Details of Sculptor

Surname

Mainwaring

Alternative Surname

First Name

John II

Initial of Surname

M

Year of Birth/Baptism

1821

Flourished

Year of Death

1887

Biographical Details

A stone and marble mason, builder, engineer and surveyor, he was born in Swansea, the son of John Mainwaring I, and was educated in Swansea and Edinburgh. He worked with his father in Scotland and in the business in Lammas Street, Carmarthen and was probably responsible for monuments produced by the workshop in the 1840s. He supported his father in the ill-fated contracts for building the South Wales Railway and after the project was postponed, he emigrated with his father to Wisconsin. He returned in 1851 and continued the marble business from Daniel Mainwaring’s leasehold premises on Carmarthen quay. He advertised in local trade directories in 1849 and 1852 and signed a tablet, a tall rectangle enclosed in a white marble arch, around this time (1). He worked as a builder, surveyor and engineer on the resumed South Wales Railway contracts. Mainwaring married at St David, Carmarthen, where his four children were later baptised. In 1861 he returned to Wisconsin with his family, prospered as a farmer in Richland County, and wrote an autobiographical account for the History of Wisconsin, published in 1884.
Literary References: Dale-Jones and Lloyd 1989, 54