• Name: Manning, Thomas
• Gender: Male
• Birth Date: 8  November  1772
• Death Date: 2  May  1840
• Occupation: traveller
• Occupation: writer on China

Thomas Manning (1772-1840), traveller and writer on China, was a great friend and correspondent of Charles Lamb.

Manning appears with George Tuthill, a contemporary of Thomas Manning at Cambridge in the 1790s, on a number of occasions. He calls on Godwin in December 1801 'pour prendre congé' and the DNB notes that Thomas went to Paris in 1802 for three years. Godwin's lack of concern about distinguishing between Thomas Manning and the Manning he knew in 1794-5 may suggest that the earlier Manning was no longer in his circle, a suposition supported by the five year gap between 1795 and 1800.

Thomas Manning returned from a three-year sojourn in Paris in January 1805 and it is probable that all contacts with Manning are with Thomas. This cannot be said with certainty however as James Manning also socialized with Lamb, as Lucas's Life of Charles Lamb, I, p. 386 testifies. The fact that the contacts cease in May 1806 makes Thomas almost certainly the Manning referred to as he sailed to China that month. During this period, Thomas Manning was in China, Lamb seems to have consorted with James Manning (other possible identifications are Thomas's brother Edward and William but these seem improbable as they are scarcely mentioned in his correspondence with Thomas and were not, as far as can be told, based in London). On his return to England in 1817, the identications are less certain as the Manning entries may refer to either Thomas or James. However, given the warmth of Lamb's regard for Thomas, the entries have been coded as him.

• See DNB
• E.V. Lucas, The Life of Charles Lamb (London: Metheun & Co., 1921).
• St Clair, The Godwins and the Shelleys
• Marshall, William Godwin

This table lists the people this person is most frequently noted with in the diary.