| Notes |
- From The Genealogical and Biographical History of the Manning Families of New England (citation details below):
He graduated at Harvard College in 1725; the first of his name to enter that institution of learning, and, settling in his native town, was for more than 50 years a physician. As such he was eminent, and long and favorably known. Younger men, preparing for the medical profession, studied under his instruction. It is fortunate that the inventory of his estate, taken after his decease, names in detail sundry books which constituted his medical library, and it is safe to believe that, for that period, it was a very extensive equipment, comprising, as it did, twenty different works which were mentioned specifically, and of which eight were of two volumes each. The list is valuable, too, in that it shows what authors were then of good standing. Some other items of the inventory are in the line of his profession, and carry us directly to the typical old-time doctor's office -- the eleven pill pots; the iron mortar, the bell metal mortar and the lignum vitae mortar, each with its appropriate pestle; the gallipot; the three-gallon glass bottle, the five-quart and 30 smaller bottles, and the eleven bottles of "white dint with flint 'stopples.'" His library was not confined to what has been indicated above, for he had "120 bound books on Different subjects" and "a large number of pamphletes," the nature of which cannot be known. A doctor of that day was a man second in importance only to the local minister, and one much respected, looked up to and consulted. His education was far superior to that of his neighbors, and he was credited with profound wisdom. He was the learned associate of the minister, and often called upon in public and private business affairs. Such was the typical doctor, and we may be sure that Dr. Manning filled a like position in his own community. Furthermore, the testimony of those who knew him personally has been handed down through the generations, and is to the effect that "he was above the average, both in bodily and mental endowments; a skillful and trusted physician, and withal a very good man. He had a spice of roguish slyness, and was not averse to exciting, sometimes, the puzzled amazement of his less acute and more credulous neighbors. An example may be given. Dr. Manning owned the lot which is nearly opposite to the present town house, and put up the square edifice still standing there. To make a substantial wall upon the river side he needed large stones. In the river-bed, a mile or two down, there were boulders in abundance. Selecting at low tide one of these, he would put a chain about it and so mark its position as to be able to find it with no other light but the stars and moon. At night, the ebbing tide would find the wily doctor with his boat anchored over the rock, which would soon after be grappled to the little skiff. Then as the sea wave came, the lifting and wafting force of the water was all that was needed to place the boulder in the very spot where he wished to have it. Small wonder that passers by on the following morning, seeing a large stone a lying where no stone had been the night before, and looking like a vast meteorite which had fallen from the sky, should turn their eyes askance as the young doctor passed, and almost fancy they detected a whiff of brimstone in the air." His attention was not all given to medicine; he owned 75 or more acres of land, and must have engaged, though perhaps indirectly, at farming. Another industry is suggested by an entry in the Ipswich town book for the year 1732, as follows: "Joseph Manning is allowed to erect a wharf. The town agree to have one at their expense, as a landing place, at 6d, a load."
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Nielsen Hayden genealogy
1703 - 1784 (81 years)
[1, 2] 
Siblings