Thomas Griffiths Wainewright is remembered in two ways that do not sit easily together. In Britain, for most of the nineteenth century and long after, he was the subject of a legend: the elegant Regency writer and painter who was supposed to have caused the deaths of relatives who stood between him and their money. In Australia he is remembered as one of the most accomplished portrait painters of the colonial period, a convict who spent his last ten years in Hobart making small, careful likenesses of the town's officials, clergy and merchants.
The legal record is narrower than either picture. A court convicted Wainewright of one offense, forgery, in July 1837. He was never charged with causing a death, never tried for one, and never convicted of one. Between 1828 and 1830 three people close to him died: his uncle, his mother-in-law and his sister-in-law, Helen Abercromby. Each death brought him or his wife money, and the sister-in-law's death followed the purchase of life insurance policies on her worth about 16,000 pounds. Writers have attributed all three deaths to him ever since. The Australian Dictionary of Biography states that, however suspicious the circumstances, no known evidence shows that any of the three died from anything other than natural causes. When the insurers refused to pay and Wainewright sued, the judge told the jury there was no evidence of any crime other than fraud.
The forgery, the conviction and the sentence are established. The three deaths are attributed or suspected only. The insurance case was a civil dispute, and its outcome went against him.
Thomas Griffiths Wainewright was born in October 1794 and baptized, according to his convict record, at Richmond. Accounts differ on the day: a local history study gives October 4 and probably a house at Chiswick, while a biography in Design and Art Australia Online gives about October 11. His mother, Ann, a daughter of the publisher Ralph Griffiths, died around the time of his birth. His father, Thomas, died within a few years.
The boy was raised by his maternal grandfather. Ralph Griffiths was a bookseller and the founding editor of the Monthly Review, and his house at Turnham Green, in Chiswick, drew writers and artists. The circle around him is said to have included Mary Wollstonecraft, Josiah Wedgwood, Henry Fuseli and William Blake. After the grandfather died, Wainewright's guardian was his uncle, George Edward Griffiths. He was schooled at the Greenwich Academy, run by Charles Burney, a relative. The Australian Dictionary of Biography and Design and Art Australia Online both describe an upbringing that favored a leisured, cultivated approach to art and literature over a profession.
His grandfather left him an income from a capital sum of about 5,250 pounds, which the Australian Dictionary of Biography puts at roughly 200 pounds a year. A local history account gives about 250 pounds a year from a trust. Whatever the exact figure, it was modest for the life he wanted to lead.
At 19, in 1813, Wainewright began to study painting. He is recorded as a pupil of the portrait painter Thomas Phillips, and the painter John Linnell later counted him among his own pupils in an unpublished memoir. The apprenticeship was brief. In 1814 he bought a commission in the 16th Regiment of Foot for about 400 pounds, and he sold it in May 1815, after about a year. Around this time he also suffered a severe illness, with hypochondria, that affected him for the rest of his life.
His real entry into London society came through writing. From about 1820 to 1824 he contributed art criticism and essays to the London Magazine under pen names. The one most often named is Janus Weathercock; he also used Egomet Bonmot and Cornelius Van Vinkbooms. The pieces brought him into contact with the literary figures of the day, among them Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt, Thomas Hood and Thomas De Quincey. A collected edition of his essays and criticism was published after his death, in 1880, edited by William Carew Hazlitt. In 1825 he published Some Passages in the Life of Egomet Bonmot, a book in the same teasing, self-dramatizing voice.
He also painted. He exhibited narrative and literary subjects at the Royal Academy from 1821 to 1825. His style owed a great deal to Fuseli, who had befriended him, and his work was sometimes mistaken for the older man's. None of the Royal Academy pictures is known to survive. In 1825 he failed in a bid to become an associate of the Academy and did not exhibit there again.
On November 13, 1817, at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, Wainewright married Eliza Frances Ward, the eldest daughter of Mrs Abercromby of Mortlake by an earlier marriage. (Design and Art Australia Online dates the marriage to 1821; the dictionary and the local history study both give 1817.) The couple lived in London for about ten years, and had a son, born in 1828.
Their income did not cover their tastes. Wainewright collected prints, early printed books, gems and antiques, and he lived as a man of fashion. By the early 1820s he was in debt, and by the mid-1820s he was borrowing heavily. In 1826, according to the Brentford and Chiswick Local History Society, he agreed to pay a lender an annuity of 150 pounds a year in return for advances.
Wainewright's grandfather had placed capital in trust for him, and the money was settled so that it would pass to his wife at his death. In July 1822 he forged signatures on a power of attorney, which the Australian Dictionary of Biography says were those of his cousin Edward Foss and of Foss's father, a solicitor, and used it to obtain about 2,250 pounds from the Bank of England. Two years later, in 1824, a second forged document yielded the remaining capital, given as 3,000 pounds. The local history study gives the same sums and notes that forgery of this kind was then a capital offense.
The forgeries were not discovered for years. By the time they came to light, Wainewright was no longer in England.
In September 1827 Wainewright, his wife and their household moved into the Griffiths family house at Turnham Green, to live with his uncle. On February 5, 1828, the uncle, George Edward Griffiths, died there. He was a bachelor of about 58. Wainewright inherited the house and some money from him. The Brentford and Chiswick Local History Society finds no evidence that the death was anything other than natural.
Around 1829 and 1830 the house was mortgaged to a lender. In July 1830 Wainewright gave a bill of sale over its contents to a moneylender to whom he owed 610 pounds. In the same year his wife's mother, Mrs Abercromby, came to live with the family, together with her daughters Helen and Madeleine. In August 1830, a few days after making a will in favor of her daughter Eliza Wainewright, Mrs Abercromby died. The local history study considers her death likely to have been natural.
Helen Abercromby was about 20. From March 1830, according to the local history study, she was insured for short periods with a series of offices, and Wainewright and his wife took her to the offices. The Australian Dictionary of Biography puts the total value of the policies at about 16,000 pounds.
Helen Abercromby died on December 21, 1830, at the family's lodgings in London, after a short illness. The dictionary places her death about ten months after the policies were taken out; a magazine essay from the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra puts it at about eighteen months. A medical examination after her death found nothing untoward. The cause of her death is not on record beyond that.
The insurers were suspicious and refused to pay. Wainewright, as executor, sued them. According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, the first hearing took place before Abinger on June 29, 1835, and the jury could not agree. At a second hearing, which the local history study places in December 1835, the verdict went to the insurers on grounds of concealment by Helen Abercromby and of evasion of the statute governing insurance. The judge told the jury that there was no evidence of any crime other than fraud.
The case was a civil one, about whether the policies could be enforced. It was decided against Wainewright, and it did not decide how anyone had died.
The Wainewrights' finances had collapsed before the insurance case began. Around October 1831 the house and its contents were sold to the lender for 3,400 pounds, and Wainewright received 554 pounds in cash. By May 1831, according to Design and Art Australia Online, he had gone to Boulogne in France, leaving his wife and son behind. The local history study says he went to avoid arrest for debt. He remained abroad for about six years.
While he was in France the Bank of England discovered the forgeries of 1822 and 1824, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Wainewright came back to England in 1837. By one account he was in the country by May. He was arrested on June 9, 1837, on a charge of attempting to defraud the Bank of England with a forged power of attorney. He was held at Newgate Prison.
According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, the governor of Newgate, acting for the Bank, persuaded him to plead guilty on the promise that he would receive only a nominal punishment. The local history study describes the plea as part of a bargain under which he pleaded guilty to a lesser forgery charge. He was convicted at the Old Bailey, which the local history study dates to July 5, 1837, and sentenced to transportation for life. The promise of a light sentence, if it was made, was not kept.
No charge connected with the deaths of 1828 and 1830 was brought.
At Newgate Wainewright met Charles Dickens, who was visiting the prison and who later drew on him for a character and a story. A remark commonly reported from this period, that Wainewright more or less admitted causing his sister-in-law's death, rests on hearsay and is not part of any court record.
After sentence Wainewright was taken to the convict hulks at Portsmouth. The Australian Dictionary of Biography says that within five days he was placed aboard the convict transport Susan, bound for Van Diemen's Land. Design and Art Australia Online says the ship sailed from Portsmouth on July 29, 1837. The convict record described a man who was pale, brown-haired and grey-eyed, aged 43, and it noted good behavior on the hulks.
The Susan arrived at Hobart Town on November 21, 1837. The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery records that the ship moored at the Old Wharf in Sullivan's Cove.
Wainewright's first work in the colony was on the roads in a chain gang, and he was housed in the prisoners' barracks in Campbell Street. Within months, according to the National Portrait Gallery, his poor health and good conduct earned him lighter labor. He was moved to the Colonial Hospital at Hobart as a wardsman, an orderly. The post put him in daily contact with the hospital's surgeons and administrators, who became his supporters. Among them were the surgeon Edward Samuel Pickard Bedford, who had a large influence on his colonial life, and James Fitzgerald, who supervised a yard gang and later became superintendent of the hospital. St Mary's Hospital, where Wainewright would die, was founded by Bedford in 1841 for the laboring classes.
His own health did not recover. In early 1842 he was admitted to the hospital as a permanent patient. The Australian Dictionary of Biography says the doctors could not identify his illness and suggests that it was probably a form of sclerosis. Design and Art Australia Online reads his convict dossier as describing a model prisoner. That reputation, together with his talent, gave him time to paint.
The portraits are the reason his name is known in Australia. He worked in pencil, watercolor, chalk and Chinese white on small sheets of paper, and many of the drawings were given as thanks for small kindnesses rather than sold. Design and Art Australia Online records at least 56 portraits and a handful of subject pictures; 53 of the sitters have been identified, and 33 of them were related to one another. The Australian Dictionary of Biography counts about 40 that survive. The National Portrait Gallery gives about 56 sitters between 1837 and his death, including the lieutenant-governor, Sir John Franklin, the businessman Edward Lord and the surveyor-general, Robert Power. The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery holds ten of his portraits and describes him as one of the most accomplished colonial Australian artists.
The earliest datable works are a portrait of Edward Lord from April 1839 and portraits of Frederick and Frances Maria Brodribb from 1840. Frederick Brodribb, a trainee doctor and a friend of Wainewright, died on March 31, 1840, soon after the portrait was painted; his sister, Frances, was 17. Around 1842 Wainewright drew Jane and Lucy Cutmear, the daughters of the gatekeeper at the prisoners' barracks, probably to thank their father for art supplies. He also drew Eleanor Fitzgerald, the hospital matron and the wife of James Fitzgerald. Around 1845 he painted the Hobart lawyer Edward Paine Butler, the eldest of fifteen children of the free settler Gamaliel Butler, who founded a Hobart law firm in 1824, and Butler's wife, Martha. Butler died of tuberculosis in February 1849, and some writers have suggested that the portrait shows the effects of the disease. He also painted Henry Hopkins, the Hobart merchant and philanthropist, around 1845.
The quality of the work is uneven. Most sheets are unsigned and undated. The Companion to Tasmanian History notes that some show strong draftsmanship, delicate handling and sensitive expression, and that the variation may reflect his declining health. The Australian Dictionary of Biography finds that the best of the Hobart portraits stand as works of art in their own right and show little of Fuseli's extravagance. In 1845 and 1846, four of his portraits were lent to exhibitions in Hobart, though they drew no critical attention.
In 1844, with help from the hospital authorities, Wainewright petitioned the lieutenant-governor, Sir John Eardley-Wilmot, for a ticket of leave. In the petition he called Fuseli "the God of my worship." James Fitzgerald and several doctors gave evidence about his conduct and his talent, and his "superior talents as an Artist" were part of the case for him. The ticket of leave was granted in 1845. He moved to lodgings in Campbell Street and worked as a portraitist, charging four shillings a day, according to the National Portrait Gallery.
In November 1846 the question of a conditional pardon was decided. The Australian Dictionary of Biography gives November 14, 1846, as the date it was granted; the National Portrait Gallery's longer essay says he was recommended for a conditional pardon that month and had a stroke soon afterward. Either way, he had only months of the new freedom.
Wainewright died at St Mary's Hospital, Hobart, on August 17, 1847, of apoplexy, the term the Australian Dictionary of Biography and Design and Art Australia Online use for what the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery calls a stroke. He had been in the colony for just under ten years. Within about a decade, a columnist in the Hobart Town Courier predicted that a famous novel would be written about his life.
After his death, Wainewright was written about as a villain. The Australian Dictionary of Biography lists the main stages: T. N. Talfourd's Final Memorials of Charles Lamb (1848), William Crooke's article in the Spectator of Melbourne on July 14, 1866, Lord Lytton's novel Lucretia (1853), and Charles Dickens's short story Hunted Down (1860). The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery dates the story to 1859, and the National Portrait Gallery's essay says Dickens also drew on Wainewright for the character Jonas Chuzzlewit. Dickens had met him at Newgate and had later seen a Wainewright portrait of a Miss Power, now lost, which belonged to Lady Blessington.
Oscar Wilde wrote a celebrated essay about him, and Hal Porter's The Tilted Cross is among the later works that draw on his life. The Australian Dictionary of Biography observes that later biographers accepted the nineteenth century's picture of him, the figure of a monomaniac drawn by Talfourd, Lytton and Dickens.
His friends gave a different account. They described him as sociable and good-hearted, a Georgian dandy and a collector. The National Portrait Gallery's essay argues that his Hobart record of respect and recovery is as significant as his reputation.
In 2021 the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and the Dark Mofo festival staged Paradise Lost, the first major exhibition devoted to Wainewright as an artist. It brought together 44 works, the largest number ever shown together, and ran from June 11 to October 3.
Proven by his guilty plea and final: the forgery of 1837, on the charge of attempting to defraud the Bank of England with a forged power of attorney, with a sentence of transportation for life. The charge rested on the forgeries of 1822 and 1824.
Never charged, tried or proven: any causing of the deaths of his uncle in February 1828, his mother-in-law in August 1830, or his sister-in-law in December 1830. The Australian Dictionary of Biography says there is no known evidence that any of the three died other than naturally. The Brentford and Chiswick Local History Society, which treats the uncle's and mother-in-law's deaths as likely natural, concludes that Wainewright was a forger and art critic who may not have been responsible for any death at all, and suggests that his wife may have been involved in the forgeries and in the insurance dealings. The National Portrait Gallery's essay says that the speculation "has never been proven."
A civil finding, not a criminal one: the insurers' victory in 1835 turned on concealment and on evasion of the statute. The judge told the jury that the evidence showed fraud and no other crime.
Not established: a remark said to have been made at Newgate, in which Wainewright is reported to have more or less admitted causing his sister-in-law's death. It is known only at second hand and formed no part of any court proceeding.
Details on which the record varies: the day of his birth (October 4 or about October 11, 1794); the year of his marriage (1817 or 1821); the interval between the policies and his sister-in-law's death (about ten months or about eighteen months); the date of his return to England (by May 1837 or in June); the length of the voyage; the number of surviving portraits (about 40 or at least 56); and the date of his conditional pardon.
October 1794: Thomas Griffiths Wainewright is born; his mother dies around the time of his birth.
1813: begins studying painting.
1814 to May 1815: serves in the 16th Regiment of Foot after buying a commission.
About 1820 to 1824: writes for the London Magazine under pen names including Janus Weathercock.
November 13, 1817: marries Eliza Frances Ward (1821 in one account).
1821 to 1825: exhibits at the Royal Academy.
July 1822: first forged power of attorney, used to draw on the Bank of England.
1824: second forgery.
1825: fails to become an associate of the Royal Academy; publishes Some Passages in the Life of Egomet Bonmot.
1826: agrees to an annuity in return for advances from a lender.
September 1827: moves into the family house at Turnham Green with his uncle.
February 5, 1828: his uncle dies; Wainewright inherits the house and some money.
March 1830: policies on Helen Abercromby's life begin to be taken out.
August 1830: his mother-in-law dies a few days after making a will in favor of her daughter.
December 21, 1830: his sister-in-law, Helen Abercromby, dies in London.
1831: house sold; he goes to France.
June 29, 1835: first hearing of the insurance case; the jury cannot agree.
December 1835: second hearing; verdict for the insurers.
1837: returns to England; arrested June 9; convicted at the Old Bailey in July (July 5, by one account) on a guilty plea; sentenced to transportation for life.
July 29, 1837: sails from Portsmouth on the Susan (by one account).
November 21, 1837: arrives at Hobart Town.
1837 to 1839: road gang, then work as a hospital wardsman.
April 1839: earliest datable portrait, of Edward Lord.
Early 1842: admitted to the hospital as a permanent patient.
1844: petitions for a ticket of leave.
1845: ticket of leave; works as a portraitist from lodgings.
November 1846: recommended for, or granted, a conditional pardon.
August 17, 1847: dies of apoplexy at St Mary's Hospital, Hobart.
1848: Talfourd's Final Memorials of Charles Lamb begins the printed legend.
2021: Paradise Lost, the first major exhibition of his art, opens at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.