Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Manwood, Peter
MANWOOD, Sir PETER (d. 1625), antiquary, was eldest son of Sir Roger Manwood [q. v.] In 1583 he became a student of the Inner Temple (Cooke, Admissions, 1547–1660, p. 106). On 10 Dec. 1591 he had assigned to him, his wife Frances, and his son Roger, the lease of Lidcourt Meadows, Eastry, Kent, for their three lives (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1591-4, p. 142), and in 1595, 1596, and 1597 had other small grants arising out of lands in Kent (ib. 1598-1601, pp. 527, 528, 531). He was M.P. for Sandwich in 1588-9, 1592-3, 1597, and 1601; for Saltash, Cornwall, in March 1603-4; for Kent in 1614; and for New Romney in January 1620-1. On 12 Dec. 1598 he had license granted him to travel beyond seas for his increase in good knowledge and learning' (ib. 1598-1601, p. 132). He was appointed sheriff of Kent in 1602 (ib. 1601-1603, p. 268), and at the coronation of James I, on 25 July 1603, was made knight of the Bath (Metcalfe, Book of Knights, p. 150). He was also a commissioner of sewers for Kent (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1619-23, p. 281). Manwood was not only learned himself, but a patron of learned men, whom he liked to gather round him at his seat at St. Stephens, otherwise Hackington, near Canterbury. He is mentioned with great respect by Camden (Britannia, ed. 1607, p. 239), and was a member of the Society of Antiquaries in 1617, when application was made for a charter (Archæologia, i. xxi). His lavish style of living involved him in difficulties, and he had to quit the country in August 1021. Broken in health he ventured back as far as Dover in April 1624, hoping to persuade his creditors to accept some arrangement whereby he might be suffered to end his days in his own country. His lifelong friend, Lord Zouch, wrote to Secretary Conway begging him to use his influence with the king for Manwood's protection (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1623-5, p. 213).
Manwood died in 1625, and was buried in St. Stephen's Church, leaving a large family by his wife Frances (1573-1638), daughter of Sir George Hart of Lullingstone, Kent. (Beret, County Genealogies, 'Kent,' p. 356). John Manwood (d. 1053), his second son and ultimate successor to the estates, was one of the gentlemen of the king's privy chamber, and was knighted on 3 April 1618 (Metcalfe, p. 173). In 1639 he was lieutenant-governor of Dover Castle, and in April 1640 was elected M.P. for Sandwich. About 1637 he sold the estate of St. Stephen's to Colonel Sir Thomas Colepeper, and, having married a Dutch lady as his second wife, resided thenceforth a good deal in Holland (Hasted, Kent, fol, ed., hi. 595). Another son, Thomas Manwood, student of the Inner Temple 1610, and B.A. Lincoln College, Oxford, 1611, was drowned in France in 1613 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714, iii. 968). His premature death was gracefully commemorated by William Browne of Tavistock in the fourth eclogue of 'The Shepherd's Pipe' (1614). A daughter, Elizabeth, married Sir Thomas Walsingham [q. v.]
Part of the manuscript of Sir Roger Williams's 'The Actions of the Lowe Countries' having fallen into Manwood's hands, he gave it to Sir John Hay ward for revision, and published it in 1618, 4to, prefixing an epistle dedicatory to Sir Francis Bacon. He hoped that the publication might prove 'a meane of drawing the residue into light.'
Two of Manwood s letters to Lord Zouch, dated 1620, are in Egerton MS. 2584, ff. 98, 129. A register of documents relating to his estates, dated 1551-1619, is Additional MS. 29759.
[Boys's Sandwich, 1792, p. 249; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iv. 477; Lansd. MS. 109, art. 97.]