MANNERS, Russell (?1771-1840), of Clewer Lodge, Berks.

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

Constituency

Dates

1806 - 1807

Family and Education

b. ?1771, s. of Lt.-Gen. Russell Manners, 4th illegit. s. of Lord William Manners. educ. Emmanuel, Camb. 1792. m. 7 Jan. 1799, Catherine, da. of Rev. Thomas Pollock, LLD, rector of Grittleton, Wilts., 1s. suc. fa. 1800.

Offices Held

Capt. Clewer vols. 1803.

Biography

Manners was first cousin to Sir William Manners, Bt.*, who in 1806 succeeded in obtaining one seat for Grantham by compromise and prodded him into it. His father had been colonel of the 26th Light Dragoons and after his death he hoped the Duke of York, as commander-in-chief, would provide for him. In the summer of 1806 he had the duke’s mistress Mary Anne Clarke’s assurance that ‘she would endeavour to get a place for him’ and had seen a letter to prove it, in which the duke ‘said that he would give Mr Manners a place suitable to his name and family’. Manners also had a claim on account of a regimental debt due to his father, on the strength of which he had obtained advances of money from his wife’s brother-in-law Rowland Maltby, to whom he assigned the debt for the purposes of repayment.1

Convenient as it may have been to him to be in Parliament, Manners, whose patron professed support for the Grenville ministry, made no mark there. He was described as ‘a sportsman’ and his wife as ‘a celebrated beauty’.2 He was a defaulter on 20 Mar. 1807. He was not returned again and went abroad, doubtless in difficulties. His sister’s husband Samuel Sneyd provided for his son. He was still abroad when the story of his dealings with Mrs Clarke was revealed to the House by Maltby, 13 Feb. 1809. Asked if he was conducting his affairs for him, Maltby replied that Manners had no affairs to conduct. His wife took to writing novels and obtained a divorce in Scotland, where in 1813 she married Sir Thomas Stepney, 9th Bt., the Duke of York’s groom of the bedchamber.3 Manners died at 7 Clarence Street, Regent’s Park on 16 Jan. 1840, aged 70, described to the registrar as a ‘pensioner’.4

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Authors: M. H. Port / R. G. Thorne

Notes

  • 1. Parl. Deb. xii. 558, 569, 570.
  • 2. J. Wilson, Biog. Index (1808), 251. Manners is not to be confused with his cousin Lt.-Gen. Russell Manners, who d. 25 Jan. 1850, aged 74.
  • 3. PCC 430 Ely; DNB (Stepney, Lady Catherine); Dorset RO, Bond mss D367, Jekyll to Bond, 2 July 1813.
  • 4. His MI at St. Mary’s Battersea gave his age as 68.