Family and Education

b. 10 June 1604, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Sir George Manners† of Haddon Hall and Grace, da. of Sir Henry Pierrepont† of Holme Pierrepont, Notts.1 educ. Queens’, Camb. 1619, MA 1621; I. Temple 1621; travelled abroad 1622-3 (France); riding academy Angers 1623.2 m. 1628, Frances (d. 19 May 1671), da. of Sir Edward Montagu* of Boughton, Northants., 4s. (3 d.v.p.) 7da. (2 d.v.p.). suc. fa. 1623, cos. Sir George Manners* as 8th earl of Rutland 29 Mar. 1641. d. 29 Sept. 1679. 3

Offices Held

J.p. Derbys. 1626-at least 1641, by 1657-at least c.1665,4 (custos rot. by Mar.-c.Oct. 1660),5 Notts. 1647-?49, 1660-at least c.1665, Yorks. (W. Riding) 1647-?49,6 Lincs. (Holland, Kesteven, Lindsey) by 1660-at least c.1665, Leics. by 1660-at least c.1665;7 commr. oyer and terminer, Midland circ. 1626-42, 1659-at least 1674,8 Mdx. 1644-5,9 Lincs. 1645,10 Forced Loan, Derbys. 1626-7, Derby, Derbys. 1627,11 charitable uses, Derbys. 1629, 1632, 1635;12 sheriff, Derbys. 1632-3,13 dep. lt. by 1634-at least 1640;14 commr. subsidy, Derbys. 1641,15 sewers, Lincs., Lincoln, and Newark hundred, Notts. 1642, 1660-70,16 Gt. Fens 1646, 1654-9,17 Notts. 1669,18 array, Derbys. 1642;19 ld. lt. Derbys. 1642,20 Leics. 1667-77;21 commr. gaol delivery, Derby 1645;22 c.j. in eyre (north) 1646-61;23 commr. visitation, Oxf. Univ. 1647, militia, Derbys. and Lincs. 1648, Lincs. 1660;24 recorder Grantham, Lincs. 1662-77;25 commr. swans, Lincs. 1664.26

Commr. to conserve peace betw. Eng. and Scotland, 1643, 1646-7,27 to the Scottish Parl. 1643, great seal 1643, New Model Army 1645, 1647, excise 1645, treaty with Scots 1645, exclusion from sacrament 1646, 1648, sale of bps.’ lands 1646, indemnity 1647, navy and customs 1647.28

Biography

Manners’ grandfather, a younger son of the 1st earl of Rutland, married a coheir to one of Derbyshire’s greatest estates centred on Haddon in the High Peak hundred, and sat for Nottinghamshire in the first two Elizabethan Parliaments. His father represented Nottingham in 1589 and Derbyshire in 1593. The family owned a large smelting plant, and by the beginning of the seventeenth century derived much of their income from lead, although their profits were supplemented by stone quarrying and coalmining.29 Manners inherited his estate while still a minor and his wardship was purchased by his mother.30 By the time he came of age, in 1622, he had a good prospect of eventually becoming earl of Rutland. The only surviving son of his second cousin, Francis Manners, 6th earl of Rutland, had died in infancy, while the 6th earl’s brother, George Manners*, who would ultimately succeed to the title in 1632, was childless, leaving Manners as the next male heir. However, by the time Manners reached his majority a significant portion of the family’s estates had been settled on the 6th earl’s daughter on her marriage to George Villiers, marquess of Buckingham.31

Described by Sir Joseph Williamson† as ‘a harmless, soft man’, and by his own admission ‘the worse [sic] in the world at words’,32 Manners was a ruthless estate manager whose determination to exploit the mineral resources of his estates to the full embroiled him in a long and bitter dispute with the Derbyshire ‘free miners’.33 Returned for Derbyshire to the second Caroline Parliament, Manners played no recorded part in its proceedings, being excused attendance on 5 Apr. 1626 because of illness.34 Following the dissolution Manners pledged to pay £20 when the government contemplated raising money in the form of Privy Seal loans, and in the following year he was active as a Forced Loan commissioner.35

In 1628 Manners and his mother purchased £800 worth of land in Leicester Forest.36 Two years later he paid £50 as composition for knighthood.37 Following the settlement of a dispute between the duchess of Buckingham and the 7th earl of Rutland over the inheritance of the 6th earl’s estate, in 1634 he gained possession of Belvoir Castle, the ancestral home of the earls of Rutland, as well as an income of £2,000 a year.38 He again served as knight of the shire for Derbyshire in the Short Parliament, and succeeded as 8th earl of Rutland in March 1641. Although appointed to office by Parliament, he pleaded ill health to avoid committing himself to the parliamentarian cause, and during the Interregnum his house in the Strand became a centre of worship for those who still used the banned Book of Common Prayer.39 He drew up a brief will on 29 Apr. 1677 and died at Haddon in September 1679, being buried at Bottesford in Leicestershire in the following month. His son John sat in the Cavalier Parliament for Leicestershire under the courtesy title of Lord Roos, and was raised to a dukedom in 1703.40

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Authors: Virginia C.D. Moseley / Ben Coates

Notes

• 1. J. Nichols, Hist. and Antiqs. of County of Leicester, ii. 68; Oxford DNB.
• 2. Al. Cant.; I. Temple Admiss.; CSP Dom. 1619-23, p. 455; A. Joubert, ‘Les Gentilshommes Etrangers ... a l’academie d’equitation d’Angers au xviie siecle’, Revue d’Anjou, xxvi. 17. We are grateful to Roger Lockyer for this reference.
• 3. CP, xi. 263-4; Nichols, ii. 68.
• 4. C231/4, f. 196; C66/2859; C193/12/3, f. 18; C193/13/5, f. 16v; C66/3074.
• 5. Perfect List of all such Persons as by Commission under the Great Seal of Eng. are now Confirmed to be Custos Rotulorum, Justices of Oyer and Terminer, Justices of the Peace and Quorum (1660), p. 10.
• 6. C231/6, ff. 79, 81; C220/9/4, f. 65v; C66/3074.
• 7. Perfect List, 27-9; C66/3074.
• 8. C181/3, f. 206; 181/5, f. 219v; C181/6, p. 370; C181/7, p. 642.
• 9. C181/5, ff. 231, 246.
• 10. Ibid. f. 251v.
• 11. E179/93/355, f. 1; C192/12/2, ff. 9v, 82.
• 12. C192/1, unfol.
• 13. List of Sheriffs comp. A. Hughes (PRO, L. and I. ix), 31.
• 14. J.C. Cox, Three Centuries of Derbs. Annals, 156; HMC Cowper, ii. 259.
• 15. SR, v. 61.
• 16. C181/5, f. 222v; C181/7, pp. 75, 518.
• 17. C181/5, f. 268v; C181/6, pp. 26, 246, 332.
• 18. C181/7, p. 487.
• 19. Northants. RO, FH133.
• 20. Pvte. Jnls. Jan.-Mar. 1642, p. 334.
• 21. CSP Dom. 1666-7, p. 453; 1677-8, p. 200.
• 22. C181/5, f. 248.
• 23. CJ, iv. 730a; Oxford DNB.
• 24. A. and O. i. 927, 1235, 1239; ii. 1435.
• 25. Lincs. AO, Grantham bor. min. bk. 1, f. 361; CSP Dom. 1677-8, p. 534.
• 26. C181/7, p. 298.
• 27. LJ, vi. 55; LJ, viii. 411; LJ, ix. 500.
• 28. A. and O. i. 197, 341, 658, 691, 738, 852, 905, 937, 1016, 1047, 1208.
• 29. Sidney Letters ed. A. Collins, i. 119; J.R. Dias, ‘Pols. and Admin. in Notts. and Derbys. 1590-1640’ (Oxford Univ. D.Phil. thesis, 1973), p. 82.
• 30. WARD 9/162, f. 420.
• 31. CP, xi. 261-3; R. Lockyer, Buckingham, 58-60
• 32. ‘Lincs. Fams. Temp. Charles II’ ed. C. H., Her. and Gen. ii. 117; HMC Hatfield, xxiv. 287.
• 33. A. Wood, Pols. of Soc. Conflict, 121, 144, 147, 160, 247-8, 256, 277-86.
• 34. Procs. 1626, ii. 431.
• 35. SP16/33/131.I; E179/93/355, ff. 1v-2, 5.
• 36. CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 222.
• 37. E407/35, f. 34v.
• 38. Strafforde Letters (1739) ed. W. Knowler, i. 261.
• 39. Diary of John Evelyn ed. E.S. de Beer, iii. 95; Oxford DNB.
• 40. PROB 11/361, f. 304v; Oxford DNB.