| Notes |
- The Great Migration Begins
Sketches
PRESERVED PURITAN
RICHARD WRIGHT
ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1630
FIRST RESIDENCE: Lynn
REMOVES: Boston, Braintree 1639, Rehoboth 1643, Boston 1649, Ipswich 1652, Twelve Mile Island 1662, Podunk 1666
RETURN TRIPS: To England about 1646, and return to New England by 1649 [Early Rehoboth 3:122-23, citing Aspinwall 101]
OCCUPATION: Steward. Gentleman farmer.
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Admitted to Boston church as member #89, which would be late in 1630 [BChR 14]. On 16 February 1639/40 Richard Wright was "recommended to the Church of Christ at Mount Wollystone" [BChR 27-28].
FREEMAN: 14 May 1634 [MBCR 1:369].
EDUCATION: Sufficient to manage large estates for others.
OFFICES: Deputy for Lynn, 9 May 1632 [MBCR 1:95]. Commissioner to end small causes at Braintree, 7 October 1640, 2 June 1642 [MBCR 1:306, 329]. Braintree member of colony committee to value livestock, 13 May 1640 [MBCR 1:295].
ESTATE: Managed the farm of John Humphrey at Lynn beginning in 1630 [Early Rehoboth, citing SJC Case #5400; WP 2:335; Lechford 249-50].
On 1 May 1639 "Richard Wright of Mount Wollaston, husbandman," leased the Braintree farm of Thomas Newberry, deceased, for a term of four years [Lechford 124-26].
Leased Twelve Mile Island on the Connecticut from John Leverett from 1662 to 1666 [TAG 67:33 (and sources cited there)].
(Richard Wright did not own much land in New England, but preferred to lease large estates from wealthier colonists. This trait is important in linking "Captain Wright" of Connecticut with Richard Wright of Lynn, Braintree and Rehoboth [TAG 67:36].)
BIRTH: By about 1596 based on estimated date of first marriage.
DEATH: After 15 March 1667/8 [TAG 67:33, citing WMJ 793].
MARRIAGE: (1) By about 1621 Margaret _____; "Margarett Wright" was admitted to Boston church as member #99, which would be late in 1630 or early in 1631 [BChR 14]; she died after 1623 and before 1643. (Both Bowen and Harris argue that the Margaret Wright who joined the Boston church in 1630 was not Richard's wife, and may have been his mother, based on a Roxbury church record: "Old Mother Wright died of old age, being near an hundred years old" [RChR 182]. Since this death record does not include the given name of the deceased, we need not assume that this is the death of Margaret, so we here agree with Davis that Margaret was Richard's wife.)
(2) By about 1643 _____ _____, possibly a widow Sabin, mother of William Sabin of Rehoboth [TAG 67:37].
CHILDREN:
With first wife
i ELINOR/ELIZABETH, b. about 1621 (deposed 29 December 1701 "fourscore years or thereabouts" [Early Rehoboth 3:126-27, citing SJC Case #5400]); m. about 1644 James Clark [TAG 67:38 (and sources cited there)].
ii (probably) ANN, b. about 1622 (aged 45 on 3 June 1667 [WMJ 731]); m. by about 1645 Thomas Burnham [TAG 67:40-46].
iii ABIGAIL, b. about 1623 (deposed 29 December 1701 "about seventy eight years or thereabouts" [Early Rehoboth 3:126-27, citing SJC Case #5400]); m. (1) before 1640 Robert Sharpe; m. (2) about 1657 Thomas Clapp; m. (3) about 1696 William Holbrook [TAG 67:38 (and sources cited there) for all three marriages].
With second wife
iv SARAH, b. say 1643; m. about 1664 Thomas Harris [TAG 67:39; NGSQ 78:182-203].
v ELIZABETH, b. about 1644; m. 1666 _____ Paddon [TAG 67:40].
vi (probably) ANN, b. say 1645; m. Lynn 7 April 1665 Samuel Gaines, son of Henry Gaines [TAG 67:39].
COMMENTS: Richard Wright has been referred to often in print as "Captain Wright" throughout his life, but it would seem that this title came to him relatively late in life. Bowen says that Winthrop appointed Wright captain of the Lynn train band, but his source is Alonzo Lewis, who does not cite a contemporary record [Early Rehoboth 3:115, citing Lynn Hist 135]. Nathaniel Turner was the earliest person known to have been chosen captain of the Lynn train band [MBCR 1:112], and four years later "Captain Turner" and "Goodman Rich[a]rd Right" are named as the Lynn members of a committee on the bounds between Lynn and Salem [MBCR 1:211]. In 1632 Winthrop relates a story about "one Capt. Wright, and others, coming to Pascataquack" in a shallop, and assumes that this is Richard Wright of Lynn [WJ 1:94-95], but this activity seems out of character for our Richard Wright. The arguments of Harris equating Richard Wright of Lynn, Braintree and Rehoboth with Captain Wright of the Connecticut remain sound on other grounds, but this man must have acquired the title of Captain in Rehoboth or at a later date.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: Three highly-skilled genealogists have devoted much time to Richard Wright, with the result that we now have a very full picture of his life and career after his arrival in New England in 1630. (His English origin remains unknown.) In 1945 Walter Goodwin Davis published an account of "Wright, of Saugus and Braintree," which covered his life until 1653, and treated only two of the children by the first wife [Joseph Neal Anc 97-101]. In 1948, as part of his multi-volumed study of early Rehoboth, Richard LeBaron Bowen continued the life of Richard Wright beyond the point reached by Davis; Bowen characterized Wright as "one of the leaders and perhaps the main organizer in the settlement of Seekonk, later called Rehoboth," and carried his life through to 1660, where he lost the thread [Early Rehoboth 3:113-30]. Finally, in 1992 Gale Ion Harris followed the trail to its end, brilliantly demonstrating that Richard Wright, after his years in Rehoboth, moved to Twelve Mile Island on the Connecticut River, and then to Podunk, in what is now East Hartford [TAG 67:32-46]. Bowen compiled an exhaustive list of records generated by Richard Wright down to 1660. For the full career of Richard Wright, and especially for the arguments about the identities of his children and their spouses, the article by Harris should be consulted. We follow all these sources, and especially the last, and do not attempt to document fully the life of this interesting immigrant.
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1595 - 1668 (73 years)
