MANNERS, John (c.1768-1837), of Buckminster Park, Leics.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Thorne, 1986
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

16 Mar. 1804 - 1806

Family and Education

b. c.1768, 2nd s. of John Manners of Grantham Grange, Lincs. by Lady Louisa Tollemache, da. of Lionel, 4th Earl of Dysart [S], s.j. Countess of Dysart (1821); bro. of Sir William Manners, 1st Bt.* educ. Harrow 1780-5. m. 19 Aug. 1806, Mary, da. of Benjamin Bechenoe, capt. RN, wid. of William Bellenden Ker, 4th Duke of Roxburghe [S], s.p. Took name of Talmash or Tollemache in lieu of Manners by royal lic. 4 Apr. 1821.

Offices Held

Capt. Lincs. supp. militia 1798, Lincs. rangers 1804.

Biography

John Manners, ‘a young man of a pleasing and elegant deportment’, inherited a ‘considerable fortune’ from his father. In 1800 he contested Leicester on the interest of his brother, Sir William, who also brought him forward for Grantham at the general election of 1802 and then in 1803 for Ilchester, where he at last returned him in 1804 when his own election was voided. Manners joined the final attack against Addington, voting for the critical motions of Fox and Pitt, 23, 25 Apr. 1804. He joined Brooks’s Club, 24 May. Classed among the Prince of Wales’s party, he was regarded in September by the Pittites as one ‘on whom some impression might be made’. He had voted against Pitt’s additional force bill, 8 June 1804 (being locked out on 11 June). He went on to vote for the censure and criminal prosecution of Melville, 8 Apr., 12 June 1805, and was listed in July as ‘Opposition’. He supported the Grenville ministry in their repeal of Pitt’s Additional Force Act, 30 Apr. 1806. No speech is known. At the general election of 1806 he again canvassed Grantham on his brother’s interest, but withdrew when a compromise was reached there.

The Gentleman’s Magazine reported the death at Grantham of one John Manners, banker, brother of Sir William Manners, Bt., on 26 Aug. 1811; but the subject of this biography continued to move in the Prince’s circle, surviving until 13 Feb. 1837.

J. Wilson,Biog. Index (1806), 366-7; Creevey Pprs. ed. Maxwell, i. 244.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: M. H. Port

Notes