GEORGE WILLIAM MANBY PAPERS

Finding Aid

Size: 0.25 linear feet

Literary rights:
Literary rights were not granted to Wichita State University. When permission is granted to examine the manuscripts, it is not an authorization to publish them. Manuscripts cannot be used for publication without regard for common law literary rights, copyright laws and the laws of libel. It is the responsibility of the researcher and his/her publisher to obtain permission to publish. Scholars and students who eventually plan to have their work published are urged to make inquiry regarding overall restrictions on publication before initial research.

Restrictions: None

Content note:
As Secretary of State for the Home Department and Ordnance Department in England, Manby devoted much time and effort to developing a system of saving persons who were involved in shipwrecks. The three books of letters and memoranda in this collection involve this major project and describe many of the procedures used. He invented improvements for lifeboats, fire extinguishing, catching persons jumping from burning buildings, and saving from drowning those who had broken through ice. The books in this collection date from 1800 to 1806, and they include Manby's sketches and some of his correspondence.

Biographical note:
George William Manby was born November 28, 1765 at Denver, England, near Downham Market, Norfolk. His father, Matthew Pepper Manby, was a captain in the Welsh fusiliers. George Manby began his schooling at Downham, transferred to a school at Bromley, Middlesex, and eventually studied mathematics at the Tower military drawing room. Later, he joined the Cambridgeshire Militia and achieved the rank of captain. In 1793 he married a woman named Preston and returned to Denver, but left the home in 1801 because of some domestic problems.

Manby established himself at Clifton, near Briston, England, and devoted his time to writing and illustrating his literary works with engravings from his drawings. A pamphlet he produced in 1803, "An Englishman’s Reflections on the Author of the Present Disturbances," regarding Napoleon’s threats to invade England, so impressed the Secretary of War, Charles Yorke, that he appointed Manby as a barrack-master at Yarmouth.

A major storm in February 1807, in which 67 people were killed when the snipe gun brig was destroyed near Yarmouth, attracted his attention to shipwrecks. He concluded that communication with the shore was the first avenue toward rescue. He borrowed a mortar from the Board of Ordnance and invented apparatus to throw a rope from the ship to the shore, where a lifeboat was launched to save the victims.

Manby later extended his inventions to lifeboat improvements, fire extinguishing, and catching persons who were jumping from burning buildings, and saving people who had broken through ice from drowning. In recognition of his accomplishments, he was elected as a member of the Royal Society in 1831.

After the death of his first wife in 1814, Manby married Sophia Gooch of Suffield in 1818. He died November 18, 1854 at his home in Southtown, Yarmouth.

Manby’s writings include "A Guide from Clifton to the Counties of Monmouth, Glamorgan, etc.," 1802; "An Essay on the Preservation of Shipwrecked Persons, with Descriptive Account of the Apparatus and Manner of Using It," 1812; "Journal of a Voyage to Greenland," 1822; "Hints for Improving the Criminal Law, with Suggestions for a New Convict Colony," 1831; "Reminiscences," 1839; and "A Description of the Nelson Museum at Pedestal House," at Yarmouth, 1849. --Summarized from The Dictionary of National Biography.

Processed by: AG, April 1994; JEF, 4-20-1999