MANNING, WILLIAM OKE (1809–1878), legal writer, born in 1809, was son of William Oke Manning, a London merchant, and nephew of James Manning [q. v.], serjeant-at-law. He was educated at Bristol under Dr. Lant Carpenter, who had been the colleague of his grandfather, James Manning, in the Unitarian ministry at Exeter.
After leaving school Manning entered his father's counting-house. In 1839 he published 'Commentaries on the Law of Nations.' There was then no English treatise on the subject (though there were two by Americans), and Manning's book was noticeable for its historical method, its appreciation of the combination of the ethical and customary elements in international law, as well as for the exactness of its reasoning and its artistic completeness. The book at first attracted little attention, but was gradually found useful by teachers, and was cited as an authority in the courts.
The new edition, issued in 1875, was revised and enlarged by Professor Sheldon Amos. Manning, then incapacitated by illness, wrote a preface. He also published 'Remarks upon Religious Tests at the English Universities,' 1846 (reprinted from 'Morning Chronicle'). He died, after much suffering, on 15 Nov. 1878, at 8 Gloucester Terrace, Regent's Park, aged 69.
[Obituary notice by W. B. Carpenter in Athenæum, 30 Nov. 1878; Standard, 19 Nov. 1878; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
MANNINGHAM, JOHN (d. 1622), diarist, was son of Robert Manningham of Fen Drayton, Cambridgeshire, by his wife Joan, daughter of John Fisher of Bledlow, Buckinghamshire. On 16 March 1597–8 he was entered a student in the Middle Temple, and on 7 June 1605 he was called to the degree of an utter barrister. A fellow-student, Edward, son of William Curll and brother of Walter Curll [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Winchester, obtained for him the post of auditor of the court of wards. He was also befriended by a distant relative, Richard Manningham, who, born at St. Albans in 1539, made a fortune in London as a mercer, and in his old age retired to Bradbourne, near Maidstone. Richard Manningham died on 25 April 1611, and was buried in East Malling Church, where John Manningham erected a monument to his memory. To John, his sole executor, Richard left his house and lands in Kent. John made his will on 21 Jan. 1621, and it was proved by Walter Curll and a cousin, Dr. William Roberts of Enfield, on 4 Dec. 1622.
Manningham married, about 1607, Ann, sister of his friend Curll. By her he had three sons, Richard (b. 1608), John (b. 1616), and Walter, and three daughters, Susannah, Ann, and Elizabeth. Walter Curll, by his will of 15 March 1646–7, left legacies to his sister Mrs. Manningham and her son and his godson Walter. She was dead before 1656, when her eldest son Richard sold the property at Bradbourne to Thomas Twysden, serjeant-at-law (Hasted, Kent, ii. 213).
Manningham is the author of a diary now preserved among the Harl. MSS. (5353), and first printed by the Camden Society in 1868, under the editorship of John Bruce. It covers the period from January 1601–2 to April 1603; at the time the writer was a student in the Middle Temple. The work is an entertaining medley of anecdotes of London life, political rumours, accounts of sermons, and memoranda of journeys. The gossip respecting Queen Elizabeth's illness and death and the accession of James I is set down in attractive detail, and Manningham often supplies shrewd comments on the character of the chief lawyers and preachers of the day. He also gives an interesting account (p. 18) of the performance of Shakespeare's ‘Twelfth Night’ on 2 Feb. 1601–2 in the Middle Temple Hall. Collier, in his ‘Annals of the Stage,’ 1831, i. 320, in noticing this entry, first called attention to Manningham's work. The familiar anecdote of Shakespeare's triumph over Richard Burbage [q. v.] in the pursuit of the favours of a lady of doubtful virtue rests on Manningham's authority (p. 39). Sir Thomas Bodley, John Stow, and Sir Thomas Overbury are also occasionally mentioned by Manningham.
[Manningham's Diary (Camd. Soc.), ed. Bruce, Preface; ‘Visitation of County of Kent in 1619’ in Archæologia Cantiana, iv. 255.]
MANNINGHAM, Sir RICHARD, M.D. (1690–1759), man-midwife, second son of Thomas Manningham [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Chichester, was born at Eversley, Hampshire, in 1690. He was intended, like his elder brother Thomas, for the church, and educated at Cambridge, where he graduated LL.B. in 1717. He afterwards took the degree of M.D. He took a house in Chancery Lane, London, and there lived till 1729, when he moved to the Hay market, thence in 1734 to Woodstock Street, and in the following year to Jermyn Street, where he resided
