MANSON, GEORGE (1850–1876), Scottish artist, son of Magnus Manson, an Edinburgh merchant, was born at Edinburgh on 3 Dec. 1860. After he had left school he spent some months in the workshop of a punch-cutter, where he was engaged in cutting dies for printers' types. In May 1866 he entered the wood-engraving department of Messrs. W. & R. Chambers, publishers, and during an apprenticeship of five years with that firm produced a number of woodcuts, including some tailpieces for 'Chambers's Miscellany,' He found time to attend the School of Art, to copy in the Scottish National Gallery, and to contribute to a Sketching Club; and he spent his summer holiday of 1870 in London, making studies in the national collections. His indentures haying been cancelled by his request in August 1871, he devoted himself more assiduously to the work of the Edinburgh School of Art, and in the following year he gained a free studentship and a 'silver medal for a water-colour study. In 1873 he travelled in France, Belgium, and Holland, visiting Josef Israels at the Hague. Shortly after his return his health failed, and he was compelled, early in 1874, to go south to Sark, where he made some of his best sketches. He returned to Scotland for a short time, and in January 1875 went to Paris, to take lessons in etching in the studio of M. Cadart. He was back in England in April, and he settled for a few months at Shirley, near Croydon. In September he sought change at Lympstone in Devonshire, where he died on 27 Feb. 1876. He is buried in the neighbouring churchyard of Gulliford. He has left a small water-colour portrait of himself when an apprentice, and another executed in 1874, and hung in 1876 in the exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy. A good photograph (1873) is reproduced in Mr. Gray's 'Memoir.' In his engraving Manson was an acknowledged disciple of Bewick, copying his simple and direct line effects, and preferring to work 'from the solid black into the white, instead of from the white into grey by means of a multiplicity of lines.' His paintings, which deal with homely and simple subjects, are realistic transcripts from nature, and are chiefly notable for their fine schemes of colour. Many of his works are reproduced in the 'Memoir.'
[George Manson and his Works, Edinb. 1880, containing a biographical preface by J. M. Gray, founded on material given by the artist's friends; information kindly supplied by J. R. Pairman, esq., and W. D. McKay, R.S.A.; Hamerton's Graphic Arts, pp. 311-12; Scotsman, 1 March 1876.]
MANT, RICHARD (1776–1848), bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore, eldest son and fifth child of Richard Mant, D.D., was born at Southampton on 12 Feb. 1776. His father, the master of King Edward's Grammar School, and afterwards rector of All Saints, Southampton, was the son of Thomas Mant of Havant, Hampshire, who had married a daughter of Joseph Bingham [q. v.] the ecclesiastical archæologist. Mant was educated by his father and at Winchester School, of which he was elected scholar in 1789. In April 1793 he was called on with other scholars to resign, in consequence of some breach of discipline. Not being (as was admitted) personally in fault, he refused, and was deprived of his scholarship. He entered as a commoner at Trinity College, Oxford, in 1793, and in 1794 obtained a scholarship. In 1797 he graduated B.A., and in 1798 was elected to a fellowship at Oriel, which he held to the end of 1804. His essay ‘On Commerce’ (included in ‘Oxford English Prize Essays,’ 1836, 12mo, vol. ii.) obtained the chancellor's prize in 1799. In 1800 he began his long series of poetical publications by verses in memory of his old master at Winchester, Joseph Warton, D.D. He graduated M.A. in 1801, was ordained deacon in 1802, and, after acting as curate to his father, took a travelling tutorship, and was detained in France in 1802–3 during the war. Having been ordained priest in 1803, he became curate in charge (1804) of Buriton, Hampshire. After acting as curate at Crawley, Hampshire (1808), and to his father at Southampton (December 1809), he became vicar of Coggeshall, Essex (1810), where he took pupils. In 1811 he was elected Bampton lecturer, and chose as his topic a vindication of the evangelical character of Anglican preaching against the allegations of methodists. The lectures attracted notice. Manners-Sutton, archbishop of Canterbury, made him his domestic chaplain in 1813, and on going to reside at Lambeth he resigned Coggeshall. In 1815 he was collated to the rectory of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, and commenced D.D. at Oxford. He was presented in 1818 to the rectory of East Horsley, Surrey, which he held with St. Botolph's.
In February 1820 Mant was nominated by Lord Liverpool for an Irish bishopric. He is said to have been first designed for Waterford and Lismore (though this was not vacant), but was ultimately appointed to Killaloe and Kilfenoragh, and was consecrated at Cashel on 30 April 1820. He at once took up his residence at Clarisford House, bringing English servants with him,
