The scene depicts the church and surrounding buildings viewed across the River Mersey from "Man's Island".

The latter is thought to be A moonlit river landscape with a windmill, boats and figures, exhibited between 1770 and 1773 and sold at Christie's, London, in 2012 for £6000.

[5] Wright painted a scene from the action off the Isle of Man that took place on the 28 February 1760 in which Aeolus under John Elliot, with Brilliant and Pallas, attacked a French squadron under François Thurot aboard the flagship Marischal de Belle Isle that resulted in Thurot's death and the surrender of all three French frigates.

[9] In 1761 Wright painted several pictures of the storms encountered on the journey from Stade to Harwich of the Royal Yacht Fubbs that conveyed Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz to England to marry George III.

Joshua Reynolds painted separate portraits of both Anson and his wife and Wright contributed background detail to each of them.

[15] An indistinctly-dated oil on panel entitled Shipping in a bay by a ruined tower was sold by Christie's, New York, in 2007 for $2500.

Bryan, who many other sources draw on, states 1735, but an article in The Connoisseur observes that this was probably too late, as he would only have been eighteen on the birth of his eldest son.

[19] The following year Wright's longtime friend, artist George Stubbs, is also thought to have been baptised at St Nicholas.

With little patronage for his trade in Liverpool, he moved to London around 1760, his address being recorded as 'Near King's Road, Pimlico'.

[4] He was described by Horace Walpole as a man of rough manners and warm temper, and during his membership of the Incorporated Society he took an active lead among those discontented with its affairs.