Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Gell, James
GELL, Sir JAMES (1823–1905), Manx lawyer and judge, born at Kennaa on 13 Jan. 1823, was second son of John Gell of Kennaa, Isle of Man. The family of Gell held land there for more than four centuries. After education at Castletown grammar school and King William's College, Gell at sixteen was articled to the clerk of the rolls, John McHutchin, in Castletown, and was admitted to the Manx bar on 16 Jan. 1846. He enjoyed a large and important practice, and became known as the chief authority on Manx law and custom. In 1854 he was appointed high bailiff of Castletown, and in May 1866, the year of the Manx Reform Act, became attorney-general. That office he filled with distinction for over thirty-two years. He drafted with much skill nearly all the Acts which came into operation during the period. From 1898 to 1900 he was first deemster, and from 1900 till death clerk of the rolls.
Gell temporarily filled the post of deputy governor in 1897, acting governor in July 1902, and deputy governor in November 1902. He was a member of the legislative council and of the Tynwald court for thirty-nine years. An intensely patriotic Manxman, he championed all the rights and privileges of the island. He took an active part in educational and religious work. He was chairman of the insular justices from 1879, a trustee of King William's College, and chairman of the council of education from 1872 to 1881. For many years he was chairman of the Manx Society for the Publication of National Documents, and he edited in 1867 vol. xii. of Parr's 'Abstract of Laws of the Isle of Man.' He was also editor for the insular government of the statute laws of the Isle from 1836 to 1848, and he supervised and annotated a revised edition of the statutes dating from 1417 to 1895.
An earnest churchman, he was for the greater part of his life a Sunday-school teacher, and was one of the church commissioners, the trustees of Manx church property. He was knighted in 1877. He was acting governor when King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra paid their surprise visit to the isle in 1902, and he received the honour of C.V.O. He died at Castletown on 12 March 1905. He married on 17 Dec. 1850 Ameha Marcia (d. 1899), daughter of William Gill, vicar of Malew, a well-known Manx scholar and representative of an ancient local family. Of four sons and three daughters, two sons, Mr. James Stowell Gell, high bailiff of Douglas and Castletown, and William Gell, vicar of Pontefract, Yorkshire, with one daughter, survive.
[The Times, 13 March 1905; Men of the Time, 1899; official Debates of the Legislature, vols. 1 to 22.]