Mrs. Wainewright. The sight of him in Newgate and what he subsequently learned of his history suggested to Charles Dickens the melodramatic novelette 'Hunted Down.'
A number of Wainewright's 'Essays and Criticisms,' contributed to the 'London Magazine,' were edited by Mr. W. C.Hazlitt with a biographical introduction in 1880 (London, 8vo). Opposite p. xxix appears a reproduction of a pretty head in red chalk, a drawing by Wainewright of his unhappy victim, Helen Abercromby. No portrait of the murderer is known to exist.
[Hazlitt's Introduction, 1830; Twelve Bad Men, ed. Seccombe (a detailed study of Wainewright by Mr. A. G. Allen, who compares his modus operandi with that of William Palmer, the Rugeley poisoner); Phillimore's Historical Notes on Chiswick, 1897; Talfourd's Memoirs of Charles Lamb; Macready's Diary and Reminiscences, i. 225-6; De Quincey's Works, ed. Masson, v. 246-51; B. W. Procter's Autobiographical Fragment and Notes, 1877; Vizetelly's Autobiographical Reminiscences; Thornbury's Old Stories Retold; Ellis's Criminal, 1890, pp. 12, 96, 127, 153, 178, 195; Gent. Mag. 1829, i. 189; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. i. 454, iii. 307; Memoires, RévéIations et Poésics de Lacenaire, Paris, 1836; Fortnightly Reriew, January 1889 (an æsthetic 'study' called 'Pen, Pencil, and Poison,'by Mr. Oscar Wilde).]
WAIT, DANIEL GUILFORD (1789–1850), Hebrew scholar, born in 1789, was the son of Daniel Wait of Bristol. He matriculated from University College, Oxford, on 20 Oct. 1809, and removed to St. John's College, Cambridge, whence he graduated LL.B. in 1819 and LL.D. in 1824. He was ordained as curate in Pucklechurch, near Bristol, and on 12 March 1819 was presented to the rectory of Blagdon in Somerset. Wait was an orientalist of some learning. His first publication in 1811 was 'A Defence of a Critique of the Hebrew Word Nachash,' London, 8vo, in which he supported the conclusion that Eve was deceived by a serpent and not by an ape, as Adam Clarke [q. v.] had urged in the 'Classical, Biblical, and Oriental Journal.' His chief work, 'Jewish, Oriental, and Classical Antiquities' (Cambridge, 8vo), which appeared in 1823, was compiled with much labour and research. Wait died at Blagdon, unmarried, on 30 Sept. 1850.
Besides the works mentioned, he was the author of:
- 'An Inquiry into the Religious Knowledge which the Heathen Philosophers derived from the Jewish Scriptures,' Cambridge, 1813, 8vo.
- 'A Comparison of certain Traditions found in the Thalmud, Targumiy and Rabbinical Writers, with circumstances in the Life of our Saviour,' Cambridge, 1814, 8vo.
- 'A Critical Examination of some few Scripture Texts, which maintain the Doctrine of a Trinity in Unity,' London, 1819, 8vo.
- 'A Course of Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge,' London, 1826, 8vo.
- 'A Selection from the Psalms,' London, 1848, 12mo.
He translated 'An Introduction to the Writings of the New Testament,' London, 1827, 8vo, from the German of Johann Leonhard von Hug; but his translation was superseded by that of Moses Stuart (Andover, 1836, 8vo). He also edited the 'Repertorium Theologicum,' London, 1829, 8vo, of which only one number appeared.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886; Foster's Index Ecclesiasticus, 1800-40; Biogr. Dictionary of Living Authors, 1816; Gent. Mag. 1860, ii. 669.]
WAITE or WAYTE, THOMAS (fl. 1634–1668), regicide, according to royalist authors was the son of an alehouse-keeper at Market Overton in Rutland. He was more probably the Thomas Waite, son of Henry Waite of Wymondham, Leicestershire, who was admitted to Gray's Inn on 6 March 1634 (Foster, Gray's Inn Register, p. 204). Waite took up arms for the parliament in 1642, and is mentioned in the spring of 1643 as a captain under Lord Grey of Groby and as garrisoning Rockingham Castle (Hist. MSS, Comm. 6th Rep. p. 79). In December 1643 he is styled colonel, was governor of Rutland, and defeated the royalists of Belvoir at Sproxton Heath and in other encounters (Report on the Duke of Portland's MSS. i. 165; Vicars, God's Ark, p. 110). In July 1644 Waite, who was the governor of Burley House, became involved in a dispute with Lord Grey; articles were drawn up against him and counter-petitions presented in his favour. On 11 Aug. 1645 parliament discharged him from further attendance in London, and annulled the order suspending him from his government (Commons' Journals, iii. 548, 558, 569, iv. 236, 356, 565; Lords' Joumals, vii. 27). On 9 Jan. 1647 he was ordered 2,166l. in satisfaction for moneys disbursed for the parliamentary cause, but by July 1650 he had received only 1,000l. of this sum, and was admitted to purchase certain confiscated lands of the Duke of Buckingham's of which he had a lease, the remainder of the debt being allowed as part of the purchase-money (Commons' Journals, v. 48, 689, vi. 449).
Waite was elected member for Rutland in July 1646. In June 1648 he distinguished himself by suppressing a royalist rising in the storming of Woodcroft House near Peterborough, in which they had taken refuge.
