John A. Wright

“ The former was never sold, and the latter was bought by Wright's friend, John Leigh Philips. During all these years Wright went on painting portraits, with an occasional poetical composition, but most of these were not exhibited in London, and his public reputation was mainly based on his ‘candlelight’ pieces and pictures of fire and moonlight, until he obtained a wider popularity from the well-known engraving by J. Heath from his pathetic picture of ‘A Dead Soldier, his Wife and Child, vide Langhorne's “Poems,”’ which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1789. ”

“ One of the daughters, Elizabeth, died unmarried in 1766, and Mary, the other, became the wife of Captain John Wilson, R.N., of Tamworth, and died in 1805. The son was named Richard, after his father, and followed the same profession. The third Richard in this branch was, like Joseph Wright the painter, the great grandson of the Rector of Longford, and must not be confounded with another Dr. Richard Wright, his second cousin, and brother of the [3] artist. For the sake of distinction he may be called Dr. Richard Wright of London, where he settled and became distinguished. ”

“ Besides these works, Wright prepared an accurate epitome in English of Dugdale's ‘Monasticon’ (London, 1693, fol.) , in the dedication of which he remarks: ‘Warwickshire has produced two of the most famous and deserving writers in their several ways that England can boast of—a Dugdale and a Shakespeare.’ Wood cites a distich of an elegy written by Wright upon John Goad [q. v.] Hearne, who respected Wright, having corresponded with him upon the subject of Leland, informs us that he wrote strictures upon Wood's ‘Athenæ,’ but never published them. ”

“ Wright had a son, whom he established at Rome as a teacher of languages. His brother, Jeremiah Wright, was also a painter, who assisted in the accessories of the judges' portraits in the Guildhall. A nephew, John Michael Wright, settled in Ireland and practised with some success as a portrait-painter there. ”

“ Wright, who was possessed of property at Henham and Havering in Essex, died on 3 Oct. 1657, and was buried in the church of South Weald. He married Mary, daughter of John Duke, physician, of Foulton Hall, Ramsey, Essex, and Colchester. She survived him till 16 Feb. 1698, being also buried at South Weald. Of Wright's two sons, Laurence was expelled from a fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, during the Commonwealth, but readmitted in 1660, and took the degree of M.D. in 1666. ”

“ Wright died in Philadelphia, during the yellow fever epidemic of December, 1793, and his bust, by his friend Rush, whom he is said to have instructed in clay modelling, belongs to the Academy of the Fine Arts, at Philadelphia.
Patience Wright, her son Joseph, and William Rush are the only native Americans that we know to have worked at the plastic art during the period we have limited for this review; and thus John Frazee, who claimed to be, and therefore is commonly credited with being, the first native American sculptor of American parentage, need not be considered ”

“ On leaving Seighford, the Rev. John Wright became Rector of Longford, Co. Derby, where he died in 1681. His death is thus recorded in the Parish Register, “1681. John Wright, rector of Longford, an orthodox and worthy son. Buried January 10th.”
[2]
This exemplary clergyman left a widow and eight children. The maiden name of the former I have not been able to discover, but her Christian name was Elizabeth, and those of his surviving children (he had lost one, Sarah, during her childhood) are written on the back of the inventory of his goods, thus—
Richard. John. Thomas. Jonathan. Matthewe. ”

“ Another Robert Wright (1556?–1624) was son of John Wright of Wright's Bridge, Essex. He matriculated as a pensioner of Trinity College, Cambridge, on 21 May 1571, and graduated B.A. 1574, and M.A. 1578. He was an ardent Calvinist, and received ordination at Antwerp from Villiers or Cartwright in the Genevan form. At Cambridge he became acquainted with Robert, second lord Rich, and about 1580 acted as his chaplain in his house, Great Leighs, Essex, where he held religious meetings (Strype, Aylmer, pp. 54 seq.) . He was incorporated M.A. of Oxford on 11 July 1581. ”

“ WRIGHT, SAMUEL (1683–1746) , dissenting divine, eldest son of James Wright, was born at Retford, Nottinghamshire, on 30 Jan. 1682–3. His grandfather, John Wright (d. 1 Feb. 1684–5) , was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted on 22 Nov. 1636, but did not graduate) ; was ordained by presbyterians (13 Aug. 1645) to the chapelry of Billinge, parish of Wigan, Lancashire; was nominated (2 Oct. 1646) a member of the fourth presbyterian classis of Lancashire ”

“ Outside his father's door John waited, listening, until he was convinced that sleep had at last come to the exhausted man.
Late that same Sunday evening, when the street meeting held by Jake Vodell was over, there was another meeting in the room back of the pool hall. The men who sat around that table with the agitator were not criminals—they were workmen. Sam Whaley and two others were men with families. They were all American citizens, but they were under the spell of their leader's power. They had been prepared for that leadership by the industrial policies of McIver and Adam Ward. ”

“ He confidentially admitted to his wife, one day, that the lad was worth twice what he had agreed to pay him; "only I ain't paid him nothin' as yit," he added, with a knowing look, which his wife seemed to understand, for she replied:
"Now ye are up to another of yer capers, John Benton. There never was a man on the earth meaner than ye are!"
But Mr. Wright, who knew his neighbors well, could in no way account for the lad's willingness to endure what he knew he must be enduring, and finally his curiosity got the better of him ”

“ Abruptly Adam Ward left the private office. Without even a look toward the men in the big outer room who had served with him for years, he passed on out to the street.
When the whistle sounded, John went out into the Mill to stand near the window where the workmen passing in line received their envelopes.
From every part of the great main building, from the yards and the several outer sheds and structures they came. From furnace and engine and bench and machine they made their way toward that given point as scattered particles of steel filings are drawn toward a magnet. ”

“ William Wright, standing in swarthy dignity before this worshipful court, declines his freedom on terms not only unjust to himself, but demanding infidelity to that master and that cause for which he has been so ready to venture and to suffer. He declares before this assembly that he will not submit to the law against servile labor on the first day of the week, that said law “is a human invention,” and that he will work upon the first day of the week so long as he lives. ”

“ And as John Wright was a tenant of Catesby’s Mansion House, at Lapworth, in Warwickshire, about twenty miles distant from Hindlip, Christopher Wright must have not only heard of Father Oldcorne’s fame as a “counsellor of the doubtful” and a “friend in need,” but it is at least possible he may have been among those divers Catholics and Schismatics [53] in the country thereabouts who flocked to him for conference and to have his exhortations. ”

“ B. iii, v.) [cf. art. Kemp, William] .
Wright published: 1. ‘A Summons for Sleepers. Wherein most grieuous and notorious offenders are cited to bring forth true frutes of repentance, before the day of the Lord now at hand. Hereunto is annexed, A Patterne for Pastors, deciphering briefly the dueties pertaining to that function, by Leonard Wright.’ This was licensed for the press to John Wolfe on 4 March 1588–9, and was first published early in 1589. An edition ‘newly reprinted, corrected and amended’ bears the same date (black letter, 4to) . A copy is in the British Museum. ”

“ As he stooped again to his heavy task, he said to his mates in a voice that rumbled up from the depths of his naked, hairy chest, "Get a gate on y'—get a gate on y'—y' rough-necks. 'Tis th' boss that's a-lookin' 'round to see who he'll be tyin' th' can to next."
The men laughed.
"There's one thing sure," said Bill Connley, who looked as though his body were built of rawhide stretched over a framework of steel, "when John Ward ties the can to a man, that man knows what 'tis for. When he give Jim Billings his time last week, he says to him, says he, 'Jim, I'm sorry for y'. ”

“ For a few minutes, as they were rounding the turn of the road on the summit of the Divide where Phil and the stranger had met, the Dean looked away toward Granite Mountain. Then, as if thinking aloud, rather than purposely addressing his companion, he said, "John Acton—Honest John, as everybody called him—and I came to this country together when we were boys. Walked in, sir, with some pioneers from Kansas. We kept in touch with each other all the while we was growin' to be men; punched cattle for the same outfits most of the time ”

“ A comparison of dates shows that Dr Wright was fifty-four years old at the time of his appointment in 1613, and the Foundress was then seventy-nine. The difference of a quarter of a century makes the truth of the story not indeed impossible but improbable ”

“ It is a quiet old College,—not old as age is reckoned in Oxford,—like some great Elizabethan or Jacobean country-house turned into a College, splendid yet homely, possessing that double charm which no palace or castle or cathedral possesses in the same degree,—the charm of stately beauty and the charm of human interest which belongs to the home of generations who have spent there the happiest years of life, preparing for themselves distinction and success, or obscurity and failure. ”

“ The Wrights were startled. So great had been the secrecy about the visit of the Frenchmen that not many even in the French Government were permitted to know about their trip to Dayton. How did this mysterious Britisher know about it? The Wrights assumed that he must have been a volunteer worker in the British secret service. It was now obvious that he had crossed the Atlantic for no other purpose than to call on the Wrights and had hoped to burst in upon them while the Frenchmen were still there. After a stay of only one day in Dayton he hastened back to New York to sail on the next boat. ”

“ During the several days the correspondents were at Kitty Hawk, the Wrights knew they were being observed. From time to time they caught glimpses of men’s heads over the hilltop in the distance. Moreover, they heard each day, from members of a life-saving crew, just how many visitors had come. But they simply thought it was a good joke on the mysterious observers, whoever they were.
Arthur Ruhl, of Collier’s, had met the Wrights in Dayton about a year before. On May 14, before the final flight, he came over to the camp. ”

“ In his early life he was a teacher, from 1829 to 1833 being Professor of Mathematics in Western Reserve College. He became in 1833 Secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in New York. In 1838 he came to Boston, and for twenty years was actively engaged in editorial work, taking a stand as a most pronounced abolitionist. Since then he has been Insurance Commissioner or Actuary for the State till the time of his death. Mr. Wright has been an earnest advocate of the project for converting the "Middlesex Fells" into a park in later years. He was always an earnest, active man. ”

“ A common argument had been: “God didn’t intend man to fly. If he did, he would have given him a set of wings.”
It was the regret of his life to the Wrights’ friend, “Bill” Tate, that he missed witnessing that first flight. He had decided that “no one but a crazy man would attempt to fly in such a wind,” and made no effort to be there.
After preparing and eating their lunch, and then washing their dishes, Wilbur and Orville set out, about two o’clock that afternoon, to walk over to the Kitty Hawk weather station, four or five miles away, to send a telegram to their father. ”

“ Northcliffe, after his meeting with the Wrights at Pau, became one of their most enthusiastic supporters in England.
Long afterward, he publicly made this comment:
“I never knew more simple, unaffected people than Wilbur, Orville, and Katharine. After the Wrights had been in Europe a few weeks they became world heroes, and when they went to Pau their demonstrations were visited by thousands of people from all parts of Europe—by kings and lesser men, but I don’t think the excitement and interest produced by their extraordinary feat had any effect on them at all.” ”

“ Now that flights had been made, neighbors didn’t doubt the truth of the reports—though one of them had115 his own explanation. Mr. Webbert, father of the man from whom the Wrights rented their shop, said:
“I have known those boys ever since they were small children, and if they say they flew I know they did; but I think there must be special conditions down in North Carolina that would enable them to fly by the power of a motor. There is only one thing that could lift a machine like that in this part of the country—spirit power.” Webbert was a spiritualist. ”

“ The year just gone slipped out of her life and fell into the sea of oblivion with a sparkle—this house, this home, this father, these splendors, these pleasures slid away—she was not Annie Carollyn, rich, lovely, and flattered—but Elizabeth Wright, a sun-burned, forlorn, and starving girl, sinking down in a pitiless desert, with only a pair of strong arms to link her to life—only a long, long kiss of love and despair to hold her flitting soul until relief came. And where were the arms and where the lips that held her then? ”