MANATON (MANYNGTON), Ambrose (1589-1651), of South Petherwin and Trecarrel, Lezant, Cornw.

The Manatons had been seated in the parish of South Hill since the early sixteenth century. As a second son, Ambrose Manaton was destined for a legal career, but his marriage into the Trefusis family gave him not only a substantial estate, centred on South Petherwin parish, but also a connection with such important gentry families as the Edgcumbes and Corytons. It was through these families that Manaton entered Parliament in the 1620s, as MP for Bossiney in 1621 and Tregony in 1624. By the late 1620s he had become associated with the opposition to George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, and the Caroline regime in general, working with Sir John Eliot’s† allies in Cornwall, especially William Coryton*, Nicholas Trefusis* and Sir Richard Buller*. Despite his involvement with critics of the crown, Manaton continued to have a close association with the Edgcumbes, who supported Buckingham in the 1620s, and this developed further during the 1630s. Manaton’s call to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1637 was at the behest of John Glanville†, father-in-law to Piers Edgcumbe*, and Glanville may have secured the recordership of Launceston for him shortly afterwards.25HP Commons 1604-1629. Manaton’s involvement with the Edgcumbes can also be seen in his role as signatory of Piers Edgcumbe’s marriage settlement in 1635; and his willingness to be bound as a surety when Edgcumbe bought the manor of Beeding, Sussex, from Thomas Howard, 21st earl of Arundel, in June 1641.26Cornw. RO, ME/804, 806, 841.

Manaton’s improved relations with the crown can also be surmised from his involvement in the 1640 elections. He was returned for Launceston for both the Short and Long Parliaments, and his fellow MPs – Sir Bevill Grenvile and William Coryton respectively – were newly-recruited friends of the king. Similarly, in October 1640 he was serving as mayor of Camelford when Piers Edgcumbe and his brother-in-law, William Glanville, were both elected.27C219/43/16. Manaton’s activity in Parliament is less easily divined, however. There is no record of his involvement in the Short Parliament, but he was named to a number of committees during the first nine months of the Long Parliament, and these include committees to impose reforms on the government, such as the abolition of the court of wards (16 Feb. 1641) and the prevention of clergymen from holding lay offices (8 Mar. 1641).28CJ ii. 87a, 99a. Furthermore, the Cornishman who appears most frequently with Manaton on the lists of committee members was not a proto-royalist but the notable critic of the crown, Sir Richard Buller.29CJ ii. 73b, 75a, 99a, 196a. A surviving letter from September 1640 suggests that Manaton and the Bullers were on good terms, and even hints that Manaton was expected to be a ‘peacemaker’ in a dispute between Sir Richard and his eldest son, Francis Buller I*.30Buller Pprs. 26. Manaton’s true loyalties may have been local, rather than national, and it is interesting that he was named to the committee (14 Nov. 1640) to consider ‘the matter complained of against Mr Coryton and Sir Richard Buller’ concerning the return of blank indentures from Bossiney – which involved the defence of the reputations of two Cornish friends of differing political views.31CJ ii. 29a. There is nothing to suggest that Manaton was turning towards active support of the crown in the summer of 1641. He took the Protestation on 18 May 1641, but played little part in parliamentary affairs thereafter, and on 20 July 1641 he was granted leave ‘to go into the country’.32CJ ii. 149a, 217a; Procs. LP iv. 436; vi. 23. On 28 February 1642 he was again given leave of absence, this time on the motion of the future parliamentarian, Sir Samuel Rolle*.33PJ i. 483; CJ ii. 460b.

As late as 30 June 1642 the Commons were still unclear about Manaton’s loyalties, and gave him the benefit of the doubt, discharging him from a fine of £100 imposed when he was absent from the call of the House earlier in the month.34PJ iii. 153, 481; CJ ii. 644b. It is unclear why Manaton became a royalist in the weeks that followed; even when civil war broke out, his support for the king was less than obvious. According to Sir Ralph Hopton*, Manaton worked with Coryton to arrange a local truce in October 1642, ‘being very willing to mediate a right understanding and to prevent the shedding of blood as they pretended’. The two men attended the parliamentarians at Launceston (including his old friend, Sir Richard Buller*), warning them of the indictments against them and presenting ‘a civil letter to invite them to lay down their arms, and to prevent further trouble in the country’. To Hopton’s relief, ‘Mr Coryton and Mr Manaton’s negotiation with the committee at Launceston took no effect’.35Bellum Civile, 21. Hopton’s concerns were well founded, as Buller and the Cornish parliamentarians seem to have hoped that Manaton would join them. According to one source, after their conference Buller and Manaton left Launceston together, and later violence against his property in Launceston was the initiative of ‘the baser sort of rogues’, not the gentlemen of the county.36New News from Cornwall (1642), 3 (E.124.20). There was a corresponding delay in condemning Manaton at Westminster, and it was only on 12 November 1642 that the Commons ordered Manaton’s arrest as a delinquent.37CJ ii. 845b.

Manaton’s activities during the civil war were again focused on Cornwall. He was clearly an important figure in Launceston, which had been recaptured by the royalists by the end of 1642. In April 1643 he was one of the royalist leaders who dined with the mayor after Hopton’s return to the county.38Coate, Cornw. 58. In November of the same year the mayor sought Manaton’s help ‘for staying the town band from going to Saltash’ – a deployment that would have weakened Launceston’s own defences.39Cornw. RO, B/LAUS/179/2/3. Manaton was away from Cornwall only for a few months in early 1644. On 27 January he was present at the Oxford Parliament, and signed its letter to Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex.40Rushworth, Hist. Collns. v. 573. He was disabled from sitting in the Commons (‘being in the king’s quarters and adhering to that party’) on 22 January, and he was still in Oxford in March, when he and Piers Edgcumbe were awarded honorary doctorates in civil law by the university.41CJ iii. 374a; Al. Ox. He probably returned to Cornwall soon afterwards, and may have lived at Mount Edgcumbe, which had been fortified by the Edgcumbe family. Manaton was there in March 1646, when Piers Edgcumbe surrendered to Sir Thomas Fairfax*, and he was included in the generous terms offered by the parliamentarian general, who recommended the defenders ‘as persons whose interests and endeavours have been very useful in reducing of the west’.42CJ iv. 495a. The extent of Manaton’s collaboration with Fairfax at this time is unclear. He and the others were happy to take the ‘negative oath’, but they were reluctant to take the National Covenant.43CCC 1082. Manaton was still treated as an unrepentant royalist in Cornwall, at least. On 19 September 1646 the burgesses of Launceston held a special meeting at which they condemned Manaton’s activities, as recorder, justice of the peace and MP, saying that he had assisted the raising of forces in the county, and ‘joined himself with an unlawful assembly of malignants at Oxford’. His crimes were deemed so great, that the corporation, ‘with an unanimous consent have agreed and resolved to put out and remove the said Mr Manaton from the said place of recorder’, and they elected instead a Presbyterian, Thomas Gewen*.44Cornw. RO, B/LAUS/350.

Parliament was more lenient in its attitude. On 15 February 1647 the Committee of the West reported its findings on the case of Manaton and his friends, and the Commons resolved that he should be admitted to compound on the payment of a modest fine of two years’ value.45CJ v. 88b; CCC 1082. On 6 March, Manaton petitioned the Committee for Compounding, asking to be allowed to pay his dues, and on 23 March the fine was set at £700.46CCC 1084. On 2 April the Committee for Advance of Money ordered that Manaton was to be exempt from assessment payments until his case was settled.47CCAM 423. On 14 March 1648 the Commons resolved to accept his composition on the payment of a fine of £700, and passed an ordinance pardoning him from delinquency and removing the sequestration of his estates.48CJ v. 496a. Despite this, Manaton was still listed among the sequestered gentlemen in Cornwall in April, possibly because further lands, held by him ‘in right of his wife’ had now come to light.49CCC 117, 1084. The outstanding issues had not been resolved until November 1650, when Manaton paid an additional £18, 13s., and his estate was finally discharged.50CCC 1084.

Manaton continued to be active during his final years. He remained as a free tenant and free burgess of Launceston, despite his removal as recorder, until his death.51Cornw. RO, B/LAUS/351-3. He was also in contact with friends and relatives on both sides. In January 1649, Jonathan Rashleigh*, a royalist, noted that he had given his ‘Cousin Manaton’ six gallons of wine.52Cornw. RO, R/4330. In November 1650 Manaton wrote to the republican Colonel Robert Bennett* (with whom he had had business dealings early in the 1630s) thanking him for his ‘justice and goodness’ towards him in recent years and asking that his nephew might be excused military service.53FSL, X.d.483 (72, 159); C2/ChasI/E1/24; C2/ChasI/B127/24. In his will, written at the end of October 1650, Manaton stressed his sinfulness, and stipulated that the text ‘blessed are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours’ should be preached at his funeral. He left a keepsake to Piers Edgcumbe, with the wish that God would ‘bless him and his posterity with all heavenly and earthly blessings’. He also charged Edgcumbe and John Speccott (son of Paul Speccott†), with the purchase of lands for his younger son, Henry.54PROB11/218/128. Manaton died on 11 June 1651.55MI, S. Petherwin. His two sons served in later Parliaments: Ambrose Manaton† of Trecarrell was MP for Newport, Camelford and Tavistock between 1678 and his death in 1696; his younger brother, Henry Manaton† of Harewood, was MP for Camelford, Tavistock and Callington from 1689 until 1712.56HP Commons 1660-1690.