Tuesday 26 January 1819 Manchester Mercury

Memoir of George Wainwright

The following memoir has been written by a descendant of the venerable subject to whom it alludes, and who, on the 28th of this month will have completed his 105th year. It has been usual of late for several gentlemen of Sheffield to raise a subscription for the purpose of providing a dinner, on the occasion of George Wainwright's birth, who with the whole of his descendants are regularly invited. It is a peculiarly gratifying occasion to the modern Patriarch, , who never fails to betray a very proper share of feeling and becoming satisfaction, that is witnessed with much pleasure by his friends, and regarded for its sincerity by his acquaintance and benefactors.

"Memoir of George Wainwright, who the 28th of January, 1818, completed the 101th year of his age.

"Is there in  nature a more interesting object than a venerable man, sinking under the weight of years, surrounded by his children, and his children's children. Such an object, in a great measure, is a man whose natal day we are met to celebrate, and who approaching to a patriarchal age himself, sees his sons old men by his side, and his sons' sons flourishing in the strength of manhood, while vigorous shoots from various branches of his stock are springing up around him, to perpetuate his memory and his name.

George Wainwright was born at Bamford, in the county of Derby, in 1714, of parents who both died at a very advanced age. From a brother, George learned the trade of a linen weaver, which trade he followed until disabled by the infirmities of age, in the year 1810. He married, about 1744, a young woman of Dronfield, of the name Camm, who bore him twelve children. After his marriage he became an inhabitant of Totley, which place he left on the death of his wife, 1791, and went to reside at Whitely wood, from whence a few years back, he removed to Dore, to make part of the family of one of his daughters. Of his twelve children, five are now living, whose united ages amount to three hundred and three years. He has twenty grandchildren and of great and great great grandchildren, upwards of one hundred, lineal descendants, besides an uncommonly great number of collateral relatives, as nephews, nieces, grand nephews etc. etc. He has bore throughout his lengthened days, that noblist of all characters, - an honest man.

"The time that has elapsed from his nativity to the present period has been fraught with events the most uncommon and unexpected. The year of his birth was marked by the death of the last Stuart who sat on the throne of England, and the accession of the first of the House of Hanover. In the second year of his age, England became the scene of rebellion for the restoration of the exiled family, which became quenched in blood, and carried the horrors of vindictive justice into the bosom of almost every family. The Spanish war and the South Sea bubble would form prominent topics of conversation in the youth of this aged man. His fourteenth year was marked by the death of George the First, and the accession of his son; and now would witness an era brilliant in its successes, and distinguished by events too numerous to be noted in this rapid sketch. He saw Russia, till then a Dukedom, assume the dignity of an Empire. He saw another rebellion in his native land terminate in slaughter. He witnessed the improvement in our calculation, which added eleven days to the then current account of time. He lived when Lisbon was swallowed up; when Wolfe was killed at Quebec; when Byng fell a sacrifice to the machinations of Party; and then George the Second left the throne to his grandson. In late times he has seen the power of England extended around the globe, and new discoveries of inhabitable islands added to our former ideas of geography. He has seen his sovereign deprived of reason, and the last hope of England blighted by the sudden hand of death. Such are the scenes which have been passing in the theatre of this world, while this inauspicious character has been performing his humble part upon its stage. How much more he will be permitted to witness, rests with that Being who gave him life, and who has hitherto preserved unto him, unimpaired, the possession of those faculties, without which life itself would be an aching void.

 

"And whilst our table is loaded with a profusion of your annual liberality. We, the descendants of our venerable father, in conjunction with him, offer you our joint thanksgiving, for your disinterested liberality in contributing to our mutual comfort at this annual festival, a festival founded and perpetuated by your British zeal and benevolence, and a festival that has always been productive of much felicity and harmony. Forty-five of his descendants have this day partook of your liberality. We are, Gentleman, with every feeling of respect, your grateful servants,

"George Wainwright,

"And his Descendants,"

"Dore, Jan. 28, 1818

"To the Rev. F. Parker."