Family History

Margaret Stites


Margaret STITES 

James MANNING and Jeremiah MANNING, both of the County of Essex - bound to William Franklin, Governor  £500 - 22 Mar 1763 -  James MANNING - license of marriage for himself and for Margaret STITES of the county aforesaid (w) John MacKay (consent)  Borough Elizabeth(town) Dec 30: 1762 
These are to certify  James MANNING of same to marry our daughter Margaret.
signed John STITES, Margaret STITES.

"James Manning......it is said that his wife, who had been Miss Margaret Stites of Elizabethtown, was lovely in person and possessed of those "elegant accomplishments and superior qualities which well accorded with her husband's character and happily fitted her for the discharge of duties inseparable from public positions of honor and usefulness."....."3 

Portraits of Margaret & James Manning are in the Brown Universities Portrait collection. Brown acquired its first portrait in 1815, a painting of its founding president James Manning, through a bequest of his widow. It was one of the pair of paintings the couple had made by the Scottish portraitist Cosmo Alexander when they moved to Providence in 1770. Margaret's painting was initially bequeathed to a niece, but seventy-seven years later her heirs bequeathed Margaret's portrait to Brown University and the pair of portraits was reunited.
[Acknowledgements to Brown University - http://dl.lib.brown.edu/portraits/intro.html]

A letter by Margaret's niece Maria (daughter of Dr. John Stites) mentioned the portraits :-
"I sent the pictures wich we consider'd while with ous the most valuable ornaments in our house, with that of my dear father, wich I have sent to be scoward and framed in the same manner - Mr Bowering took every Papist that came to the house up in the Drawing room to show the likeness of Dr Maning & Lady, they were much admired. I hope they where done as you would like to have had them. I had them scoward and varnished not only to preserve the paintings but that they might be washed when durty, a soft clouth and a little soap suds will not hurt them now."
[Letter by Maria Bowering, formerly M'Lean nee Stites, to her aunt to Margaret Manning nee Stites in June 1806 - The James Manning Papers 1761-1827 - Brown University Manuscript collection]

Last Will & Testament.

Children were:

child  
child

Sources
2. New Jersey Marriage bonds, Vol. M; 1735-1794, #232, LDS FHLC film #0888706
3. 'The New England Magazine' May 1899 Vol XX No. 3, pg's 293-314 - 'Brown University' by Henry Robinson Palmer.

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