Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright I

Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright I (February 24, 1792 – September 21, 1854) was a provisional Episcopal bishop in Manhattan, New York City.

Jonathan graduated from Harvard College in 1812, where he was afterward a tutor. He received the degree of D.D. from Union College in 1823, and from Harvard in 1835. The degree of D.C.L. was conferred upon him by Oxford University in 1852.

He was for many years secretary of the house of bishops, and was instrumental in the founding of New York University. He was considered one of the first pulpit orators of his day. He wielded great social influence, was a ripe scholar, and was a devoted lover of music, contributing toward its improvement in the churches of his denomination. He was secretary of the board of trustees of the General Theological Seminary in 1828–34, and a trustee or officer of many other institutions and societies.

In 1844, he engaged in a controversy with his friend George Potts, which grew out of an assertion that Rufus Choate made at a celebration of the New England society. The orator said that the Pilgrim fathers had founded a "state without a king and a church without a bishop." At the dinner that followed, Wainwright, in responding to a sentiment, said in reply that "there is no church without a bishop." The subsequent discussion with Potts, which was carried on in nineteen letters in the New York Commercial Advertiser, was published as a book No Church Without a Bishop; or, the Controversy between the Rev. Drs. Potts and Wainwright. With a Preface by the Latter, and an Introduction and Notes by an Anti-Sectarian.

On October 1, 1852, Wainwright was elected provisional bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York.

Personal life In August 1818, Wainwright was married to Amelia Maria Phelps (1797–1885), the daughter of Timothy Phelps and Janet (née Broome) Phelps. Together, they were the parents of fourteen children:

Elizabeth Mayhew Wainwright (1819–1822), who died in childhood. He was buried at Trinity Church Cemetery.

Descendants Through his son John Howard, he was the grandfather of Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright (1864–1945), a U.S. Representative and United States Assistant Secretary of War. Through his son Jonathan, he was the grandfather of US Navy officer Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright III (1849–1870) and US Army officer Robert Powell Page Wainwright (1852–1902), who, in turn, was the father of US Army General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV (1883-1953).

Works Besides the pamphlet mentioned above, he wrote:

Four Sermons on Religious Education (New York, 1829) Lessons on the Church (1835) Order of Family Prayer (1845) Short Family Prayers (1850) The Pathways and Abiding-Places of our Lord, illustrated in the Journal of a Tour through the Land of Promise (1851) The Land of Bondage: being the Journal of a Tour in Egypt (1852) Single sermons and papers in periodicals. Book of Chants, adapted to services of the Episcopal church (1819) Music of the Church (1828) The Choir and Family Psalter, with William A. Muhlenberg (1851) John Stark Ravenscroft, Sermons, edited with a memoir (2 vols., 1830) Life of Bishop Heber, edited biography by Heber's widow (2 vols., 1830)

He edited:

Book of Common Prayer (1843 illustrated version)

Consecrators The Most Reverend Thomas C. Brownell, Presiding Bishop The Right Reverend George W. Doane, Bishop of New Jersey The Right Reverend Jackson Kemper, Provisional Bishop of Wisconsin William Heathcote DeLancey, I Western New York; William Rollinson Whittingham, IV Maryland; Carlton Chase, II New Hampshire; George Upfold; I Indiana; John Williams, Coadjutor of Connecticut; and, Francis Fulford of Montreal.