- (from email from Michael Wright)
As with many of the emerging gentry families in the years of the reign of Elizabeth I, men of the Wright family were privileged enough to go to University at a time when the Universities were coming into their own as institutions of intellectual freedom and radical thinking. As a result many of them came home from their school days with even more radical ideas of what religion should be that went beyond the simplifications of the Catholic faith that Henry VIII's and Elizabeth I's Common Book of Prayer represent. These 'enlightened' Englishmen and their European counterparts (such as Luther and Calvin) brought a wave of intellectualization to religion that had not previously held much sway as a political force within either the Catholic or Anglican church. By the mid 1580' their 'Puritan' ideas had gained enough of a following among the high and mighty of England, that the influential followers of this intellectualized Protestant faith, such as Sir Walter Mildmay, Exchequer to the Queen and Sir Robert Rich, Lord of the Ongar Hundred, dared to establish colleges for the training of 'Anglican' ministers in the 'Puritan' style. One such college was Emmanuel College at Cambridge University, established in 1584 by Sir Mildmay. Dea. Samuel Wright's father, John Wright, Esq., Clerk of the House of Commons (1613 - 1639), matriculated Emmanuel College in 1585 in its second class, presumably as a prelude to entering the ministry. However, it is apparent that he was of a less ideological nature and more of a practical man. He entered the study of the law at Gray's Inn rather than continue studies to become a minister and became a quite influential London barrister, becoming the King's man in the House of commons by assuming the role of Clerk of the House of Commons in 1613 and holding that post continuously until just before his death. The Clerk was paid from the King's Exchequer and owed the King his primary allegiance, but in 1621 John Wright was arrested by the King and his papers confiscated because he was involved in a matter King James considered contrary to the interests of the Crown. John Wright was, to some degree, his own man and a man of the Commons rather than its overseer as the King intended.
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Notes |
- . The "John Wright of the Bridge" referred to in the register is presumed to be John Wright, barrister and his wife Martha Castell. John's hereditary estate was that of his father, Lord John Wright, and was called Wrightsbridge. It was located west a few miles from St. Peters church, the parish church for South Weald parish, County Essex. John was born to the future Lord John Wright and Elizabeth Lindsell in 1569. His father was not known as Lord Wright in 1569, though his grandfather, John Wright of Kelvedon Hall, Kelvedon Hatch, County Essex was a trusted yeoman who became wealthy serving Henry the VIII. Lord John Wright did not receive his own peerage from Elizabeth I until June 1590. However, I refer to him as Lord John just to help keep all the Johns in this family straight. Lord John's eldest son, John, was born in 1569 at Wrightsbridge. He attended Emmanuel College in 1585 and was admitted to Greys Inn (for Reading the Law) in 1587. He became a barrister in London, living in Romford, just west down the road from the Wrightsbridge estate during the lifetime of his father. In 1612 he was a subclerk of the House of Commons and, no doubt, part of the Puritan leaning House leadership who were such a problem for James I. John and his first wife, Martha Castell, had four sons, John (1599), Nathaniel (1604), Samuel (1606)(Our Deacon?) and Robert (1609). Martha died in 1611 and in 1618 John married for a second time to the widow of Sir Edward Blount, Fortune (Garaway) Blount by whom he had one more son, James.
He attended Cambridge University (Emanuel College) and then studied the law after admission to Grays Inn. By all accounts John Wright Esq. was a Puritan leaning Protestant. Lord John Wright was no doubt also a Protestant sympathizing Peer in the House of Lords (peerage granted by Elizabeth I, June 20, 1590). In 1612 John Wright, Esq. was appointed a clerk to the House of Commons and appeared by his actions in that post to have been a Puritan who would perhaps have been a bit at odds with his father's more traditional Protestanism in the House of Lords. The two may have disagreed over how to deal with the refusal of King James I to share any power of governance with Parliament. There is an existent Parliamentary document protesting some actions of King James I with John Wright's signature on it in his capacity as clerk of the House of Commons. Such a prominent display of animosity with the King by a recognizable family member would no doubt have disturbed even a Protestant Peer of the House of Lords! It is not possible to tell how well Lord John Wright and his eldest son got along. Because Lord John lived to a ripe old age, the fact that John Wright, Esq. never inherited the estates of Wrightsbridge and Dagenhams could perhaps mean only that John Wright Esq. was already too well established and advanced in years to be considered a suitable heir for such a large estate, or it could mean that there was a rift between them, or it could have been that John Esq. simply disdained the family estate and its landed gentry style of living. In any case, he had homes in London and Havering and Romford and seems only to have been a visitor at Wrightsbridge, never its Lord.
He Inherited Dagenhams Manor. He married Mary Dell at the age of 54. Other wives indicated are Katherine Goraway and Martha Castell.
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