Introduction

Biography

John was the fa­ther of com­poser Ro­bert Wain­wright. Ro­bert suc­ceed­ed him as or­gan­ist at the Col­le­gi­ate Church.

John trained for a mu­sic­al ca­reer, and af­ter his mar­riage in 1746, he set­tled in Man­ches­ter, where he played the or­gan at the Col­le­gi­ate Church.

The fol­lowing an­ec­dote is re­lat­ed of him. Be­ing one ev­en­ing at a tav­ern in Li­ver­pool, as he sat with his left arm hang­ing ov­er the back of the seat, a man who owed him some grudge came in, and go­ing stealth­ily be­hind, caught hold of the ex­tend­ed hand, and forced sev­er­al fin­gers back so as to dis­lo­cate them. The of­fen­der was im­me­di­ate­ly seized by those pre­sent, but Wain­right said, Let him go; God for­give him. The in­jured mem­bers were hence­for­ward use­less; yet such was Wain­wright’s skill that he still con­tin­ued to per­form with re­mark­able ef­fect.

Lightwood, p. 154

Works

• Collection of Psalm Tunes, Hymns and Chants, 1766