Author: Manson, Alexander
Biography:
MANSON, Alexander (1774-1840: findmypast.com)
The Mansons, Dr. and Mrs., are from a bibliographical point of view probably ghosts. Despite the attribution by Halkett and Laing, there is no corroborating evidence that they were joint authors of the anonymous Hyppolito: A Play in Five Acts, and BL leaves the play unattributed. But they were eminent citizens of Nottingham where the play was published. Alexander Manson, son of Ann (McGowan) and William Manson, was born in Dalry, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, in 1775 and baptised at Kells on 8 Feb. 1775. He served in the Royal Navy from 1798 to 1810, then graduated MD from the University of Edinburgh in 1811 with a Latin dissertation on fevers. From 1813 to 1832 he practiced as a physician at Nottingham General Hospital and at St. Mary’s Workhouse Dispensary. On 8 Feb. 1814 he married Ann Nevill (1786-1863) at St. Mary’s, Nottingham; they had four children, three sons and a daughter. Out of pioneering work on the medical use of iodine he published Medical Researches (1825). Neither husband nor wife is known to have had literary interests. In 1828 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The family was the target of mob violence during reform riots in 1831, however, and in 1832 Manson resigned his medical work and retired to Darley, Derbyshire, where he died in 1840 and was buried on 27 Mar. in the churchyard of St. Helen’s Church. There is a monument to his memory in St. Mary’s, Nottingham. The Census of 1851 shows Ann Manson living with their son William, a barrister, in Hornsey, Edmonton, Middlesex, where she died in 1863. (findmypast.com 16 Mar. 2023; ancestry.co.uk 16 Mar. 2023; “Alexander Manson,” Wikipedia 16 Mar. 2023)
Other Names:
- Dr. Manson