John Manning (journalist)

John Manning was an Irish nationalist, journalist, newspaper proprietor and newspaper editor. He was one of the thirteen indicted rebels in the 1855 Victorian high treason trials.^[1] During his childhood, Manning emigrated with his family to the United States, where he received an education in New York. As a young adult, he left the United States to participate in the Victorian gold rush.^[2]

John Manning probably came to Victoria in the late 1840s. During the Eureka Rebellion, he became a reporter for the Ballarat Times. While he was involved in a council to organise a defence and determine who would be the leader of the rebellion, he was only a spectator in the battle itself.^[3] Despite not actively participating in the battle, he was still indicted for high treason. He was acquitted along with the other twelve rebels in the 1855 Victorian high treason trials.^[2]

Following the Eureka Rebellion, he worked as a Roman Catholic teacher until late 1867, when he emigrated to New Zealand.^[4] There, he co-founded the New Zealand Celt, an Irish nationalist newspaper, alongside William John Larkin. Its first issue was published on 26 October 1867,^[2] and its last was likely published in June 1868.^[5]

Manning left New Zealand for San Francisco, California, on 26 November 1868.^[6] There, he became a writer for the Overland Monthly.^[2] Around 1876, he became the editor and proprietor of the American Celt, a short-lived newspaper based in Louisville, Kentucky.^[7]

In December 1904, he appeared at a Eureka Stockade anniversary event in Ballarat, where he gave a short talk on some of his experiences during the rebellion.^[8]