William Manning

1st Dec 1763 - 17th Apr 1835

Claimant or beneficiary

Biography

London West India merchant and consignee and MP, a key figure in the slave-economy of the Leewards and Windwards as owner, mortgagee-in-possession or lessee of some twenty estates. The failure of his business in 1831 shook the City, where Smith, Payne & Smith were significantly exposed to his firm of Manning & Anderdon.

  1. Son of William Coventry Manning (q.v. under William Mannining senior), West India merchant and planter of St Kitts, of 15 St. Mary Axe, London and Elizabeth, daughter and heir of John Ryan, planter of St. Kitts and Santa Cruz. William junior joined his father's firm and took over in 1791. Also inherited two-thirds of the Ryan estates on Santa Cruz from his mother, and purchased the remaining third. Leading advocate for the West India interest in the House of Commons. He was, among other things, the recipient of Anon., A statement of the claims of the West India colonies to a protecting duty against East India sugar, dedicated to William Manning, Esq., MP (London, 1823). Member of the West India Committee and the 'Committee of April 25, 1823' formed to press the government for ameliorationist measures for the Crown colonies and to resist moves towards emancipation. Elected to a directorship of the Bank of England in 1792 [in fact 1790] and member of the court until 1831. Deputy governor (1810–12); governor (1812–14). 1793: became a commissioner of exchequer bills. Agent for St Vincent 1792-1806; agent for Grenada 1825-1831. Deputy governor of the Australian Agricultural Association in 1826. Member of a syndicate of leading merchants who lobbied Huskisson for exclusive trading rights with New Zealand, c. 1826. Volunteer in London and Westminster light horse, 1797; Bank of England Volunteers, 1798 (Lieutenant-colonel, 1803). Manning in economic difficulties in the 1820s; 1831: bankrupt. Resigned from the Bank of England, sold his estate, withdrew from business and public life. Sustained by his friends buying a life interest in his wife's marriage settlement, and subscribed to an income for him. Moved to the 'shabby gentility of Gower Street and a cottage near Petworth' (Daunton). Died at Gower Street on 17 April 1835 (with his bankruptcy probably undischarged). Buried at Sundridge, Kent. His children included Henry Edward Manning (1808–1892), Roman Catholic convert and Archbishop of Westminster (1865-1892) and Cardinal (1875-1892), Frederick Manning (q.v.) and Charles John Manning (q.v.).

Sources

T71/879 St Kitts claim no. 746 (Estridge).

  1. D. R. Fisher (ed.), The House of Commons 1820-1832 (7 vols., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press for the History of Parliament Trust, 2009), vol. 6; Martin Daunton, ‘Manning, William (1763–1835)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004); online edn, Oct 2007 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/47808, accessed 13/08/2012]; Alexandra Franklin, Enterprise and advantage: The West India interest in Britain, 1774-1840 (University of Pennsylvania, Unpub. PhD, 1992), p. 214 citing West India Committee Minute Books, 25 April 1823. Two portraits of Manning are in the National Portrait Gallery, http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw120722/William-Manning?LinkID=mp85449&search=sas&sText=william+manning&role=sit&rNo=0 [accessed 16/12/2015].

 


Further Information

Absentee?
British/Irish
Spouse
(1) 23 Oct. 1786, Elizabeth (d. 29 Mar. 1789), daughter of Abel Smith, banker, of Nottingham [q.v.]; (2) 12 July 1792, Mary, daughter of Henry Lannoy Hunter, barrister, of Beech Hill, Reading, Berks.
Children
With (1) 2 daughters. With (2) 4 sons, 4 daughters
Will

PROB 11/1847

Occupation
Merchant
Religion
Anglican
Oxford DNB Entry

Associated Claims (1)

£2,599 17s 8d
Unsuccessful claimant (Trustee)

Associated Estates (23)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
1809 [EA] - 1809 [LA] → Mortgage Holder

Shown with John Proctor Anderdon as mortgage holder over 50 'negroes' in succession to Coll Turner and Alexander Innes, who had originally advanced £3000. Manning & Anderdon were owed £5938 4s 6d.

1817 [EA] - 1831 [LA] → Joint owner
01/01/1828 [SD] - 1831 [EY] → Lessee (Estate)

End year is the latest date of association that can be varied by the available sources.

1817 [EA] - → Trustee
1813 [EA] - 1831 [LA] → Joint owner
1828 [EA] - 1833 [LA] → Lessee
1828 [EA] - 1831 [LA] → Mortgagee-in-Possession
1822 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Joint owner
1817 [EA] - 1817 [LA] → Trustee
1809 [EA] - 1809 [LA] → Joint owner
30/05/1823 [SD] - 1831 [LA] → Joint owner
1828 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Joint owner
1801 [EA] - 1810 [LA] → Mortgage Holder
1817 [EA] - 1823 [LA] → Owner
1831 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Joint owner
1828 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Joint owner
1828 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Joint owner
1828 [EA] - 1831 [LA] → Lessee
1834 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Joint owner
1831 [EA] - 1831 [LA] → Lessee
1834 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Joint owner
1828 [EA] - 1831 [LA] → Mortgagee-in-Possession
1831 [EA] - 1832 [LA] → Joint owner

Legacies Summary

Commercial (3)

President
 
notes →
President of London Life Assurance,...
Name partner
Manning & Anderdon
West India merchant  
 
Governor
Bank of England
Banker  
 
notes →
Director 1790-92, 1793-95, 1796-98, 1799-1802, 1803-06, 1807-31; Deputy Governor 1810-1812; Governor...

Cultural (1)

Council member
King's College, London...... 
notes →
Fisher (ed.), House of Commons 1820-1832, vol....

Imperial (2)

New Zealand 
notes →
Member of a syndicate of leading merchants who lobbied William Hukisson for exclusive trading rights with New Zealand, c....
Other
Australia 
notes →
Deputy-governor of the Australian Agricultural Association in...

Physical (1)

Country house
Coombe House [Purchased] 
notes →
Grade I listed Palladian house, in 27 acres of parkland; built by Roger Morris in 1720 for Col John Campbell, later Duke of Argyll. Owned by William Manning from 1813 but sold because of...

Political (1)

MP
Tory 
election →
Plympton Erle Devon
1794 - 1796
election →
Lymington Hampshire
1796 - 1806
election →
Evesham Worcestershire
1806 - 1818
election →
Lymington Hampshire
1818 - 1820
election →
Lymington Hampshire
1821 - 1826
election →
Penryn Cornwall
1826 - 1830

Relationships (10)

Business partners
Legatee → Testator
Notes →
Deign left Manning £8000 and his house on Hammersmith Mall at 21 under his will proved in...
Trustee → Testator
Notes →
The trustee might originally have been William Manning senior but William Manning the son claimed unsuccessfully for the compensation as trustee of John Estridge deceased....
Executor → Testator
Father-in-law → Son-in-law
Father → Son
Father → Son
Notes →
Also business...
Brother-in-laws
Son → Father
Trustee → Testator

Addresses (4)

Coombe Bank, Sundridge, Sevenoaks (near), Kent, South-east England, England
Copped Hall, Totteridge, Hertfordshire, South-east England, England
Spring Gardens, Westminster, Middlesex, London, England
Upper Gower Street, London, Middlesex, London, England