Peasants to Puddles
My Family History - By Nicky Rowberry

The Wrights

Edmund or Edward Wright was one of my 8xgreat grandfathers. He was born sometime in the mid 17th century and married Mary Phillis (possibly Phillips) in Nottingham in 1685. There's not much to be gleaned from the records about these early Wrights, but the parish register does say that at the time of the marriage, he was from Wysall and she was from Barton.

The couple's 3 children, including my 7xgreat grandfather Edmund/Edward Wright, were born back in Edmund senior's home parish of Wysall. The younger Edmund married Fortune Kirk in 1717 in nearby Cotgrave. This Edmund was also described as being from Wysall. They had at least 3 children, but there may well be more as there does seem to be a gap between their marriage in 1717 and the first child I've found in 1722.

The younger Edmund's second child was my 6xgreat grandfather Thomas Wright born in 1724 in Wysall. Thomas married Mary Goodacre in 1745 in nearby Wymeswold, but returned to Wysall to have 9 children with Mary. There followed 2 more generations of Thomas & Mary Wrights - the last of which were my 4x great grandparents - Thomas Wright and Mary Follows.

Until this point I've found nothing to indicate occupations for any of the earlier Wrights. But this last Thomas Wright was described as a labourer at his youngest children's baptisms and on the 1841 census. Around 1816/17 the family had moved to nearby Clifton-with-Glapton (or Clapton) in Nottinghamshire.

My 3xgreat grandmother Fanny Wright was the last of 9 children born in 1817 to this Thomas & Mary Wright. She married George Shepherd in Prestwold, Leicestershire in 1840 and the couple had at least 5 children. You can read more about the Shepherd family here:

One of Fanny's older sisters - Sarah Wright, met a very sad end when she seemingly committed suicide after a falling out with her boyfriend.

Poor Sarah seems to have hoped her man would marry her, but when it became clear he wouldn't, she resorted to drastic means. She bought arsenic powder from a local chemist and mixing it with water, drank it. There was a full report of the inquest in the local papers and several of her family were mentioned. The article is too big to reproduce here, so this is just the headlines. Image © The British Library Board. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. Image reproduced with kind permission of The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk).

The Wrights are a large family, so there must be lots of descendants out there. It would be lovely to hear from anyone connected to this family.

The family tree below summarises what I know about the above generations of the Wright family. It is hopefully reasonably accurate, but if you spot any errors, or any relatives, please feel free to E-mail me

Please click on one of the red links on the tree to move to a different page.

If any of the above is of further interest, please feel free to contact me at: n.rowberry@btinternet.com

Nicky Rowberry 2024

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Peasants to Puddles - My Family History. By Nicky Rowberry