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    OBITUARY.

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    Untitled Article

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    Obituary.

    OBITUARY .

    Rev . James Manning . A mere notice of the death o £ this aged and excellent minister was inserted in the Monthly Repository for October last . But his character , as well as many events and circumstances of his life , " will seem to his numerous friends to call for but

    an obiluiiry 7 ^ n ^~ lilbthing' unforeseen events would have delayed this communication so long . The late Rev . James Manning * of Exeter , was the son of William Manning , Esq ., by his second wife , Elizabeth , daughter of Mr . Eli Botterill . He was born in the town of Northampton , on the 25 th of August , 1754 . His parents were highly respectable inhabitants of that place , and members of Dr .

    Doddridge ' s congregation . It appears that his family had been for a long time possessed of certain estates , and consequent influence , in the neighbourhood of Northampton . Mr . Manning was favoured by Providence from his birth , with that greatest of all earthly blessings , —* -if altogether earthly it is to be called , —a wise , virtuous , and prudent mother . Of his father he has spoken as being uniformly just and kind , _ but overandulgent in the treatment' % ? his children . But of his

    mother he always spoke , to the latest period of his life , with feelings of the upmost reverence , gratitude , and affection , and not without reason ; for she was evidently a most excellent woman : there are letters extant addressed by her to her son , even after he was settled in the ministry , which prove that she was capable of giving him the most pertinent and judicious advice for the direction of his conduct in that station . Mr . Manning received the rudiments of school education under severcfl

    dissenting ministers of his native t « nsvn . j first under thei ReviMr . Rylatid , father of the late Dr . Ryland , of the Bristol Baptist Academy ; afterwards under the Rev . Mr . Gilbert , and the Rev . Jtfr . Hextal ; but he does not seem to have been particularly fortunate in his earliest tutors . In 1702 , when he was but eight years of age , his father died , having had , by his second marriage , seven other children ,

    all of whom had diedyfrom constitutional weakness , in infancy . This circum - stance is worthy of notice , because Mr . Manning himself was remarkable , throughout his protracted life , for the most uninterrupted health and almost unbroken strength ; which he always ascribed to his having been , on . account of the death of all the other children , ftjid his own weakness as a child , placed

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    with one of his father ' s tenants 111 the country , to be brought up in their rustic way , feeding on simple diet and wholesome air . Six years after his father ' s death , Mr . Manning ' s mother was married a second time , to the Rev . Samuel Merivalev who waj _ thejL ^ lzlni-ty _ Jc . u . t . or

    of the Dissenting Academy at Exeter , and also the minister of a congregation of Dissenters at Thorverton , a village about six miles from Exeter . This was a happy event for Mr . Manning . It gave him , ^ , t the very period of his life when he most needed it , that sort of counsel and guidance which even his mother , excellent woman as she was , might not have been able to give him . Mr . Merivale was an able and worthy man , and seems always to have behaved towards his step-son in the kindest

    manner . From this time , it is probable , it was the joint wish of Mr . and Mrs . Merivale that their son should be brought up to the Christian ministry . But as he was yet too young to enter the academy , he was placed under the care and tuition of the Rev ; Mr . Riddell , of Tiverton , having for his schoolfellow Mr . Meri vale ' s own son , the late John Menyale , Esq ., father of the present John Merivale , Esq ., barrister-at-law . At sixteen years of age Mr . Manning was entered as a divinity student in the Exeter Academy , where he remained till the final break .,

    ing up of that institution , about four years after his admission into it . His tutors here were Mr . Merivale , Mr . Micajah Towgood , Mr . Hogg , Mr . Turner , and Mr . Thomas Jervis . On the dissolution of the Exeter Academy , he was removed to Hoxton , where the late Dr . Abraham Rees , Dr . Savage , and Dr . Andrew Kippis , were at the head of their respective departmentsof instruction , in Mr . Coward ' s institution .

    In the year 1775 , Mr . Manning , having finished his academical pursuits at Hoxton , repaired to Exeter . His stepfather , Mr . Merivale , had died a short time before ; and he was almost immediately engaged to succeed him , in the care of the congregation at Thorverton . But in less than a twelvemonth from this time , he accepted an invitation from the

    united congregations assembling' in St , George ' s Meeting , Exeter , ( of which Mr . Stephen and Mr , Mieajah Towgood were then the joint pastors , ) to become an assistant preacher to the former gen- * tleman , who was beginning to feel the infirmities of age , and who died in the course of the next year . On the death of the elder Mr . Towgood , Mr , Manning

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    UNITARIAN CHRONICLE . ' 13

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 1, 1832, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1805/page/13/