Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright I (1792 – September 21, 1854) was an Episcopal bishop. He was born in England in 1792 to Peter Wainwright and Elizabeth Mayhew. His father Peter, was a tobacconist who emigrated from England to Boston before the American Revolution. Peter and Elizabeth returned to England for the birth of their first son in 1791. They didn't return to Massachusetts until eleven years later. Jonathan's siblings include: Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright (1791-?); and Eliza Wainwright (1794-?) who married Walter Channing. Jonathan graduated from Harvard College in 1812 and was instrumental in the founding of New York University. He was consecrated as a provisional Bishop for the Dioceses of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America in 1852. He died in 1854.