He was descended from Sir Richard St George of Cambridgeshire who in 1666 was granted extensive lands in the counties of Galway, Roscommon, Limerick and Queen’s County (County Laois) by the Cromwell Administration.
On 11 December 1789, a decree by His Majesty’s Court of Exchequer, ordered the sale of the property of defendant Charles Manners St. George, a minor (age 3 yrs) in Co. Roscommon and Co. Leitrim, to include the Manor of Carrickdrumarusk. Instead, his father’s estate passed to his 1st cousin, Richard St George (1757-98) who died during the United Irish Rebellion.
From 1797, Charles Manners St George spent ten years living in Germany and in France with his mother, an Irish writer (best known for her journals and correspondence) who remarried in 1803.
DIPLOMAT
Educated at Trinity College Cambridge, Charles Manners St George served in India for four years acting as Attache Charge D’Affaire, to his uncle Lord Howden. Over the course of 20 years he served as secretary of legation at British embassies at Brussels, Vienna, Frankfort, Stockholm, and in 1826, he was appointed Secretary to his Majesty’s Legation at the Court of Turin.
HATLEY MANOR
In 1829, the area known as St George’s Terrace in Carrick today, was sold by Charles Manners St George to Captain Charles Cox, his agent. There, between the old courthouse and the town clock, Cox erected four houses with arch doorways and a large mansion designed by B King. Upon its completion in 1830, Charles Manners St George bought it back from Captain Cox and named it Hatley Manor after the St George ancestral home in Cambridgeshire.
HIGH SHERRIFF of COUNTY LEITRIM
In 1839, Charles Manners St George, Esq was appointed High Sherriff and chaired the General Irish Railways Committee. He often rubbed shoulders with Henry Grattan MP. At this time his residence was at 3 Merrion Square, Dublin.
ST. GEORGE THE LANDLORD
Charles Manners St George was a kind landlord. He opened a library for the inhabitants of Carrick-on-Shannon in 1837 (which was not much used).
In 1860 he appointed William Lawder Esq of Riversdale, Ballinamore in Co. Leitrim as agent to his estates in Leitrim, Roscommon, Waterford, Tipperary, and King’s County (Offaly).
Charles Manners St George Died On the 22nd November aged 78. He was interred in an elaborate Victorian-Classical mausoleum (erected by his wife) on the grounds of Hatley Manor.
NEXT GENERATION
The St George’s had no children. In 1873 Petronella Hallberg, niece of Kristina (nee Hallberg) St George, married Charles Whyte of Newtown Manor and the Whytes inherited Hatley Manor and much of the St George property (over 1600 acres in 1876).