BROOKE PECHELL, Sir Samuel John, 3rd bt. (1785-1849), of Paglesham, Essex and Aldwick, Suss.

Brooke Pechell, who came from a distinguished military family, saw action off the French coast, in the Mediterranean and on the Jamaican and North American stations until 1814. He was one of the few officers of his time to ‘recognize the ... importance of practice and precision in the working and firing of great guns’, and he published a ‘valuable pamphlet’ on the subject in 1812. He was given command of the Sybille in 1823 and was ‘actively employed in the suppression of piracy and the protection of the Ionian islands’ for the next three years; his ship was paid off in November 1826. Gent. Mag. (1850), i. 86-87. Five months earlier he had succeeded to his father’s title and estates, and he was the residuary legatee of personalty sworn under £12,000. PROB 11/1719/650; IR26/1101/1144). At the general election of 1830 he was returned unopposed for Helston on the 6th duke of Leeds’s interest. West Briton, 16 July, 7 Aug. 1830. The duke of Wellington’s ministry regarded him as one of their ‘friends’, and he voted with them in the crucial civil list division, 15 Nov. 1830. However, he was appointed a lord of the admiralty in Lord Grey’s ministry. He was excused further attendance on the Durham election committee, being ‘unable from illness to quit his bed’, 7 Mar. 1831. He was absent from the division on the second reading of the ministry’s reform bill, 22 Mar., but voted against Gascoyne’s wrecking amendment, 19 Apr. 1831. At the ensuing dissolution he retired on account of his support for the bill, which proposed to reduce Helston’s representation to one seat. Ibid. 6 May 1831. He was returned for New Windsor in 1832 but retired in 1834. He again served as a lord of the admiralty during the last phase of Lord Melbourne’s second ministry. He died in November 1849 and was succeeded by his brother George Brooke Pechell (1789-1860), another distinguished naval officer and Liberal Member for Brighton, 1835-60. PROB 11/2108/54; IR26/1877/13.