Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Manley, Thomas
MANLEY, THOMAS (fl. 1670), author, born in 1628, was called to the bar at the Middle Temple about 1650. In the preceding year he published in 12mo 'Temporis Augustiæ: Stollen Houres Recreations,' a collection of boyishly sententious essays on religious subjects. In 1651 appeared his 'Affiction and Deliverance of the Saints,' an execrably versified paraphrase of the Book of Job. Next year he translated 'Veni, vidi, vici,' a Latin poem on Cromwell, and appended an elegy of his own on the death of Ireton. Ten years later—the preface to the second edition is dated 20 Nov. 1663—came his 'Sollicitor … declaring both as to knowledge and practice bow such an undertaker ought to he be qualified,' and in 1666 a translation of Grotius's 'De Rebus Belgicia,' with the title 'Annals and History of the Low-countrey Warres.' A phrase in the preface describes it as a book 'wherein is manifested that the United Netherlands are indebted for the glory of their conquests to the valour of the English, under whose protection the poor distrressed states have exalted themselves to the title of high and mighty.' In 1669 he attacked Sir Thomas Culpeper the younger's [see under Culpeper, Sir Thomas, the elder] tract on 'Usury' in a splenetic pamphlet, declaiming against luxury, foreign goods, and the high wages of English labourers as the real causes of the prevailing misery. Manley next year published his abridgment of the last two volumes of Coke, i.e. parts xii and xiii., as a supplement to Trottman's work and on the same method. The most interesting of his non-professional publications belongs, on his own statement, to 1671, though its character and the circumstances of the time delayed its publication until be could dedicate it to 'William Henry, Prince of Orange, and to the Great Convention of the Lords and Commons.' It is entitled 'The Present State of Europe briefly examined and found languishing, occasioned by the greatness of the French Monarchy,' 1689, 4to, and its immediate occasion, he asserts, was the vote of 800,000l. nominally for the equipment of a fleet for 1671. In Manley's view instant and aggressive war upon France could alone save Europe from the despotism which Louis XIV meditated, and as a proof of Louis's real feelings towards England, he appealed to the threatened invasion by France when the Dutch war-ships were in the Thames. The work was reprinted in vol. i. of the 'Harleian Miscellany' (1744 and and 1808). In 1676 he published a short tract against the export of English wool. His appendix to the seventh edition of Wentworth's 'Office and Duty of Executors' appeared the same year. Manley gave considerable aid to the movement, which received its impetus from James I, for the use of English instead of Latin in legal literature. An anonymous and undated funeral sermon, 'Death Unstung,' assigned to Manley, is not his, and the 'Lives of Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and Mary, Princess of Grange,' 1661, by T. M., is also assigned to Thomas May (1595–1650) [q. v.]
[Manley's Works.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.193
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 38 | ii | 20 f.e. | Manley, Thomas: for (fl. 1670) read (1628-1690) |
| 19 f.e. | after 1628 insert third son of George Manley of Lack, Cheshire, by Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Lee of Lee Magna, Kent. He | ||
| 18-17 f.e. | for In the preceding year read He became king's counsel 18 Sept. 1672. In 1649 | ||
| 89 | i | 6 | after 1669 insert in 'Usury at Six per Cent.' |
| 17 f.e. | after literature, insert Manley died 22 March 1690, and was buried in St. Margaret's Church, Rochester. His wife, Jane, was daughter of Richard Lee. |