Peter Manigault (1731-1773)

He was born at Charleston, South Carolina, and was educated there and in England. He studied law at the Inner Temple in London and was called to the English Bar in 1754. Having then travelled extensively in Europe, he returned to Charleston and established his own legal practice on Church Street. From 1763, he managed Ralph Izard's Goose Neck plantation (growing rice and indigo) and handled business in the colony from banking to slave-trading for various firms in London. He acquired further land grants in Berkeley, Colleton and Craven counties, and used his wealth to decorate his house with expensive furniture, silver, and a library with books on law, science, theology, philosophy, history and classics valued at £3,000. He was on the committee to establish what became the College of Charleston and donated £147 to the College of Philadelphia. He was elected to the Royal Assembly and was Speaker of the House from 1765 until ill health forced him to resign in 1772. He was described as a classical scholar, a witty and eloquent speaker, and actively supported the Revolution.

Through his father's inheritance and his own enterprise he was considered to be one of the wealthiest men in the colony. In 1755, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Wragg, one of the largest slave traders in British North America. They were the parents of seven children, four of whom (listed above) survived to adulthood and each of them married into the equally wealthy and influential Izard, Drayton, Middleton and Heyward families.