Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/100

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Mansfield
94
Manship

fying accounts, not one of which, after most patient investigation, could be substantiated or justified, although the officer was removed from the service on disciplinary grounds (see reports of the Jervis court-martial in the Times, July-September 1866, and the scathing leader in the same paper of 3 Oct. 1866). Mansfield, who became a full general in 1872, commanded the forces in Ireland from 1 Aug. 1870 to 31 July 1875. In Ireland, too, he was unpopular, and in some instances showed lamentable failure of judgment.

Mansfield was raised to the peerage on 28 March 1871, during Mr. Gladstone's first administration, under the title of Baron Sandhurst of Sandhurst, Berkshire, in the peerage of the United Kingdom. He took an active part in the House of Lords in the debates on army reorganisation, and predicted that abolition of the purchase system would result in 'stagnation, tempered by jobbery.' He was a good speaker, but is said never to have carried his audience with him in the house or out of it. He was a G.C.S.I. 1866, G.C.B. 1870, P.C. Ireland 1870, and was created D.C.L. of Oxford in 1870. He died at his London residence, 18 Grosvenor Gardens, 23 June 1876, aged 57, and was buried at Digswell Church, near Welwyn, Hertfordshire.

His character has been impartially drawn by Malleson: 'Tall and soldierly in appearance, it was impossible for any one to look at him without feeling certain that the man before whom he stood possessed more than ordinary ability. Conversation with him always confirmed this impression. He could write well; he could speak well; he was quick in mastering details; he possessed the advocate's ability of making a bad cause appear a good one. He had that within him to procure success in any profession but one. He was not and could not become a great soldier. Possessing undoubted personal courage, he was not a general at all except in name. The fault was not altogether his own. Nature, kind to him in many respects, had denied him the penetrating glance which enabled a man on the instant to take in the exact lay of affairs in the field. His vision, indeed, was so defective that he had to depend for information regarding the most trivial matters upon the reports of others. This was in itself a great misfortune. It was a misfortune made irreparable by a haughty and innate reserve, which shrank from reliance on any one but himself. He disliked advice, and, although swayed perhaps too easily by those he loved and trusted, he was impatient of even the semblance of control from men brought into contact with him only officially and in a subordinate position. Hence it was that in an independent command, unable to take a clear view himself, he failed to carry out the idea which to so clever a man would undoubtedly have suggested itself had he had leisure to study it over a map in the leisure of his closet' (Malleson, iv. 192-3).

He married, 2 Nov. 1854, Margaret, daughter of Robert Fellowes of Shottesley Park, Norfolk, by whom he left four sons and a daughter. His eldest son, William, second and present lord Sandhurst, succeeded him in the peerage. From 1886 till her death in 1892, his widow took a prominent part as a member of the Women's Liberal Federation in the agitation in favour of Home Rule and other measures advocated by Mr. Gladstone.

[Foster's Peerage under 'Sandhurst;' Army Lists; Rogerson's Hist. Rec. 53rd Foot, now 1st Shropshire) L.I., London, 1890; Malleson's Hist Sepoy Mutiny, cab. ed.; Parl. Debates, 1871-6. Among the obituary notices may be mentioned that in the Times, 24 June 1876, and the leader in the Army and Navy Gazette, 1 July 1876. For will (personalty 60,000l.) see Times, 29 July 1876.]

H. M. C.

MANSHIP, HENRY (fl. 1562), topographer, was a native of Great Yarmouth, and carried on business as a merchant there. He was elected a member of the corporation in 1550, and soon took an active part in public affairs. The old haven having become obstructed, Manship was, in 1560, named as one of a committee of twelve persons on whom was devolved the responsibility of determining where the new haven should be cut. He says that he 'manye tymes travayled in and about the business, and it was chiefly through his influence that Joas or Joyce Johnson, the Dutch engineer, was brought from Holland, and the present haven constructed under his direction. On 11 Feb. 1562 Manship was appointed a collector of the 'charnel rents' with George King. He compiled a brief record of all the most remarkable events in the history of the borough, under the title, 'Greate Yermouthe : a Booke of the Foundacion and Antiquitye of the saide Towne,' which was printed for the first time by Charles John Palmer, [q. v.], in 1847, with notes and appendix. The manuscript then belonged to James Sparke of Bury St. Edmunds, but it was sold (lot 234) at Palmer's sale in 1882.

Henry Manship (d. 1625), topographer, son of the above, born at Great Yarmouth, was educated at the free grammar school there. He became one of the four attorneys of the borough court. On 4 Nov. 1579 he was elected town clerk, but resigned the office on 2 July 1585. He continued to be a