When Lydia Thigpen Little was born on 1 December 1789, in Edgecombe, North Carolina, United States, her father, Gray Little, was 48 and her mother, Sylvia Peninah Ann Thigpen, was 19. She married Elijah Lewis Manning in 1807. They were the parents of at least 4 sons and 3 daughters. She died on 14 June 1851, in Sumter, Alabama, United States, at the age of 61, and was buried in Sumter, Alabama, United States.