Lord John Manners

A carte-de-visite portrait of Lord John James Robert Manners (1818-1906), from 1888 the 7th Duke of Rutland.

He was born at Belvoir Castle on 13 December 1818, the younger son of the 5th Duke of Rutland by Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Lord Byron's guardian, the 5th Earl of Carlisle. Lord John Manners, as he then was, was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1841 he was returned for Newark in the Tory interest, along with Gladstone, and sat for that borough until 1847. Subsequently he sat for Colchester, 1850–57; for North Leicestershire, 1857–85; and for Melton from 1885 until 1888, when his brother died and he succeeded to the dukedom, taking his seat in the House of Lords.

In the early 1840s Manners was a leading figure in the Young England movement, led by Benjamin Disraeli. During the three short administrations of Lord Derby (1852, 1858-1859, and 1866-1868) he sat in the cabinet as First Commissioner of Works. On the return of the Conservatives to power in 1874 he became Postmaster-General under Disraeli, and was made GCB on his retirement in 1880. He was again Postmaster-General in Lord Salisbury's administration, 1885-86, and was head of the department when sixpenny telegrams were introduced. Finally, in the Conservative government of 1886-92 he was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Lord Manners married twice and had a total of five children. He died at Belvoir Castle on 4 August 1906.

Photographed by Camille Silvy of London on 18 July 1861.