John, 'Fighting Gell' who gained fame for his naval service in North America and the Mediterranean. The younger Philip (1775-1842) followed the family tradition in serving as MP for Derbyshire as well as being High Sheriff and Deputy Lieutenant of the county. Philip's brother William (1775-1836) became the famous classical archaeologist and traveller, the author of books on Troy and Pompeii and other literary works. He lived most of his life in Italy and died unmarried. Philip died in 1842 survived only by his youngest daughter Isabella (1800-1878), who was married to William Pole Thornhill, who was also an MP for Derby. Philip had left the house, Hopton, where the family had lived for generations, to his friend Henry Chandos-Pole on the proviso that he adopted the name Gell. The Chandos-Pole-Gell family sold Hopton after the First World War, which was later purchased by another branch of the Gell family.

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