Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Manningham, Thomas
MANNINGHAM, THOMAS (1651?–1722), bishop of Chichester, born about 1651 in the parish of St. George, Southwark, was son of Richard Manningham, rector of Michelmersh, Hampshire. He was admitted in 1661 scholar of Winchester (Kirby, Winchester Scholars, p. 191), whence he proceeded with a scholarship to New College, Oxford, matriculating on 12 Aug. 1669. He was fellow from 1671 till 1681, and graduated B.A. in 1673, M.A. on 15 Jan. 1676-7 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714). He became, says Wood, 'a highflown preacher, and for some time tutor to Sir John Robinson, bart., eldest son of Sir John Robinson, sometime lieutenant of the Tower.' In 1681 he was presented to the rectory of East Tisted, Hampshire. The king, who admired his preaching, promised him the prebend of Winchester, vacated by the promotion of Thomas Ken to the bishopric of Bath and Wells; it proved, however, to be in the gift of the lord keeper, and one Thomas Fox obtained it. In November 1684 Manningham was made preacher at the Rolls, and from about 1689 to 1692 was head-master of Westerham grammar school, Kent. He subsequently became rector of St. Andrew, Holborn, on 8 Sept. 1691; chaplain in ordinary to William and Mary; canon of Windsor on 28 Jan. 1692-3 (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, iii. 405); rector of Great Haseley, Oxfordshire, 1708; and dean of Windsor on 26 Feb. 1708-9 (ib. iii. 376). On 21 Dec. 1691 the Archbishop of Canterbury created him D.D. He was consecrated bishop of Chichester on 13 Nov. 1709 (ib. i. 253), and dying on 25 Aug. 1722 at his house in Greville Street, Holborn, was buried in St. Andrew's, Holborn. The inscription on his monument, which is over the north gallery of the church, has long been illegible. His wife Elizabeth (1657-1714) was buried in Chichester Cathedral, where there is a monument to her memory (Le Neve, Mon. Angl. 1650-1718, p. 257, No. 529). In his will he mentions three sons—Thomas Manningham, D.D. (d. 1750), treasurer of Chichester in 1712 (Le Neve, Fasti, 1. 269), prebendary of Westminster in 1720 (ib. iii. 364), and rector of Slinfold and Selsey, Sussex; Sir Richard Manningham, M.D. [q. v.]; and Simon Manningham, prebendary of Chichester (1719-67) and vicar of Eastbourne (1720-34)—and two married daughters, Mary Rawlinson and Dorothea Walters, besides five other children.
Manningham printed a large number of his sermons between 1680 and his death, and was author of 'Two Discourses,' 8vo, London, 1681, and 'The Value of Church and College Leases consider'd' in Sir Isaac Newton's 'Tables,' 12mo, 1742.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 555; will registered in P. C. C. 176, Marlboro'; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 207-11; Chester's Westminster Abbey Registers, pp. 339, 381; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. ix. 278, 7th ser. iv. 192, 295.]