Manly family.

Charles Manly (1795-1891), last Whig governor of North Carolina, 1849-1851, was born in Chatham County, the son of Captain Basil Manly. His siblings included the Reverend Basil Manly, president of the University of Alabama; Matthias Manly, justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina; and Louisa Sophia, whose second husband was Pleasant M. Powell, a planter of Powellton, N.C.

In 1817, after graduating from the University of North Carolina and studying law in Raleigh, Charles Manly married Charity Hare Haywood, daughter of William H. Haywood, Sr., a prominent Raleigh banker. Charity Hare Haywood was the sister of William Henry Haywood Jr., United States senator, and sister-in-law of Edward B. Dudley, governor of North Carolina, 1836-1840. Manly's legal career centered in Raleigh, where he practiced law before and after his term as governor. He also owned the large plantation, Ingleside, northeast of Raleigh in Wake County.

The Manlys had twelve children. The oldest daughter was Ann Eliza (b. 1818). The oldest son, John Haywood (1820-1874), practiced law in Galveston, Tex. Langdon Cheves (1822-circa 1890), often referred to as Chev, became a physician in Raleigh. Charles Jr. (1824-1848) and William Henry (1826-1848) both died as young men. Cora (1829-1876), known as Sis Co or C, married George Badger Singeltary, a lawyer of Greenville, in 1853 or 1854. Singeltary became a Confederate colonel and was killed in 1862 (see The Confederate Reveille (1898)). A fifth son died as a baby. The third daughter, Julia (1832-1900), married James McDowell, owner of Quaker Meadows Plantation near Morganton, and had a number of children. McDowell also served as a Confederate colonel and was killed in the war. In 1855, Helen (1835-1921) married John Gray Blount Grimes, a planter of Pitt County, who served as a Confederate captain and was imprisoned during the war. They had six children, one of whom, Olivia Blount Grimes, was the donor of this collection.

Between 1855 and 1863, Sophia Louisa (b. 1837), the governor's next youngest daughter, received hundreds of letters from relatives and friends. Her correspondents included Sally Bett Tayloe and Clara Hoyt of Washington, N.C., and Annie and Fannie de Roulhac of Orange County. Fannie later married Daniel Heyward Hamilton and was the mother of J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, founder of the Southern Historical Collection. Sophia's most persistent beau between 1858 and 1863 was Thomas Chapeau Singeltary, younger brother of her brother-in-law George Badger Singletary, law student, and eventually also a Confederate colonel, commanding the 44th Regiment after his brother's death. Sometime after 1863, Sophie married Edward Jones Hardin, who bought the McDowell plantation, and moved with him to Texas.

Basil Charles (1839-1882), the governor's youngest son, a Confederate major (lst Artillery, 10th Regiment), managed the Ingleside plantation, practiced law, and served as mayor of Raleigh. The youngest daughter, Ida (1844-1908), like her sisters, carried on an ample correspondence.

Sources of this historical note and chart are Ashe's Biographical History of North Carolina, volume 6; The Confederate Reveille (1898); and Robert K. Krick, Lee's Colonels (1984).

Manly Family

Haywood Family

From the guide to the Manly Family Papers, 1782-1936 (bulk 1847-1870), (Southern Historical Collection)