Thomas Manners-Sutton, 1st Baron Manners Personal Computer KC, was a British lawyer and politician who served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1807 to 1827.
Background
Manners-Sutton was the sixth son of Lord George Manners-Sutton, third son of John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland. His father had assumed the additional surname of Sutton on succeeding to the estates of his maternal grandfather Robert Sutton, 2nd Baron Lexinton.
Education
Manners-Sutton was educated at Charterhouse and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and was called to the Bar, Lincoln"s Inn, in 1780.
Career
From 1800 to 1802 he was Solicitor General to the Prince of Wales (later King George IV). In 1805 he became a Baron of the Exchequer, which he remained until 1807. The latter year he was admitted to the Privy Council, raised to the peerage as Baron Manners, of Foston in the County of Lincoln, and appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland, in which position he served until 1827.
His unfamiliarity with Irish conditions led him to rely heavily on the Attorney-General for Ireland, William Saurin, who thereby acquired unprecedented power and virtually controlled the Dublin administration until his dismissal in 1822.
Although opposed to Emancipation, Manners as a judge showed no bias against Catholics: indeed he handed down a landmark ruling in Walsh"s case in 1823, that in Ireland as opposed to England a bequest for the saying of Mass for the testators" soul was valid in law. The increasing number of Catholic barristers (even Daniel O"Connell, who had a low opinion of most judges) also paid tribute to his lack of bias.
Lord Manners married firstly, Anne Copley, daughter of Sir Joseph Copley, 1st Baronet, of Sprotborough, in 1803. They had no children.
They had one son, John Manners-Sutton.
A family relation, Evelyn Levett Sutton, graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, acted as private chaplain to Lord Manners.
Membership
1st United Kingdom Parliament. 2nd United Kingdom Parliament. 18th Parliament of Great Britain]
Manners-Sutton was elected Member of Parliament for Newark in 1796, a seat he held until 1805, and served under Henry Addington as Solicitor-General from 1802 to 1805.