Online Encyclopedia

THOMAS GRIFFITHS WAINEWRIGHT (1794–1852)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 246 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

THOMAS GRIFFITHS WAINEWRIGHT (1794–1852)  ,
See also:
English journalist and subject-painter, was born at
See also:
Chiswick in
See also:
October 1794 . He was educated by his distant relative Dr Charles Burney, and served as an orderly officer in the guards, and as
See also:
cornet in a
See also:
yeomanry regiment . In 1819 he entered on a
See also:
literary
See also:
life, and began to write for The Literary
See also:
Pocket-
See also:
Book, Black-wood's
See also:
Magazine and The
See also:
Foreign Quarterly Review . He is, however, most definitely identified with The
See also:
London Magazine, to which, from 1820 to 1823, he contributed some smart but flippant
See also:
art and other criticisms, under the signatures of "
See also:
Janus Weathercock," " Egomet Bonmot " and " Herr Vinkbooms." He was a friend of Charles Lamb—who thought well of his Iiterary productions, and in a letter to Bernard Barton, styles him the " kind,
See also:
light-hearted Wainewright "—and of the other brilliant contributors to the journal . He also practised as an artist, designing illustrations to Chamberlayne's poems, and from 1821 to 1825 exhibiting in the Royal Academy figure pictures, including a "
See also:
Romance from Undine," " Paris in the Chamber of
See also:
Helen " and the "Milkmaid's
See also:
Song." Owing to his extravagant habits, Wainewright's affairs became deeply involved . In 1830 he insured the life of his
See also:
sister-in-law in various offices for a sum of 18,000, and when she died, in the December of the same
See also:
year, payment was refused by the companies on the ground of misrepresentation . Wainewright retired to France, was seized by the authorities as a suspected person, and imprisoned for six months . He had in his possession a quantity of
See also:
strychnine, and it was afterwards found that he had destroyed, not only his sister-in-law, but also his
See also:
uncle, his
See also:
mother-in-law and a Norfolk-
See also:
shire friend, by this
See also:
poison . He returned to London in 1837, but was at once arrested on a charge of
See also:
forging, thirteen years before, a transfer of stock, and was sentenced to transportation for life . He died of poplexy in Hobart
See also:
Town hospital in 1852 . The Essays and Criticisms of Wainewright were published in 188o, with an account of his life, by W . Carew Hazlitt; and the
See also:
history of his crimes suggested to Dickens his story of Hunted Down and to Bulwer Lytton his novel of
See also:
Lucretia .

His

personality, as artist and poisoner, has interested latter-day writers, notably Oscar
See also:
Wilde in " Pen, Pencil and Poison " (Fortnightly Review,
See also:
Jan . 1889), and A . G . Allen, in T . Seccombe's Twelve
See also:
Bad Men (1894) .

End of Article: THOMAS GRIFFITHS WAINEWRIGHT (1794–1852)
[back]
NOEL FRANCOIS DE WAILLY (1724-1801)
[next]
WAINGANGA

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.