His parents were William and English-born Matilda Sandys Williams Wightman, described by the Southern Christian Advocate in 1882 as "in quite moderate circumstances," but "people of unusual intellect and intelligence, and of decidedly marked character"; his paternal grandfather, known as "Major Wightman" due to service in the American Revolutionary War, was a British native who operated a jewelry shop in the city.
[2] His father was an amateur painter,[2] Edward Greene Malbone painted miniature portraits of his parents, and the two men may have had some contact at that point.
[3] Otherwise, Wightman studied with Henry Inman in New York City; the date is not known, but might be around 1832, because he began contributing to the annual exhibitions of the National Academy of Design in that year.
During the 1840s he traveled often between the two cities,[4] but he was based in New York from 1837 to 1861; besides Charleston, he also frequently visited Augusta, Georgia, where his brother John operated a photographic studio and where his parents and sisters lived as well.
[4] He had moved to Augusta, Georgia by 1871, and assisted his brother John by hand-coloring photographs; he continued painting still life pictures as well, until his death in that city.