 He was the son of Elizabeth (née Wragg) Manigault (1736–1773) and Peter Manigault (1731–1773), the wealthiest person in British North America in 1770.His sister, Henrietta Manigault, was the wife of Nathaniel Heyward, a wealthy rice planter who accumulated at least twenty-two plantations and assorted lands throughout the low country.His great-grandfather was Pierre Manigault (1664–1729), a French Huguenot who was born in La Rochelle, France and settled in Charleston.