1741 to a fellowship which carried with it the living of St. Botolph, Cambridge. He retained both these preferments until he married in 1755. He was chaplain to Dr. Thomas, bishop of Lincoln, who collated him to the prebend of South Scarle in the church of Lincoln, 5 Aug. 1757, and on 15 March 1760 to that of Milton Ecclesia, in the same church, consisting of the impropriation and advowson of the church of Milton, Oxfordshire (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, ii. 188, 207). In 1763 he was presented by Dr. Green, dean of Salisbury, to the vicarage of Godalming, Surrey, where he resided till his death. In 1769 he was presented by Viscount Midleton to the rectory of Pepper Harrow, an adjoining parish. He was elected F.R.S. 10 Dec. 1767, and F.S.A. in 1770. He died at Godalming on 9 Sept. 1801. His parishioners placed a handsome marble tablet to his memory in the church, and some private friends put an inscription on a headstone in the churchyard (Hist. of Surrey, i. 640).
By Catherine, his wife, daughter of Mr. Reade Peacock, a quaker, mercer, of Huntingdon, he had three sons and five daughters, all of whom survived him except George Owen Manning, his eldest son (B.A. of Queens' College, Cambridge, 1778), and one of the daughters, who died young.
From his first settlement in Surrey he employed himself in amassing materials for a history of that county, but he did not regard his collections as sufficiently complete for publication, and a total loss of sight prevented him from having them printed under his own inspection. The manuscripts were eventually entrusted to the care of William Bray [q. v.] the antiquary, who published them, with large additions and a continuation by himself, for the benefit of Manning's widow, under the title of 'The History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, with a facsimile Copy of Domesday, engraved on thirteen Plates,' three magnificent volumes, London, 1804–9–14, fol. It is one of the best of our county histories. In the British Museum there is a sumptuous copy, 'illustrated by upwards of six thousand drawings, prints, maps, and plans; portraits, architectural and other delineations of the churches, monastic edifices, and old manor-houses, pedigrees, and heraldic insignia of families,' &c., 30 vols. London, 1847, fol. (a collection formed by Richard Percival) . There appeared at London in 1819, fol., 'The Ecclesiastical Topography of the County of Surrey, containing Views of Churches in that County (to illustrate Manning and Bray's History of Surrey), drawn by Hill and engraved by Peak.'
Manning completed the Saxon dictionary of his friend the Rev. Edward Lye, and published it under the title of 'Dictionarium Saxonico et Gothico-Latinum. Accedunt Fragmenta Versionis Ulphilanaa, necnon Opuscula qusedam Anglo-Saxonica. Edidit, nonnullis Vocabulis auxit, plurimis Exemplis illustravit, et Grammaticam utri usque Linguæ praamisit Owen Manning,' 2 vols. London, 1772, fol. He also translated and annotated 'The Will of King Alfred,' from the original in Thomas Astle's library; this was printed in 1788, under the editorship of Sir Herbert Croft [see Astle, Thomas].
[Memoir prefixed to vol. i. of the History of Surrey; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. vii. 248, ix. 445, x. 622; Nichols's Illustr. Lit (index); Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bonn), pp. 29, 1420, 1465; Gent. Mag. 1801, pp. 865, 958; Addit. MSS. 5808 f. 226, 5849 ff. 279, 280, 5876 f. 57.]
MANNING, ROBERT (d. 1731), catholic controversialist, was educated in the English College at Douay, and he was for some time professor of humanity and philosophy there. Afterwards he was sent to the English mission, and composed various controversial treatises, which, says Dodd, were 'much esteemed by the learned on account of their easy flowing style.' He appears to have been chaplain to Lord Petre, baron of Writtle, to whose family, as he remarks, he was indebted for all he possessed in this world. He died in Essex on 4 March (O.S.) 1730–1.
His works are:
- 'The shortest Way to end disputes about Religion. The Answer to all Objections against Infallibility contained in a book entitled The Case Stated' (between the Church of Rome and the Church of England. By C. Leslie). Two parts, Brussels, Antwerp, 1716, 8vo; another edition, Brussels, 1716, 8vo. In the latter edition the errata are corrected and part ii. is without title-page; reprinted, Dublin, 1827, 12mo. A reply appeared under the title of 'A Treatise of infallibility … By a Presbyter of the suffering Church of Scotland,' Edinburgh, 1762, 8vo.
- 'Modern Controversy; or, a plain and rational Account of the Catholick Faith: in three parts,' 1720, 8vo.
- 'The Case Stated between the Church of Rome and the Church of England, in a second Conversation betwixt a Roman Catholick Lord and a Gentleman of the Church of England,' sine loco, 1721, 8vo (anon.); reprinted, with an address by Richard Coyne, under the title of 'The celebrated Answer to the Rev. C. Lesley's Case … printed word for word, and refuted sentence after sentence,' Dublin, 1839 and 1842, 12mo.
- 'England's Conversion and Reformation compared, or the Young Gentleman directed in the Choice of his Religion' (anon.), Antwerp, 1725, 8vo; re-
