Early Life
Tradition holds that John Manley was born in 1733 near Torquay, Devonshire, in south west England. As a young man, he settled in Marblehead, Massachusetts, eventually becoming the captain of a merchant vessel there. For reasons apparently lost to history, Manley went by the name of John Russell during his time spent in Marblehead, where he married Martha Russell (née Hickman) on September 27, 1764, and by whom he had at least two sons and three daughters. Outside of Marblehead, John continued to use the surname Manley. Modern historian John L. Nelson acknowledges the above accounts, but suggests that they were "made up", and that in actuality Manley was likely born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, where he later became a merchant sea captain and married Hannah Cheevers in 1763, by which he had one surviving son John. All of the sources place Manley in Boston by 1775 after his services were enlisted for the nascent Continental Navy.
Read more about this topic: John Manley (naval Officer)
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