| Pechell baronets | |
| Creation Date: | 1797[1] |
| Status: | extinct |
| Extinction Date: | 1984 |
| Motto: | Vix ea nostra voco, I scarcely call these things our own |
The Pechell, later Brooke-Pechell, later Pechell Baronetcy, of Paglesham in the County of Essex, was a title in the Baronetage of Great Britain.
The Pechell’s were a noble Huguenot family from Montauban in the Languedoc province of France, and in the late 17th century after severe persecution Samuel Pechell (b.1644) was arrested and his family fled their home for Geneva. After Samuel’s later epic escape from French captivity in the Caribbean that was aided by the British, he joined his family at Owenstown in County Kildare and received a pension from King William III. The family later moved to England and on 21 November 1705, a petition was made to Queen Anne’s parliament for the naturalisation of Samuel’s son, Jacob Pechell, which was granted.
Jacob’s son, Paul Pechell (1724–1800), joined the army and had a notable military career initially with the 1st Royal Dragoons. He served in Spain and was wounded in action in Flanders at the Battle of Lafeldt in 1747, with him later retiring with the rank of lieutenant colonel. On 1 March 1797 King George III made him 1st Baronet Pechell of Pagglesham, and from this point on the family had a long tradition of distinguished military service in both the Army and Royal Navy as well as in parliament.[2]
The second baronet, whose mother was the only daughter and heir of Thomas Brooke of Paglesham, Essex, took by royal licence the additional surname of Brooke. The first and second baronets were army officers, the third and fourth rose to flag rank in the Royal Navy, and the second through fourth baronets were also Member of Parliament.
The seventh Baronet was a qualified doctor and surgeon and served as a Lieutenant-Colonel with the Army Medical Department, then from 1898 on its formation with the Royal Army Medical Corps. During the Great War he served at the Royal Hospital Chelsea and previously saw service in the 1885-87 Burma campaign as a Surgeon with the Upper Burma Field Force.
The eighth baronet was educated at Malvern College and served as a Major with the Essex Regiment during and after the Great War. He was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in 1915 for holding his trench with a handful of men against an overwhelming German attack, despite the enemy's use of gas. His younger sister was Gladys May Mabel Brooke-Pechell, who following her marriage to Professor Bonamy Dobrée she took the name Valentine Dobrée. She was part of the influential Bloomsbury Group in the 1920’s and became famous in her own right as a poet, painter and writer.
The eighth and ninth Baronets used the surname Pechell only. On the death of the ninth Baronet on 29 January 1984 the baronetcy became extinct.