Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mann, Nicholas

582521Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 36 — Mann, Nicholas1893Gordon Goodwin

MANN, NICHOLAS (d. 1753), master of the Charterhouse, a native of Tewkesbury, proceeded in 1699 from Eton to King's College, Cambridge, of which he was elected fellow, and graduated B.A. in 1703, M.A. in 1707. At college he was tutor to the Marquis of Blandford, but afterwards became an assistant-master at Eton, and then one of the clerks in the secretary's office under Lord Townshend. He travelled in France and Italy, and on his return was appointed king's waiter at the custom house, and keeper of the standing wardrobe at Windsor. Through the interest of the Marlborough family he was elected master of the Charterhouse on 19 Aug. 1737. At his institution he is said to have shocked the Archbishop of Canterbury by professing himself an Arian (Bishop Newton, Life, pp. 20–1). He died at Bath on 24 Nov. 1753, and was buried in the piazza at the Charterhouse, having some years before affixed his own epitaph over the chapel door. By will he bequeathed his library and collection of manuscripts (excepting those of his own composition) to Eton College.

Mann, who was an excellent scholar and antiquary, wrote: 1. ‘Of the True Years of the Birth and of the Death of Christ; two Chronological Dissertations,’ 8vo, London, 1733 (Latin version, with additions, 1742 and 1752). 2. ‘Critical Notes on some passages of Scripture’ (anon.), 8vo, London, 1747. Richard Gough had in his possession a copy of Gale's ‘Antonini Iter’ profusely annotated by Mann (Nichols, Bibliotheca, No. 2, p. vii of Preface).

[Harwood's Alumni Eton. p. 283; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 165, 194; Addit. MS. 5876, f. 180 b; Jones's Journey to Paris in 1776, ii. 31; will in P. C. C. 322, Searle.]

G. G.