Samuel Manship

Samuel Manship was an English stationer and bookseller in the City of London who acted as publisher for several noted writers and became a landowner in Surrey.

Life
Born about 1665, he was the second son of the Reverend John Manship (1612–1689) from Locking, Somerset and his wife Barbara. His father had been rector of the Anglican church of St Nicolas, Guildford but in 1662 was ejected and instead became a physician and Presbyterian preacher in Guildford. His elder brother John Manship (1659–1705) became an Oxford don and physician.

Samuel went into business in the City of London, being admitted a Citizen and Member of the Stationers Company. From premises in Cornhill, first at the sign of The Black Bull and later at The Ship, he sold books and stationery. His shop also served as a distribution point for many art sale catalogues

His main fame is as a publisher who acted for a large number of contemporary writers, both English and French, on a variety of subjects, particularly philosophy and theology. Among his authors were :

Antoine Arnauld

Mary Astell

William Beveridge

Antoinette Bourignon de la Porte

François de Chavigny de la Bretonnière

Edmund Chishull

Henry Dodwell

Sir George Etherege

Sir Roger L'Estrange

John Locke

Nicolas Malebranche

Luke Milbourne

Pierre Nicole

John Norris

Christopher Packe

John Pennyman, the husband of Mary Pennyman

John Rawlet

John Scott

Susanna Wesley and

William Winstanley.

In 1709 he acquired the manor and mansion of Field Place at Compton outside Guildford (the house sold for 6 million pounds in 2006). As an elector in the Cornhill Ward, local activists of the Whig party wanted his vote and in a meeting on 16 December 1714 resolved to approach him through the Lord Chancellor, William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper. He was buried on 24 January 1720 in the new vault of the church of St Michael, Cornhill and his will was proved on 1 February 1720

Family
On 16 July 1692 he married Anne Lane and they had seven children. His elder son John Manship (1695–1749), who went into business as a cloth merchant, in 1723 married Elizabeth Garbrand (1706–1788), a descendant of the bookseller Gerbrand Harkes, and inherited the estate at Compton on the death of his mother in 1734. The eldest surviving daughter Elizabeth Manship (1701–1733) married Richard Dowdeswell (1692–1730), a cousin of the landowner and politician William Dowdeswell.