Basil Manly, Sr. was an influential Southern Baptist pastor, educator, and missionary. Born in Pittsborough, North Carolina to Captain John Basil Manly and Elizabeth Maultsby, Manly received his education in South Carolina at Beauford College and South Carolina College. He married Sarah Murray Rudolph, the daughter of an Edgefield, South Carolina planter.

Manly primarily conducted his ministry in South Carolina and Alabama. He was pastor of two prominent churches in Charleston, S.C.: the First Baptist Church of Charleston from 1826 to 1837, and the Wentworth Street Baptist Church, 1855 to 1858. He was president of the University of Alabama from 1837 to 1855, he served as a missionary appointed by the Alabama Baptist Convention from 1858 until 1860, and he pastored the First Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama from 1860-1862. Manly was chaplain both to the Secession Convention of the State of Alabama and at the Inauguration of Jefferson Davis as President of the Confederate States of America. He was an instrumental figure in the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; he served as the first president of the board of trustees for the latter institution.

In 1867, Basil and Sarah Manly moved from Tuscaloosa, Alabama to Greenville, South Carolina to live with their son, Basil Manly Jr., who was a professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Basil Manly, Sr. died in Greenville on December 21, 1868.

Basil Manly, Jr. was born the eldest of eight children on December 19, 1825 to Basil Manly, Sr. and Sarah Murray (Rudulph) Manly. He was born in Edgefield District, South Carolina, but his family moved to Charleston soon after his birth. The Manly family moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1837 when Basil Manly, Sr. became president of the University of Alabama. Basil Manly, Jr. graduated from the University of Alabama in 1843. He left Alabama to attend the Newton Theological Institution in Massachusetts, but transferred to Princeton Seminary in New Jersey where he graduated in 1847.

After his ordination, Basil Manly, Jr. held pastorates in Providence and Tuscaloosa, Alabama before becoming pastor at the First Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia in 1850. He became principal at Richmond Female Institute in 1854, but he left in 1859 to become one of the four founding professors at the newly established Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Greenville, SC. Basil Manly, Jr. accepted the position as president of Georgetown College in Kentucky in 1871, but he returned to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary as professor of Old Testament Interpretation and Biblical Introduction in 1879. Basil Manly, Jr. was highly gifted in music and wrote many hymns and poems, including the Baptist Psalmody he wrote with his father. He remained in that position until his death from pneumonia on January 31, 1892.

Basil Manly, Jr. married Charlotte Ann Elizabeth Whitfield Smith in 1852 and they had 11 children before her death in 1867. Seven of the children lived to adulthood. He then married Harriet Summers Hair in 1869, with which he had six children, three that lived to adulthood. His mother-in-law was Rosannah "Caroline" Summers (1812–1893).

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, May 28, 1837, son of Rev. Basil Manly, Sr. and Sarah Murray Rudulph Manly. Charles grew up in Tuscaloosa, Ala. while his father was President of the University of Alabama. After graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary, Charles served as pastor of churches at Tuscaloosa, Ala., 1859-1871; Murfreesboro, Tenn., 1871-1873; Staunton, Va., 1873-1880; and at Greenville, 1880-1881; Belton, 1882-1898; Brushy Creek, and Rocky Creek 1882-1886; and Seneca, S.C., 1886-1898. He was president of Alabama Central Female College at Tuscaloosa, Ala. 1862-1864 and 1869-1871; president of Union University in Murfreesboro, Tenn. 1871-1873; and president of Furman University 1881 to 1897. After serving at Furman, Manly returned to a full time pastor’s position until 1914. Charles Manly passed away in Gaffney, South Carolina, May 1, 1924.