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George William Manby
Captain George William Manby FRS (28 November 1765 – 18 November 1854) was an English author and inventor. He designed an apparatus for saving life from shipwrecks and also the "Pelican Gun", the first modern form of fire extinguisher.
Manby was born in the village of Denver on the edge of the Norfolk Fens. His parents were Mary Woodcock (1741-1783) and Captain Matthew Pepper Manby (1735-1774), lord of the manor of Wood Hall in Hilgay, a former soldier and aide-de-camp to Lord Townshend and barrack-master of Limerick at his death. A younger brother was Thomas Manby, naval officer. Manby went to school at Downham Market. Although he claimed to have been a friend there of Horatio Nelson, this is unlikely to be true as Nelson would have left the school (if he ever attended) before Manby started. He then went to the Free Grammar School in King's Lynn, where he was a student of Rev Dr David Lloyd (died 1794). He was one of the four stewards organising an anniversary event of Lloyd's students held at the Duke's Head Inn on 17 February 1791.
He volunteered to fight in the American War of Independence, aged 17, but was rejected because of his youth and his small size. Instead, he entered the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. He is listed as one of the Artillery cadets on 31 March 1784. On 21 April 1788, he obtained a commission as a Lieutenant in the Cambridgeshire Militia where he eventually gained the rank of captain. He left the regiment in Spring 1793. A fellow officer, and later regiment's colonel, was Charles Philip Yorke, later Secretary at War.
In December 1793, he married the only daughter of Rev Dr Preston JP, of Waldingfield and Rougham, and inherited his wife's family's estates. In November 1797, his estate in the manor of Hilgay was put up for auction. He left her in 1801 after being shot by her lover Captain Pogson of the East India Company and moved to Clifton, Bristol. There, he published several books, including The History and Antiquities of St David's (1801), Fugitive Sketches of the History and Natural Beauties of Clifton (1802), and A Guide from Clifton to the Counties of Monmouth, Glamorgan, etc. (1802). These included illustrations by Manby, ranging from general views to plans and architectural drawings.
Source:
In 1803, Manby's pamphlet An Englishman's Reflexions on the Author of the Present Disturbances, on Napoleon's plans to invade England, came to the attention of the Secretary of War, Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire, who was impressed and recommended Manby to be appointed as Barrack-Master at Great Yarmouth in September, 1803.
On 18 February 1807, as a helpless onlooker, he witnessed a Royal Navy ship, HMS Snipe, carrying French prisoners run aground 50 yards off Great Yarmouth during a storm. Several vessels were wrecked and (according to some accounts) a total of 214 people drowned, including French prisoners of war, women and children. The figure of '67 brave men' for the Snipe was quoted in the House of Commons in June 1808. Following this tragedy, Manby experimented with mortars, and so invented the Manby Mortar, (later to be used with the breeches buoy), that fired a thin rope from shore into the rigging of a ship in distress. A strong rope, attached to the thin one, could be pulled aboard the ship. His successful invention supposedly followed an experiment as a youth in 1783, when he shot a mortar carrying a line over Downham church.
Manby carried out a successful demonstration of his apparatus before the Suffolk Humane Society, and a very large assemblage of ladies and gentlemen at Lowestoft, on 26 August and 10 September 1807. On the former occasion, their president, John Rous, 1st Earl of Stradbroke, attended.
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George William Manby
Captain George William Manby FRS (28 November 1765 – 18 November 1854) was an English author and inventor. He designed an apparatus for saving life from shipwrecks and also the "Pelican Gun", the first modern form of fire extinguisher.
Manby was born in the village of Denver on the edge of the Norfolk Fens. His parents were Mary Woodcock (1741-1783) and Captain Matthew Pepper Manby (1735-1774), lord of the manor of Wood Hall in Hilgay, a former soldier and aide-de-camp to Lord Townshend and barrack-master of Limerick at his death. A younger brother was Thomas Manby, naval officer. Manby went to school at Downham Market. Although he claimed to have been a friend there of Horatio Nelson, this is unlikely to be true as Nelson would have left the school (if he ever attended) before Manby started. He then went to the Free Grammar School in King's Lynn, where he was a student of Rev Dr David Lloyd (died 1794). He was one of the four stewards organising an anniversary event of Lloyd's students held at the Duke's Head Inn on 17 February 1791.
He volunteered to fight in the American War of Independence, aged 17, but was rejected because of his youth and his small size. Instead, he entered the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. He is listed as one of the Artillery cadets on 31 March 1784. On 21 April 1788, he obtained a commission as a Lieutenant in the Cambridgeshire Militia where he eventually gained the rank of captain. He left the regiment in Spring 1793. A fellow officer, and later regiment's colonel, was Charles Philip Yorke, later Secretary at War.
In December 1793, he married the only daughter of Rev Dr Preston JP, of Waldingfield and Rougham, and inherited his wife's family's estates. In November 1797, his estate in the manor of Hilgay was put up for auction. He left her in 1801 after being shot by her lover Captain Pogson of the East India Company and moved to Clifton, Bristol. There, he published several books, including The History and Antiquities of St David's (1801), Fugitive Sketches of the History and Natural Beauties of Clifton (1802), and A Guide from Clifton to the Counties of Monmouth, Glamorgan, etc. (1802). These included illustrations by Manby, ranging from general views to plans and architectural drawings.
Source:
In 1803, Manby's pamphlet An Englishman's Reflexions on the Author of the Present Disturbances, on Napoleon's plans to invade England, came to the attention of the Secretary of War, Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire, who was impressed and recommended Manby to be appointed as Barrack-Master at Great Yarmouth in September, 1803.
On 18 February 1807, as a helpless onlooker, he witnessed a Royal Navy ship, HMS Snipe, carrying French prisoners run aground 50 yards off Great Yarmouth during a storm. Several vessels were wrecked and (according to some accounts) a total of 214 people drowned, including French prisoners of war, women and children. The figure of '67 brave men' for the Snipe was quoted in the House of Commons in June 1808. Following this tragedy, Manby experimented with mortars, and so invented the Manby Mortar, (later to be used with the breeches buoy), that fired a thin rope from shore into the rigging of a ship in distress. A strong rope, attached to the thin one, could be pulled aboard the ship. His successful invention supposedly followed an experiment as a youth in 1783, when he shot a mortar carrying a line over Downham church.
Manby carried out a successful demonstration of his apparatus before the Suffolk Humane Society, and a very large assemblage of ladies and gentlemen at Lowestoft, on 26 August and 10 September 1807. On the former occasion, their president, John Rous, 1st Earl of Stradbroke, attended.