Background
Peter Manigault was born on October 10, 1731 in Charlestown, South Carolina. He was the only son and heir of Ann (Ashby) and Gabriel Manigault.
Businessman planter politician
Peter Manigault was born on October 10, 1731 in Charlestown, South Carolina. He was the only son and heir of Ann (Ashby) and Gabriel Manigault.
He was educated at a classical school and under a tutor in Charlestown until 1750, when he was sent to study law in England under the care of Thomas Corbett, who had tutored him in Carolina.
He lived with Mr. Corbett for two years, then entered the Inner Temple in 1752, residing in chambers there, and was called to the English bar on February 8, 1754. His letters to his parents give interesting pictures of fashionable society, the theatre, and his acquaintances at the Carolina Coffee House. While in London he had his portrait painted by Allan Ramsay, later the Court painter. In 1753 he spent ten weeks in France, Belgium, and Holland, staying most of the time in Paris and showing little interest in La Rochelle, the native city of his grandfather, Pierre Manigault. He returned to South Carolina in 1754 and began at once to practise law. The year of his marriage he was elected to the colonial Assembly and was speaker from 1765 until he resigned in October 1772. He opposed the Stamp Act and, when Parliament repealed it, as speaker he wrote to Charles Garth, South Carolina's agent in London, enclosing an address of thanks to the King and to Parliament. During the struggle over South Carolina's contribution to the Wilkes fund, he was a member of the committee, in 1770, entrusted with the £1, 500 sterling that the House voted for the support of the Bill of Rights society in spite of the opposition by William Wragg and William Henry Drayton, who maintained that such funds would be used to pay the debts of John Wilkes. In 1763 he took over the management of the estates and affairs of Ralph Izard, including rice and indigo plantations on the Goose Creek and Santee River, and also managed the interests in South Carolina of several London business firms. He died on November 12, 1773 in London at the home of Benjamin Stead. His body was taken back to Charlestown for burial.
He bought a small estate at Goose Creek and made frequent visits there. His health, always delicate, had grown very much worse with recurring attacks of fever. On May 16, 1773, he sailed for England in the hope that he might benefit by spending a summer in that climate. His letters to his mother from England report his own continued hopefulness as well as the gradual weakening of a body too sick to withstand the medical treatment of the time.
He was married, on June 8, 1755, to Elizabeth, the daughter of Joseph Wragg. They had, besides three children who died young, two sons and two daughters.