Wainwright family

Elizabeth (Mayhew) Wainwright (1759-1829), was the daughter of Rev. Jonathan Mayhew (1720-1766), the radical divine of the West Church and Elizabeth (Breame) Clarke (1733-1777) of Boston. Her mother's marriage to Mayhew in 1756 lasted until his death in 1766. In 1771 she married Mayhew's successor, the Rev. Simeon Howard (1733-1804). Elizabeth Mayhew married Peter Wainwright in 1790. Wainwright was a prosperous English tobacco merchant who had come to Boston before the American Revolution. Peter and Elizabeth returned to Liverpool, England in 1791 where their children Jonathan Mayhew, Peter Jr., and Elizabeth were born. She returned to America in 1803 and lived with her family in Boston, Hartford and New York; she died in Liverpool in 1829.

Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright (1792-1854), the son of Peter and Elizabeth Wainwright and a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was born in Liverpool, England. He attended academy at Sandwich, Massachusetts, 1804-1808, graduated from Harvard in 1812 with honors, and was soon afterward appointed proctor of the university and instructor of rhetoric. Deciding not to pursue a career in law, Wainwright devoted his life to the ministry. The Rev. John S. J. Gardiner D.D. directed his theological course at a time when there were very few Episcopal clergymen in Massachusetts. In 1814, Wainwright was invited to St. John's, New Brunswick, to take charge of the academy and the parish. Having finished preparatory courses, he was admitted to the order of Deacon, by Bishop Griswold, in St. John's Church, Providence, RI, 1816. The following year he was ordained as a priest at Christ Church, Hartford, Connecticut. In August 1818, he married Amelia Maria Phelps. He was an assistant minister at Trinity Church in New York City from 1819 before he assumed the rectorship of Grace Church, New York in 1821, a post he held until 1834. The corporation of Trinity Parish of New York City consecrated Grace Church in 1809 to supply the increasing demand for church accommodation Trinity was unable to meet. During his years at Grace Church, Wainwright also served as Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the General Theological Seminary, received an honorary degree from Columbia College, and promoted the religious instruction of youth. His interest in education led to the advancement of Sunday school and to the establishment of a charity school designed to educate 150 boys and 150 girls. He was one of the founders of the original council of the University of the City of New York, later New York University, in 1829.

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