A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Manton, John
MANTON. (Retired Commander, 1839. f-p., 19; h-p., 32.)
John Manton was born 14 May, 1782, in London, and died in July, 1846. He was son of John Manton, Esq., of co. Lincoln.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 Jan. 1796, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Agincourt 64, Capt. John Williamson, and after enacting a Midshipman’s part in the action off Camperdown 11 Oct. 1797, removed to the Romney 50, Capts. John Lawford and Sir Home Popliam. Being lent on his arrival in that ship at the Cape of Good Hope to the Spitfire tender, it was his lot, after conveying despatches to Bombay, to be wrecked in 1801 on a coral-reef in the Indian Ocean; in consequence whereof he was subjected, with the rest of the ship’s company, to the severest privations for nearly a whole month each person’s allowance of water, during that period, being restricted to half-a-pint a-day. The advent of a vessel sent to their assistance at length enabling them to be rescued, Mr. Manton rejoined the Romney, in which vessel he continued until May, 1803. Prior to the latter date he appears, on the occasion of a visit to the Red Sea, to have landed, for the purpose of procuring a supply of water, in the neighbourhood of Mount Felix, where his party, 11 in number, was suddenly attacked by a body of the natives, lying in ambush, who murdered all but himself and a Midshipman, the present Commander Wm. Savage. That officer was severely wounded in the head, and only escaped by being forcibly dragged to a boat by Mr. Manton, who succeeded in keeping the enemy at bay until they were both out of danger. In June, 1803, having returned to England,[1] he was received on board the Colossus 74, Capt. Geo. Martin; and on 17 March, 1806, after a servitude of 18 months off the port of Cadiz and in the Channel in the Polyphemus 64, and Audacious and Impétueux 74’s, each under the orders of Capt. John Lawford, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and appointed to the command of the Alphea schooner on the Bermuda and Newfoundland stations, where he continued until Feb. 1808. During the remainder of the war we find him employed, with intervals, in the Redpole 10, Capt. John Joyce, Impétueux 74, Capt. John Lawford, and Amelia and Niger 38’s, Capts. Hon. Fred. Paul Irby and Peter Rainier. He was wounded, in the Redfole, in an action with a French brig-of- war off _Bordeaux; accompanied, in the Impétueux, the expedition to the Walcheren; and when Senior of the Niger, and in company with the Tagus 38, assisted, 6 Jan. 1814, at the capture, among the Cape de Verde Islands, of the French 40-gun frigate Cérès. His conduct on the latter occasion afforded Capt. Rainier, who sent him home in command of the prize, an opportunity of recommending him to the notice of the Admiralty as a deserving officer.[2] During a subsequent cruize off the coast of Africa, Lieut. Manton was placed in charge of a Portuguese slaver, whose crew, with 50 of the negroes, rose in the night, and, after inflicting on him eight wounds in the head and hands, retook their vessel and carried the British prisoners to Pernambuco, where they were for a short time confined. His last appointment was, 7 April, 1820, to the Coast Guard, in which service he remained for a period of 21 months. He retired with the rank of Commander 15 July, 1839.
He married, in 1808, Elizabeth, daughter of John Wills, Esq., Government Contractor, of Plymouth, by whom he has issue two daughters.