He  was  educated  at  Harrow  School,  1822-6,
playing  two  years  in  the  cricket  eleven,  and
entered  Balliol  College,  Oxford,  in  1827.  He
soon  distinguished  himself  as  a  speaker  at  the
Union,  and  his  contemporaries  remembered
him  as  a  very  handsome  and  smartly-dressed
undergraduate,  with  much  self-confidence  and
lofty  ambitions.  His  father  wished  him  to  be
a,  clergyman,  but  he  had  set  his  heart  on
political  life,  and  was  studiously  preparing
himself  for  it,  when  his  father  became  bank-
rupt, and  all  hopes  of  an  independent  future
were  .dissipated.  In  order  to  make  a  living
he  accepted  a  clerkship  in  the  Colonial  Office,
but  the  work  was  distasteful  to  him  and  he
soon  resigned  it.  He  had  taken  his  degree,
with  a  First  Class  in  Classics,  at  the  end  of
1830,  and  he  was  elected  to  a  Fellowship  at
Merton  College  in  1832.  He  had  now  made
up  his  mind  to  seek  holy  orders.  In
December  1832  he  was  ordained  deacon
by  Bishop  Bagot  of  Oxford,  and  in  January
1833  he  went  to  Lavington,  Sussex,  as  curate
to  a  well-known  Evangelical,  the  Rev.  John
Sargent,  who  was  both  squire  and  rector.
On  the  3rd  of  May  in  the  same  year  Mr.
Sargent  died,  and  Manning  was  appointed  to
be  rector.  On  the  7th  November  he  married
his  late  rector's  daughter,  Caroline  Sargent,
whose  eldest  sister  had  married  Samuel
Wilberforce  (q.v.).  In  1837  Mrs.  Manning
died.  There  were  no  children  of  the  marriage.
Manning  was  an  energetic  parish-priest.
