Author: MANNERS, Charles
Biography:
MANNERS, Charles (1754-87: ODNB)
Born into English nobility and heir to great wealth (though also to great debts), he was the son of John Manners, Marquess of Granby (1721-70), and his wife Frances Seymour (1728-61), daughter of the Duke of Somerset. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge (matric. 1772, MA 1774), and entered Parliament in 1774 as MP for Cambridge University, a seat then under the control of his family. He generally sided with the whigs, opposing war with America and urging reform and reconciliation instead; he also formed a lasting friendship with the even more youthful William Pitt (1759-1806). On 26 Dec. 1775 he married Mary Isabella Somerset (1756-1831), daughter of the Duke of Beaufort; they had six children. Manners bought books and old master paintings to enrich the collections at the family seat, Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire. When he succeeded his grandfather as fourth Duke of Rutland in 1779 he took a seat in the House of Lords and accepted a series of official honours and appointments such as Knight of the Garter (1782) and Lord Steward of the Household (1783). After Pitt became Prime Minister in Dec. 1783 he gave Rutland a cabinet position as Lord Privy Seal and then made him Viceroy of Ireland (Feb. 1784). He died of liver disease at the viceregal residence in Dublin, Phoenix Park Lodge, on 24 Oct. 1787 and was interred on 25 Nov. at the traditional family burial ground of St. Mary’s, Bottesford, Leicestershire. (ODNB 15 Mar. 2023; ACAD)