Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/64

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Manners-Sutton
58
Manners-Sutton

man catholics, but generally voted in favour of the claims of the protestant dissenters. The very year of his death, when he was too ill to attend in person, he gave his vote by proxy in favour of the latter, and expressed his sentiments through Charles Blomfield, then bishop of Chester. He died at Lambeth on 21 July 1828, and was buried 29 July at Addington, in a family vault which had been constructed under the church about half a year previously.

In 1778 he married Mary, daughter of Thomas Thoroton of Screveton, Nottinghamshire, by whom he had a family of two sons and ten daughters. The elder son, Charles Manners-Sutton, afterwards Viscount Canterbury, is separately noticed. Francis, the second son (1783-1825), was a colonel in the army. Manners-Sutton published two separate sermons, which were published respectively in 1794 and 1797.

[Private information; Annual Register, 1828, p. 248; Gent. Mag. 1828, pt. ii. pp. 173, 194; Georgian Era ; Churton's Memoir of Joshua Watson.]

MANNERS-SUTTON, CHARLES, first Viscount Canterbury (1780–1845), speaker of the House of Commons, the elder son of Charles Manners-Sutton [q. v.], archbishop of Canterbury, by his wife Mary, daughter of Thomas Thoroton of Screveton, Nottinghamshire, was born on 29 Jan. 1780. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where as fourth junior optime he graduated B.A. 1802, M.A. 1805, and LL.D. 1824. Having been admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn on 19 May 1802, Manners-Sutton was called to the bar on 9 May 1806, and for a few years went the western circuit. At the general election in November 1806 he was returned in the tory interest for Scarborough, and continued to represent that borough in the House of Commons until the dissolution in December 1832. On 1 Nov. 1809 he was appointed judge-advocate-general in Spencer Perceval's administration, and on the 8th of the same month was sworn a member of the privy council (London Gazettes, 1809, pt. ii. p. 1773). He opposed Lord Morpeth's motion for an inquiry into the state of Ireland on 4 Feb. 1812, and declared that the government of that country had been 'deeply slandered' (Parl. Debates, 1st ser. xxi. 619-622). In March 1813 he both spoke and voted against Grattan's motion for a committee on the claims of the Roman catholics (ib. xxiv. 1028-35,1078). On 30 April 1817 he brought in his Clergy Residence Bill (ib. xxxvi. 88-92), which subsequently became law (57 Geo. III, c. 99). With these exceptions his speeches in the house were chiefly confined to subjects relating to his own official duties. On 2 June 1817 he was elected to the chair of the House of Commons, in the place of Charles Abbot, afterwards Baron Colchester [q. v.] by a majority of 162 votes over C. W. W. Wynn, the whig candidate (ib. xxxvi. 843-56), and thereupon resigned the office of judge-advocate-general. Manners-Sutton was re-elected speaker without opposition in January 1819, April 1820, November 1826, October 1830, and June 1831. During this period he was twice pressed to take office. On Canning's accession to power in April 1827 Manners-Sutton was offered the post of home secretary, which he declined 'from his feelings on the catholic question' (Raikes, i. 89-90), and in May 1832 he refused, after some hesitation, to undertake the formation of a tory ministry (Croker, ii. 163-7; Greville, ii. 325-9; Torrens, i. 408). On 30 July 1832 Manners-Sutton intimated his wish to retire from the chair at the close of the parliament, and a vote of thanks to him for his services was proposed by Lord Althorp and seconded by Goulburn and carried unanimously (Parl. Debates, 3rd ser. xiv. 931-9). An annuity of 4,000l. was also granted to him for life, and one of 3,000l. after his death to his heir male (2 & 3 Will. IV, c. cix.) At the general election in December 1832 Manners-Sutton was returned for the university of Cambridge with Henry Goulburn [q. v.] as a colleague. Owing to their hesitation to meet the reformed parliament with an inexperienced speaker, the ministers persuaded Manners-Sutton to postpone his retirement. Annoyed at this decision of the whig cabinet, the radicals opposed his re-election to the chair at the meeting of the new parliament on 29 Jan. 1833. Their candidate, Edward John Littleton, afterwards Lord Hatherton [q. v.], was defeated by a majority of 210, and Manners-Sutton was thereupon elected unanimously (Parl. Debates, 3rd ser. xv. 35-83). He was made G.C.B. on 4 Sept. 1833, as a reward for his conduct during the session, in which he has done government good and handsome service' (Greville Memoirs, pt. i. vol. iii. p. 30), and at the general election in January 1835 he was again returned for the university of Cambridge. On the opening of parliament on 19 Feb. 1835 his re-election was opposed by the whigs, who complained bitterly of his partisanship outside the house. Though Manners-Sutton effectually disproved the charges which had been brought against him, namely, (1) that being speaker he had busied himself in the subversion of the late government, (2) that he had assisted with others in the formation of the new govern-