The Curse of Manaton

Admiral Cornthwaite Ommanney married Martha Manaton in 1773. Every English Ommanney I have found can be traced back to Cornthwaite and Martha, and it seems that they remembered her because 'Manaton' reappears frequently as a given name in the succeeding generations.

For such a successful family, though, it is remarkable how much bad luck seems to have fallen into the path of those Ommanneys with the Manaton name. With the notable exception of Admiral Henry Manaton Ommanney (1778-1857), who somehow managed to live a full and successful life*, other Manatons met an unfortunate fate:

Manaton Collingwood Ommanney (1813-1857) died at the siege of Lucknow. According to A Personal Narrative of the Siege of Lucknow by L.E. Ruutz Rees (1858), 'he was quietly sitting in his chair when a cannon ball hit him on the head and scattered a portion of his brains...', which seems unlucky, even in a siege. He died shortly after. His wife and daughters made it out alive, and will be the subjects of another post.

Ernest Manaton Ommanney, son of Francis Ommanney and Julia Metcalfe, died in Brighton at the age of ten in 1862.

Manaton Francis Ommanney, son of Manaton Collingwood Ommanney, was not present at the Siege of Lucknow, but died in England just a few weeks after appearing in the 1861 census, at age 13.       
       
Octavia Manaton Ommanney (1856-1928) lived a long life, but as the only spinster among her sisters was left with the task of nursing the irascible Octavius Ommanney (of whom much more is said in another post) through his long declining years as an invalid. When he died in 1901, poor Octavia was handed the task of nursemaiding her great-nephews and nieces.

Arthur Manaton Ommanney (born 21 November 1842) was randomly murdered in Bengal in October 1865:

Waterford Chronicle, 1 December 1865

MURDER OF A BRITISH OFFICER IN INDIA

Another victim has fallen by the hand of a fanatic assassin on the frontier (says the Lahore Chronicle of October 7). Arthur Manaton Ommanney Lieut. in the Cavalry of the Guide Corps stationed at Murdan, was riding on the evening of the 3r inst. past the house in which the band practices, when a Musselman approached him saying he had a petition to make; at the same time, seizing the horse’s rein he stabbed poor Ommonney with a knife under the right armpit. The murderer was immediately apprehended by the bandsmen, and is now in safe custody. He states that he is a native of Bela, near Jelallahad, a follower of Synd Moharuk Shah of Mulkah and had come to Murdan with the express determination of taking the life of a “Feringhee” in revenge for the burding of Mulkah, during the Umbeylah campaign. After the above was in type we received information that the murderer, having been convicted on the clearest evidence, was hanged on the 5th inst.

Henry Manaton Ommanney (1871-1910) died in his 30s.

Harold Manaton Ommanney (1884-1965) was imprisoned for, and ruined by, fraud.

Yorkshire Evening Post, 28 June 1939

PENAL SERVITUDE FOR SOLICITOR

CLIENTS’ MONEY “CRUELLY PLUNDERED” FOR YEARS

Harold Manaton Ommanney (55), partner in a firm of London solicitors, flushed and bowed his head in the dock at the Old Bailey to-day when Mr Justice Hilbery told him: “For years and years you have been cruelly plundering your clients”. ...Detective-Inspector Journing said that Ommanney was married with a son and a daughter. From 1914 to 1919 he served as an able seaman in the RNVR...

Mr G D Roberts, for the defence, said Ommanney did not wish to try to shift the responsibility for what he admitted onto other shoulders. It was clear from the tragic history of the case that the overdrawings started in 1917, before Ommanney was an active member of the firm.

Ommanney was away on active service until he was demobilised in February, 1919. The overdrawings started in a comparatively small way, and when Ommanney came back he ought to have stopped them, but he was too weak. Each year the position became worse and each year he became less capable of taking that strong action.

From small beginnings the fraud grew and grew. Ommanney was now utterly and completely ruined.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Hilbery said the prisoner... began with an education which put him into surroundings where the influences brought to bear on him could be nothing but the best. From those bright beginnings he stood now disgraced, ruined and in the shadow of gaol...

Harold Manaton Ommanney was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment on 28 June 1939. He was struck off in November 1939.



*Mostly. He did have to watch his son being court-martialled and demoted, permanently as it turned out, according to one source because of a disagreement with Admiral Ommanney himself.