Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/113

Manwood and steward of the liberties to the latter, in concert with whom he founded at Sandwich a grammar school. It took the place of St. Peter's school, which had been suppressed in 1547 with the chantry of St. Thomas, to which it was attached. The school was built on a site near Canterbury Gate, and endowed partly out of Manwood's own funds and money bequeathed him for the purpose, partly by public subscription between 1563 and 1583, and long continued to send scholars to the universities, but has been in abeyance since the middle of the present century. Manwood was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law on 23 April 1567. In parliament he supported the Treason Bill of 1571, was a member of the joint committee of lords and commons to which the case of the queen of Scots was referred in May 1572, and concurred in advising her execution. On 14 Oct. he was rewarded with a puisne judgeship of the common pleas. He was one of the original governors of Queen Elizabeth's grammar school, founded at Lewisham in 1574, and in 1575 obtained an act of parliament providing for the perpetual maintenance of Rochester bridge, which, however, did not prevent its demolition in 1856, to make way for the present iron structure. Manwood was joined with the Bishops of London and Rochester in a commission of 11 May 1575 for the examination of foreign immigrants suspected of anabaptism. The inquisition resulted in the conviction of two Flemings, John Peters and Henry Twiwert, who were burned at West Smithfield. On 23 April 1576 Manwood was placed on the high commission. As a judge he was by no means disposed to minimise his jurisdiction, advised that the Treason Act did not supersede, but merely reinforced the common law, and that a lewd fellow, whom neither the pillory nor the loss of his ears could cure of speaking evil of the queen, might be punished either with imprisonment for life 'with all extremity of irons, and other strait feeding and keeping,' or by burning in the face or tongue, or public exposure, 'with jaws gagged in painful manner,' or excision of the tongue. He also held that non-attendance at church was punishable by fine, and favoured a rigorous treatment of puritans. Nevertheless, he seems to have been popular on circuit, Southampton conferring upon him its freedom on 28 March 1577. By the influence of Walsingham and Hatton, Manwood was created lord chief baron of the exchequer on 17 Nov. 1578, having been knighted at Richmond two days before. He took his seat in the following Hilary term (Add. MS. 16169, f. 67 b). As lord chief baron Manwood was a member of the court of Star-chamber which on 15 Nov. 1581 passed sentence of fine and imprisonment upon William, lord Vaux of Harrowden [q. v.], and other suspected harbourers of the Jesuit Edmund Campion [q. v.] for refusing to be examined about the matter. His judgment, in which he limits the legal maxim, 'Nemo tenetur seipsum prodere,' to cases involving life or limb, is printed in 'Archæologia,' xxx. 108 et seq. (see also Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. App. pt. vii. pp. 163-5).

In 1582, on the death of Sir James Dyer [q. v.], chief justice of the common pleas, Manwood offered Burghley a large sum for his place, which, however, was given to Edmund Anderson [q. v.] In February 1584-5 he helped to try the intended regicide Parry, and in the following June he took part in the inquest on the death of the Earl of Northumberland in the Tower [see, eighth ], He was a member of the special commission which, on 11 Oct. 1586, assembled at Fotheringay for the examination of the queen of Scots, and concurred in the verdict afterwards found against her in the Star-chamber (25 Oct.) He also sat on the commission which, on 28 March 1587, found Secretary Davison guilty of 'misprison and contempt' for his part in bringing about her execution [see , 1541-1608].

In 1591 he was detected in the sale of one of the offices in his gift, and sharply censured by the queen. A curious letter, in which he attempts to excuse himself by quoting precedents, is extant in Harleian MS. 6995, f. 49. This was but one of several misfeasances of various degrees of gravity with which Manwood was charged during his later years. Thomas Digges [q. v.] and Richard Barry, lieutenant of Dover Castle, charged him with deliberate perversion of justice, in the chancery and admiralty courts of Dover, and the exchequer; Sir Thomas Perrott [q. v.] and Thomas Cheyne, with covinous pleading in the court of chancery; and Richard Rogers, suffragan bishop of Dover, with selling the queen's pardon in a murder case for 240l. According to Manningham (Diary, Camden Soc, p. 91), he even stooped to appropriate a gold chain which a goldsmith had placed in his hands for inspection, and on the privy council intervening by writ at the suit of the goldsmith, returned the scornful answer, 'Malas causas habentes semper fugiunt ad potentes. Ubi non valet Veritas, praevalet auctoritas. Currat lex, vivat Rex, and so fare you well my Lords.' 'But,' adds the diarist, 'he was commit.' This strange story is confirmed by extant