John Mainwaring John Mainwaring John Mainwaring (1724–1807) was an English theologian and the first biographer of the composer Georg Friedrich Händel in any language. He was a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and became rector of the parish of Church Stretton, Shropshire, and, later professor of Divinity at Cambridge. In 1760, one year after Handel was buried in Westminster Abbey he published anonymously a biography 'Memoirs of the Life of the Late George Frederic Handel'. More than half of this biography is focused on the years before 1712, when Handel moved to London. Therefore, it is supposed he received information from
Captain Mainwaring hostility. Ironically, when Mainwaring tries to ingratiate himself with local potentates and dignitaries, they often turn out to be far more interested in talking to Wilson – much to Mainwaring's chagrin. This feeds Mainwaring's sense of social inferiority. This comes to a head when in "The Honourable Man" Wilson inherits a courtesy title and becomes the "Honourable" Arthur Wilson. Whilst Wilson resented this, Mainwaring became infuriated and did everything in his power to demonstrate that he outranks Wilson, even going to the lengths of telling Wilson when he was allowed to smoke. While believing Wilson to be involved in some