Charles Manners-Sutton, 1st Viscount Canterbury, (9 January 1780 – 21 July 1845) was a British

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

politician who served as

Speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings. Systems that have such a position include: * Speaker of ...

from 1817 to 1835.

Background and education

A member of the Manners family headed by the

Duke of Rutland Duke of Rutland is a title in the Peerage of England, named after Rutland, a county in the East Midlands of England. Earldoms named after Rutland have been created three times; the ninth earl of the third creation was made duke in 1703, in who ...

, Manners-Sutton was born at Screveton,

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

, the son of the Most Reverend

Charles Manners-Sutton Charles Manners-Sutton (17 February 1755 – 21 July 1828; called Charles Manners before 1762) was a bishop in the Church of England who served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1805 to 1828. Life Manners-Sutton was the fourth son of Lord G ...

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

, fourth son of Lord George Manners-Sutton, third son of

John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland KG PC (21 October 1696 – 29 May 1779) was an English nobleman, the eldest son of John Manners, 2nd Duke of Rutland and Catherine Russell. Styled Marquess of Granby from 1711, he succeeded to the title in 172 ...

. His mother was Mary, daughter of Thomas Thoroton, of Screveton,

, while

Thomas Manners-Sutton, 1st Baron Manners Thomas Manners-Sutton, 1st Baron Manners, (24 February 1756 – 31 May 1842) was a British lawyer and politician who served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1807 to 1827. Background and education Manners-Sutton was the sixth son of Lord Ge ...

, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was his uncle. He was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

(matriculated 1798, graduated

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

1802,

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

1805,

LL.D. Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation refers to the early ...

1824). He was admitted to

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

in 1802, and

called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1806.

Political career

In 1806 Manners-Sutton was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

, a seat he would hold until 1832, and then sat for

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

from 1832 to 1835. He served as Judge Advocate General under

Spencer Perceval Spencer Perceval (1 November 1762 – 11 May 1812) was a British statesman and barrister who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1809 until his assassination in May 1812. Perceval is the only British prime minister to ...

and

Lord Liverpool Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, (7 June 1770 – 4 December 1828) was a British Tory statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1812 to 1827. He held many important cabinet offices such as Foreign Secret ...

from 1809 to 1817 and was admitted to the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

in 1809. Manners-Sutton was elected

in the 1817 election, holding the post for the next eighteen years.

Antonia Fraser Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, (' Pakenham; born 27 August 1932) is a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction. She is the widow of the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Harold Pinter (1930–2008), and pr ...

described Manners-Sutton as "a fine, friendly, genial figure, if inclined to pomposity (but that was a forgivable offence in a Speaker)." Manners-Sutton, notably, was Speaker during the passing of the Reform Act 1832. Following the King's prorogation of Parliament, Manners-Sutton led an angry group of MPs to the House of Lords to hear his proclamation. Manners-Sutton himself was said to be "red-faced and quivering with rage" at the news. When Lord Grey resigned as Prime Minister in May 1832, this caused a period of political unrest known as the

Days of May The Days of May was a period of significant social unrest and political tension in the United Kingdom in May 1832, after the Tories blocked the Third Reform Bill in the House of Lords, which aimed to extend parliamentary representation to the ...

. The King asked the Duke of Wellington to form a government to replace Grey's, but he was reluctant to do so. Nevertheless, according to Fraser, "There was the possibility that... Charles Manners-Sutton might prove an acceptable anodyne leader because, by the nature of his office, he was not tarred by the brush of his own anti-Reform declarations."Fraser, p. 232 Manners-Sutton spent three hours outlining his views on the matter at "exhaustive and exhausting length" during a crucial meeting of the Tories at

Apsley House Apsley House is the London townhouse of the Dukes of Wellington. It stands alone at Hyde Park Corner, on the south-east corner of Hyde Park, facing south towards the busy traffic roundabout in the centre of which stands the Wellington Arch. I ...

. Following the meeting, Lyndhurst flung back his chair and exclaimed that he refused to listen any longer to such "a damned tiresome old bitch." Manners-Sutton was only the third candidate in contention to lead a Tory administration, behind Wellington and Sir Robert Peel. In the end, "he was understood to have declined" the opportunity to head the proposed Tory administration. After the passing of the Reform Act, Manners-Sutton was persuaded to postpone his retirement as Speaker by the government. Objecting to him as an opponent of the reform, the Radicals opposed his re-election in the 1833 election, nominating Edward Littleton, whom Manners-Sutton defeated by 210 votes. In the 1835 election the Whigs opposed Manners-Sutton, nominating James Abercromby, who defeated Manners-Sutton by 10 votes. In 1835 Manners-Sutton was appointed High Commissioner for

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, but did not take up the post. He was appointed a

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one ...

in 1833 and in 1835 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Bottesford, of Bottesford in the County of Leicester, and Viscount Canterbury, of the City of Canterbury.

Family

Lord Canterbury was twice married. He married as his first wife Lucy Maria Charlotte, daughter of John Denison, on 8 July 1811. They had two sons and a daughter: * Charles John Manners-Sutton, 2nd Viscount Canterbury (1812–1869) * John Henry Thomas Manners-Sutton, 3rd Viscount Canterbury (1814–1877) * Charlotte Matilda Manners-Sutton (1815–1898) After his first-wife's early death at

Ossington Ossington is a village in the county of Nottinghamshire, England 7 miles north of Newark-on-Trent. It is in the civil parish of Ossington, but for census purposes its population count is included with the civil parishes of Ompton and Laxton a ...

, in December 1815, he married as his second wife Ellen, daughter of Edmund Power and widow of John Home Purves, on 6 December 1828. They had one daughter: * Frances Diana Manners-Sutton (1829–1874) Lord Canterbury died at Southwick Crescent,

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, in July 1845, aged 65, from

apoplexy Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...

, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles. His second wife only survived him by a few months and died at Clifton,

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, in November 1845.

Arms

References

Citations

Sources

Fraser, Antonia Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, (' Pakenham; born 27 August 1932) is a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction. She is the widow of the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Harold Pinter (1930–2008), and p ...

(2014). ''Perilous Question: The Drama of the Great Reform Bill 1832''. London: Phoenix. * Shenton, Caroline (2013). ''The Day Parliament Burned Down''. Oxford:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

External links

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

Peers of the United Kingdom created by William IV