Family and Education

b. 2 Jan. 1721, 1st s. of John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland; bro. of Lord Robert Manners Sutton. educ. Eton 1732; Trinity, Camb. 1738; Grand Tour, extending to European and Asiatic Turkey, 1740-2. m. 3 Sept. 1750, Lady Frances Seymour, da. of Charles, 6th Duke of Somerset, 4s. 3da.

Offices Held

Col. 1745; maj.-gen. 1755, col. R. Horse Gds. 1758-d.; lt.-gen. 1759; lt.-gen. of the Ordnance 1759-63, master gen. 1763-Jan. 1770; col. 21 Drags. 1760-3, c.-in-c. 1766-Jan. 1770.

P.C. 2 May 1760; ld. lt. Derbys. 1764-6.

Biography

Returned for Grantham on the Rutland interest in 1741 while still in Turkey,1 Granby was absent from all the recorded divisions of his first Parliament, except that of 18 Jan. 1744 on the Hanoverians, in which he voted against the Government. During the Forty-five he served in Scotland as colonel of a regiment raised by his brother, the Duke of Rutland, retaining his rank when the regiment was disbanded. He was classed as ‘doubtful’ in 1746 but as ‘opposition’ at the opening of the 1747 Parliament. At this time his reputation was that of a racing man and a gambler already deep in debt.2 When pressed by the Pelhams in 1752 to gain ‘the great and extensive interest of the Rutland family’ by giving Granby the Blue Regiment (the Royal Horse Guards), George II flatly refused, referring to him as ‘a sot, a bully, that does nothing but drink and quarrel, a brute’.3

He died 18 Oct. 1770.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

• 1. W. E. Manners, Life of Granby, 10.
• 2. Walpole to Mann, 1 Sept. 1750.
• 3. Newcastle to Pelham, 3/14 Aug. 1752, Add. 32729, f. 9.