(Sir) John WRIGHT
HUSBAND:
[F35968]. (Sir) John WRIGHT (1488-1551)
Sir John Wright (1488 - 1551) of Kelvedon Hatch. Son of (Reverend) John WRIGHT [F71936]
. As a young man he apparently was a very useful servant to King Henry VIII in his fight with the Pope and became quite wealthy through support from the King. He was a trusted yeoman, at least wealthy enough to be considered a yeoman of substance. It is said that he was given a seat in the King's council, parliament, and was known as Lord Wright, but the records are only suggestive of it. He married Olive HUBBARD of Havering in 1509. Sir John Wright must have been a bit vain for he had no less than three sons named after himself, who he clearly identified in his will. They were John the Elder (1510 - 1563), Myddle John (1522 - 1558), and Young John (1524 - 1587).
In 1538, he first purchased the tenancy of Kelvedon Hall Manor in Kelvedon Hatch from Sir Richard Rich, Lord of the Ongar Hundred. "Lord" John Wright purchased the tenancy to a former monastery estate from Richard Bolles. He paid 493p 6s 8d for the tenancy rights. Sir Richard Rich was Lord of the Ongar Hundred in which this estate lay at the time of this purchase. This estate was already very old, having been originally owned by a pre-Norman invasion Saxon named Ailric who had willed it to Westminster Abby at his death. Westminster Abby had granted the tenancy of the estate to the Multon family by 1225, and the seller, Richard Bolles, was a descendant of the female line of that family. The estate is located a little northwest of the village of Kelvedon Hatch, in County Essex. The Wright family held title to it until 1922 through John the Elder's line of descent. The manor house and grounds are still in good shape and occupied to this day.
Although "Lord" John Wright made "Kelvedon Hall", as the estate came to be known, the seat of the family, he owned a large number of other estates in the area of west Essex bounded by Kelvedon Hatch on the North, Havering on the West and Brentwood on the South. These estates he bequeathed to his four sons in generous measure through his will. Myddle John inherited the Dagenham Manor in South Weald parish (from his mother's inheritance) and the property and Manor house at Wrightsbridge just west of the parish church of South Weald. Your Wright ancestor, Robert Wright, inherited the hugh estate of Ropers and a Manor house on Brookstreet known as the Moat House. All of this property was in Brentwood (then called Burntwood because of a fire that had burnt the woods 100 years previous). All Robert's property was just south of the parish church of South Weald. John the Younger inherited the Manor house and estate of Bishops Hall on the North east edge of Brentwood as well as smaller estates about 20 miles distance southeast of Brentwood.
He died in 1551 in Kelvedon Hatch, County Essex, England.
WIFE:
[F35969]. Olive HUBBARD
CHILDREN of Sir John WRIGHT and Olive HUBBARD:
- 1. John (the Elder) WRIGHT. (1510-1563). The eldest John and first born (appropriately termed "John the Elder") was baptized in ca. 1510, inherited Kelvedon Hall, which his descendants retained possession of for the next 400 years. John the Elder's grandson, the fourth John in this line (b. 1580 - d. 4 May 1654) was converted to the Catholic religion in about 1604 and the family remained Catholic right on through to the 1800's. When this John Wright inherited Kelvedon Hall, he established a secret Catholic chapel within the church next to the manor house. This served as a clandestine meeting house for local Catholics throughout the Protestant era in England. Deacon Samuel Wright, who came to New England in ca. 1638 in the company of William Pynchon and John Wintrop, was a staunch Puritan, and definitely is not of the "popish" line of John The Elder of Kelvedon Hall.
It is interesting to note that the branch of the family headed by John the Elder, who inherited the Kelvedon Hall estate, remained papist during this whole period of time. So, were was a very big religious split in the Wright family of Kelvedon Hall which prevented any of the descendants of John the Elder from emigrating to America and probably kept his descendants from associating much with the families of Robert, Myddle John and John the Younger.
- 2. Robert WRIGHT. (1516 - 1587). Wright of Brookstreet Co. Essex, England. Christened in 1516. He married Mary Green in 1541; daughter of Robert Green of Navestock to whom he gave by his will, ....all my lands and goods for her natural life and after her decease to my son, John Wright...." Son John was executor. Robert died in 1588.
- 3. [F17984]. Myddle John WRIGHT. (1522-1558). of Wrightsbridge, Co. Essex, England. [See Above]
- 4. Young John WRIGHT. (1524-1587).
- 5. Margaret WRIGHT.
- 6. Elizabeth WRIGHT.
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