Philip Eyre Gell

Philip Eyre Gell (1723–1795) of Hopton Hall near Wirksworth, Derbyshire, was a wealthy lead-mining aristocrat.

[3] Gell is known for building the road between his lead-mining interests at Hopton and a new smelter at Cromford, naming the route Via Gellia as a nod to his family's unfounded claim of descent from the Romans.

[3] In 1777 textile entrepreneur Richard Arkwright leased a corn mill from Gell and converted it to spin cotton, using his water frame.

An archive of documents from the Gell family of Hopton Hall is held by the Derbyshire Record Office.

[3] Completed in about 1763, Portrait of Philip Gell by Sir Joshua Reynolds is considered to be one of his greatest works.

Sir Joshua Reynolds's Portrait of Philip Gell , full-length, in a purple embroidered French frock suit, holding a gun, a spaniel at his feet, in a landscape (94 x 58 in. / 238.7 x 147.3 cm)
Dorothy Gell (1758-1808) by Joseph Wright of Derby