Sunday, February 5, 2017

Mrs. Mary Wright XIX: Updating the Mister

Straying off topic a bit for one post here, I'm going to discuss James Wright.

1) Birth year: Most sources give his birth as 1671 or 1676. His obituary notice in the Quaker records give his age in 1759 as 83. That would make his birth year 1676. The Hopewell MM records show 1671, but several sources note that the final digit is missing, so what shows in the record is 167_. I would tend to go with the obituary, although folks were known to shave a year or two from or add a couple to the actual year of birth.

2) Place of birth: The sources [unfortunately undocumented] range quite a bit. New Garden MM, Chester Co., PA, Lancashire, England, Yorkshire, England, Cheshire, England, New Jersey and Maryland. With a 1676 year of birth, chances are his parents arrived when he was a youngster or shortly before his birth. I would tend to think he was born in England, but his parents may have arrived before Penn and settled in New Jersey. At this point, it's anybody's guess.

3) Parentage: There are several theories floating around. One of brothers Joshua, Thomas & Samuel of Yorkshire, England was James' father. They settled in NJ. William or James of Maryland. John Wright of Pennsylvania. These are candidates. Looking at the names of the Wright boys, Thomas, John, James Jr. & Isaac, we have possible options for James' father. With the girls, we have some candidates for the given name of James' mother: Mary, Hannah, Elizabeth, Ann & Sarah.

So, we have James Wright, Sr. [b. c1676, probably England, Penn. or NJ. - 1759 Frederick Co., VA]

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