Wainewright, Thomas Griffiths

(wān´rīt), 1794–1852, English art critic and criminal. He contributed essays on the arts to the London Magazine under the pseudonyms Egomet Bonmot and Janus Weathercock, exhibited several paintings at the Royal Academy, and wrote Some Passages in the Life of Egomet Bonmot (1827). He is thought to have poisoned his uncle (whose property he inherited), his mother-in-law, and his sister-in-law (whose life he had heavily insured). He went to France (1831), but on returning to England (1837) was arrested and convicted on an old forgery charge. He was transported to Tasmania for life.