Mander family

Blazon of Mander baronets

The Mander family has held for over 200 years a prominent position in the Midland counties of England, both in the family business and public life. In the early Industrial Revolution, the Mander family entered the vanguard of the expansion of Wolverhampton, on the edge of the largest manufacturing conurbation in the British Isles. Mander Brothers was a major employer in the city of Wolverhampton, a progressive company which became the Number One manufacturers of varnish, paint and later printing ink in the British Empire. The family became distinguished for public service, art patronage and philanthropy. Charles Tertius Mander (1852–1929) was created the first baronet of The Mount in the baronetage of the United Kingdom in the Coronation honours of George V, on 8 July 1911.

Early history

The family were franklins, settled by 1291 at Tredington on the Warwickshire/Worcestershire borders of Midland England. The Wolverhampton family descends from Henry Mander (1601–72), of Aston Cantlow, whose son, Samuel Mander, migrated about 1695 to Lapworth Hall (also known as 'Irelands'), where the family remained for about 200 years. In 1742, his grandson Thomas Mander (1720–1764), a younger son, migrated a few miles north to Wolverhampton, then a market town of just 7,500 people. There he settled as a merchant, maltster and manufacturer, and in due course inherited property from the family of his wife, Elizabeth Clemson, in John Street, which today forms the core of the modern city.

Mander baronetcy

The Mander baronetcy, of The Mount, Tettenhall Wood, in the County of Staffordshire, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on 8 July 1911 in the Coronation honours of King George V, for Sir Charles Tertius Mander, English varnish and colour manufacturer (and as such Royal Warrant holder) and public servant.

Coat of arms of Mander of The Mount
Adopted
Grant (Heraldic College, England), 30 May 1901
Crest
On a wreath of the colours, a demi-lion couped ermine holding in the paws two annulets interlaced fessewise gules, between two buffalo horns of the last.
Escutcheon
Gules, on a pile invected erminois, three annulets interlaced, two and one of the field.
Motto
Vive Bene ('Live Well').

Family members

Hereafter, the eldest sons of the senior line of the family have been given the first name Charles:

Other members of the family

Descendants of the above Henry Mander (1601–72), of Aston Cantlow

  • The Hon. Francis Mander (1849–1942) was a member of the Parliament of New Zealand and of the Legislative Council. He stood first as an Independent Conservative and then from 1909 for the Reform Party. He won the Marsden electorate in Northland in the 1902 general election, which he held until 1922, when he retired. He was subsequently appointed to the Legislative Council in 1923 and served to 1930. In business he was a pioneer sawmiller and owner of The Northern Chronicle newspaper, based in Whangarei. He then purchased a popular newspaper, The Northern Advocate, and closed the Chronicle. He was the father of the noted New Zealand novelist and journalist, Jane Mander.
  • Jane Mander (1877–1949) was one of the foremost New Zealand novelists of the early twentieth century. Her most successful novels were The Story of a New Zealand River (1920) and Allen Adair (1925). She was the daughter of the above Francis Mander and started as a journalist writing for his newspaper, The Northern Advocate.
  • (Samuel) Theodore Mander (1853–1900), paint and varnish manufacturer, public servant and philanthropist, was the eldest of seven children of Samuel Small Mander. He was educated at London and Berlin Universities, and at Clare College, Cambridge. He entered the partnership of Mander Brothers with his first cousin Charles Tertius Mander in 1879. As a Congregationalist with a fervent interest in the arts and education, he was active in the building of the Wolverhampton Free Library, governor of several local schools and of Birmingham University (where he endowed a scholarship), and one of the founding benefactors of Mansfield College, Oxford, the first Nonconformist college in the university, as his father had been of Tettenhall College, established in 1862 for the children of those disadvantaged for their religious principles. A selection of his journals and letters was edited and published in 1996. He was an art collector and patron, and is remembered as the builder of Wightwick Manor in 1887 and 1893 to the designs of Edward Ould, with decorations and furnishings by C.E. Kempe, William Morris and William de Morgan, which was given by his son Geoffrey Mander to the National Trust in 1937. He was an alderman and magistrate, who died in office as Mayor of Wolverhampton at Wightwick Manor on 14 September 1901 at the early age of 47, when he was given a civic funeral.
  • Sir Geoffrey Le Mesurier Mander (1882–1962), was the eldest son of (Samuel) Theodore Mander, the builder of Wightwick Manor. He was a Midland industrialist and chairman of Mander Brothers, an art collector and radical parliamentarian. He was the Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton East from May 1929 until he lost his seat in the Labour Party landslide at the 1945 general election. He was the Liberal Party specialist on foreign policy between the wars, strongly anti-Appeasement and a crusader on behalf of the League of Nations. He gave Wightwick Manor, with its outstanding collections of Victorian art, to the National Trust in 1937. His second wife, Rosalie Glynn Grylls, was a biographer of writers and artists (particularly female "Pre-Raphael-ladies") of the Romantic period, and an early authority on William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelite movement. His autobiography was published posthumously in 2021 as Lemons for Chamberlain: The Life and Backbench Career of Geoffrey Mander MP, edited by Patricia Pegg.
  • Sir Frederick Mander FEIS (1883–1964) was a headmaster and trade unionist and the General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) from 1931 to 1947. Mander College of Further Education in Bedford College was named after him. Born in Luton, Bedfordshire, he was descended from the above Henry Mander of Aston Cantlow.
  • Miles Mander (1888–1946), younger brother of Geoffrey, broke away from the mould of public service and industry, and became a well-known character actor of the Hollywood cinema of the 1930s and 1940s, and film director, playwright and novelist. He was an early aviator and racing car enthusiast, who spent his 20s in New Zealand farming sheep. He achieved success in films with The First Born which he directed and acted in, and which was based on his own novel and play. He is better remembered for his character portrayals of oily types, many of them upper-crust villains – such as Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers (1939). In his Hollywood debut, he portrayed King Louis XIII in the 1935 version of that same Alexandre Dumas, père classic. Other films credits included Wuthering Heights with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon. His first wife was an Indian princess, Princess Prativa Sundari Devi, the daughter of the Maharajah Nripendra Narayan of Cooch Behar. His youngest brother Alan married her sister, Princess Sudhira.
  • John Mander (1932–1978), a British political commentator, writer, translator from the German, editor and poet, was the younger son of Geoffrey Mander by his second wife, the author and biographer Rosalie Glynn Grylls.
  • Raymond Mander (1911–1983), theatre historian, author and collector. Together with Joe Mitchenson, he was the founder of the Mander and Mitchenson Theatre Collection (MMTC) of theatrical memorabilia and archives, since 2010 housed in the Theatre Collection of the University of Bristol.
  • Lewis Norman Mander, AC, FAA, FRS (1939–2020) was an Australian organic chemist; of the New Zealand branch of the family, he was born in Auckland. He has widely explored the synthesis and chemistry of the gibberellin class of diterpenes over a 20-year period at the Australian National University (ANU).

See also

Sources

References

  1. ↑ "Manders".
  2. 1 2 History of Mander Brothers, Whitehead Brothers, n.d. [1952].
  3. ↑ Mosley, Charles, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003) |volume=2 |page=2589, sub Mander baronetcy of the Mount [U.K.], cr. 1911.
  4. ↑ The Red Book of the Bishopric of Worcestershire, transcribed from a lost volume by Dr W. Thomas in the eighteenth century [PRO], ed Margery Hollings, Worcs. Historical Soc., London, 1934–50, vol. 3, p. 284
  5. ↑ Nicholas Mander, Borromean Rings: The Genealogy of the Mander Family, 2011; revised and enlarged edition, 2023
  6. ↑ Mander, Nicholas (2011). Borromean Rings: The Genealogy of the Mander Family. The Owlpen Press. pp. 2–5.
  7. ↑ Joy Woodall, Portrait of Lapworth, 1986
  8. ↑ "Manders".
  9. 1 2 Mander, G.P. (1960) A History of Wolverhampton to the Early Nineteenth Century. Wolverhampton Corporation. Page 19
  10. ↑ Official Roll of the Baronets (Standing Council of the Baronetage, 2017)
  11. ↑ Grant 72/174 to Charles Tertius Mander confirmed by Sir Albert William Woods, Garter, and George Edward Cokayne, Clarenceux, Heraldic Coll. 30 May 1901, with extended limitation to descendants of Charles Benjamin Mander and Samuel Small Mander. (Ermine three Annulets interlaced gules occurs as arms for Mandere in Smith’s Ordinary (1599); the shield was confirmed by Edward Bysshe, Garter, to Thomas Maunder, of Cornelly, Cornwall, in 1657, together with the grant of a crest. These were confirmed with differences by Edward Walker (officer of arms), 1660.)
  12. ↑ "Armorial families: a directory of gentlemen of coat-armour". ebooksread. Archived from the original on 7 October 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  13. ↑ "Nicholas Mander's new book".
  14. ↑ "Benjamin Mander blue plaque".
  15. ↑ "12 George Street, Wolverhampton".
  16. ↑ "Nicholas Mander's new book".
  17. ↑ "Nicholas Mander's new book".
  18. ↑ Benjamin Mander. The King versus B. Mander and Eight Others: The Trial at Large of the Committee of the Flour and Bread Co. (of which Benjamin Mander was Chairman) at Stafford Summer Assizes, 1814, 1956 (reprinted)
  19. ↑ History of Mander Brothers, Whitehead Brothers, n.d. 1952
  20. ↑ Will of Thomas Mander, Factor of Five Ways near Birmingham , Warwickshire. 22 October 1813.
  21. ↑ H.J. Blanch, Martin Rywell, English Guns and Gun Makers, Pioneer Press,1956, p. 158
  22. ↑ "Osier Bed Iron Works".
  23. ↑ "Nicholas Mander's new book".
  24. ↑ Ward, John, Blood Money: an incident in Wolverhampton with national consequences, Wolverhampton Public Libraries, 1988
  25. ↑ Burke, Peter, The Romance of the Forum, series 1, vol. II, 1854, pp. 18–34
  26. ↑ Charles Mander, A Minute Detail of Circumstances relative to the Old Meeting House in John Street, Wolverhampton, a case of great importance to orthodox dissenters, Wolverhampton, 26 March 1819, 16p.
  27. ↑ "Nicholas Mander's new book".
  28. ↑ Thomas Smith James, The History of the Litigation and Legislation respecting Presbyterian Chapels and Charities in England and Ireland, between 1816 and 1849, 1867, pp. 209–227, passim.
  29. ↑ Jones, J., Historical Sketch of the Art and Literary Institutions of Wolverhampton, from the year 1794 to 1897, 1897
  30. ↑ "Blue Plaques – the Wolverhampton Society".[permanent dead link]
  31. ↑ https://www.blackcountryhistory.org/collections/getrecord/GB149_P_3953[permanent dead link]
  32. ↑ Jones, J. The Mayors of Wolverhampton, vol. 2, [n.d.] [contains contemporary biographical essay]
  33. 1 2 "History - the Mayor of the City of Wolverhampton Council".
  34. 1 2 "Freemen of Wolverhampton". Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies and Wolverhampton Arts and Museums Services. Archived from the original on 7 May 2013.
  35. ↑ The County of Stafford and many of its family records. Exeter: Wm Pollard & Co., 1897.
  36. 1 2 3 History of Mander Brothers, Whitehead Brothers, n.d. [1952].
  37. ↑ Obituary in The Times, 10 April 1929.
  38. ↑ ‘Quaestor’ (W. Byford-Jones), I Met them in the Midlands, Midland News Assn., 1937.
  39. 1 2 Nicholas Mander. Varnished Leaves: a biography of the Mander family of Wolverhampton. Owlpen Press, 2004. Contains biography of Sir Charles Arthur Mander, with account of public life and career, and extracts from his World War I journals of the campaign in Egypt and Palestine.
  40. ↑ "Waterton Lakes National Park: Know Before You Go". 12 September 2022.
  41. ↑ "Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park".
  42. ↑ Mosley, Charles, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 2, page 2589, sub Mander baronetcy of the Mount [U.K.], cr. 1911.
  43. 1 2 "Sir Charles Mander, Bt". The Daily Telegraph. 25 August 2006.
  44. 1 2 Obituaries in The Daily Telegraph, Birmingham Post, Express & Star and other Midland newspapers.
  45. ↑ Official Roll of the Baronets (Standing Council of the Baronetage, 2017).
  46. ↑ Who’s Who, A&C Black, 2020.
  47. ↑ Who’s Who, A & C Black, various editions.
  48. ↑ Kidd, Charles (editor), Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, Debrett’s, 2008, B 626-7.
  49. ↑
    • Wilson, Jim (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.
  50. 1 2 Nicholas Mander, Borromean Rings: The Genealogy of the Mander Family, 2011; second edition, revised and expanded, 2023
  51. ↑ Geoffrey Troughton (1998). The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature. History Cooperative.
  52. ↑ A.G. Matthews, The Congregational Churches of Staffordshire, 1924, p. 235
  53. ↑ A very private heritage: the family papers of Samuel Theodore Mander of Wolverhampton, 1853–1900 (edited Patricia Pegg ed.). Malvern: Images Publishing. 1996.
  54. ↑ Hamilton, Polly (2004). 'Mander, (Samuel) Theodore (1853–1900)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press.
  55. ↑ Patricia Pegg, Lemons for Chamberlain: The Life and Backbench Career of Geoffrey Mander MP (Mantle Lane Press, 2021)
  56. ↑ Mander, Nicholas (Winter 2006–2007). "The Last of the Midland Radicals; biography of Sir Geoffrey Mander, Liberal MP for Wolverhampton East, 1929–45". Journal of Liberal History (53).
  57. ↑ "Amazon" – via Amazon.
  58. ↑ David Crook, 'Mander, Sir Frederick (1883–1964)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 14 April 2018
  59. ↑ "Obituary". The Times. 8 September 1978.
  60. ↑ "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/76065. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  61. ↑ "Obituary: Raymond Mander", The Times, 23 December 1983, p. 12
  62. ↑ "Mander, Lewis Norman (Lew) - Biographical entry - Encyclopedia of Australian Science". The University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre.