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 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 ...

) and his wife Diana Chaplin, daughter of Thomas Chaplin. His elder brother 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 ...

was

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 ...

from 1805 to 1828 and the father of

Charles Manners-Sutton, 1st Viscount Canterbury Charles Manners-Sutton, 1st Viscount Canterbury, (9 January 1780 – 21 July 1845) was a British Tory politician who served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1817 to 1835. Background and education A member of the Manners family headed b ...

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 1834. His father had assumed the additional surname of Sutton on succeeding to the estates of his maternal grandfather

Robert Sutton, 2nd Baron Lexinton Robert Sutton, 2nd Baron Lexington PC (6 January 166219 September 1723) was an English diplomat. Family He was the son of Robert Sutton, 1st Baron Lexington and his third wife Mary St. Leger. On 14 September 1691, he married Margaret, (d. Apr ...

. Manners-Sutton was educated at Charterhouse School and

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

(matriculated 1773, 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 ...

as 5th wrangler 1777,

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 ...

1780), 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 1775, 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 1780.

Political, legal and judicial career

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

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

in 1796, a seat he held until 1805, and served under Henry Addington as Solicitor-General from 1802 to 1805. From 1800 to 1802 he was Solicitor General to the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

(later King

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

). In 1805 he became a

Baron of the Exchequer The Barons of the Exchequer, or ''barones scaccarii'', were the judges of the English court known as the Exchequer of Pleas. The Barons consisted of a Chief Baron of the Exchequer and several puisne (''inferior'') barons. When Robert Shute was a ...

, which he remained until 1807. The latter year he 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 ...

, raised to the peerage as Baron Manners, of Foston in the

County of Lincoln Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

, and appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland, in which position he served until 1827. A staunch

protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

, Lord Manners was an opponent of

Catholic emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...

and argued against the

Catholic Relief Act 1829 The Catholic Relief Act 1829, also known as the Catholic Emancipation Act 1829, was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1829. It was the culmination of the process of Catholic emancipation throughout the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

. His unfamiliarity with Irish conditions led him to rely heavily on the

Attorney-General for Ireland The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. With the ...

William Saurin William Saurin (1757 – 11 February 1839) was an Irish barrister, Crown official and politician. He was Attorney-General for Ireland from 1807 to 1822, and for much of that period, he acted as the effective head of the Irish Government. He was ...

, who thereby acquired unprecedented power and virtually controlled the Dublin administration until his dismissal in 1822, which was caused by his firm opposition to Emancipation, which made him a political liability. Although opposed to Catholic Emancipation, Manners as a judge showed no bias against Catholics: indeed he handed down a landmark ruling in ''Walsh's case'' in 1823, that in Ireland as opposed to England a bequest for the saying of Mass for the testators' soul was valid in law (English law was finally changed in favour of the validity of the bequest in 1919). The increasing number of Catholic barristers (even

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

, who had a low opinion of most Irish judges) paid tribute to his impartiality.

Family

Lord Manners married firstly, Anne Copley, daughter of Sir Joseph Copley, 1st Baronet, of Sprotborough and his wife Mary Buller, in 1803. They had no children. After his wife's death in 1814, he married secondly the Honourable Jane Butler, daughter of James Butler, 9th

Baron Cahir Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...

and Sarah Nicholls, and sister of

Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Glengall The Rt Hon. Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Glengall (13 November 1775 – 30 January 1819), known as The 10th Baron Cahir before 1816, was an Irish peer. He was the son and heir of James Butler, 9th Baron Cahir, and Sarah Nicholls. In July 1788, he ...

. They had one son, John Manners-Sutton. Lord Manners died in May 1842, aged 86, and was succeeded in the barony by his only son, John. A family relation, Evelyn Levett Sutton, graduate of

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 ...

, acted as private chaplain to Lord Manners.Extracts from Registers and Deeds, Wynford B. Grimaldi, Diocese of Canterbury, 1900
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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Manners, Thomas Manners-Sutton, 1st Baron 1756 births 1842 deaths People educated at Charterhouse School Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1796–1800 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1801–1802 UK MPs 1802–1806 UK MPs who were granted peerages Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Barons of the Exchequer Solicitors General for England and Wales Lord chancellors of Ireland T Peers of the United Kingdom created by George III