| Notes |
"The Washington Ancestry: and Records of the McClain, Johnson, and Forty Other Colonial American Families," Chapter: The Wrights of London, Virginia, and North Carolina describes the life of Richard Wright:
“Mr. RICHARD WRIGHT was born, according to his deposition made on August 20, 1655, in England in the year 1633. He died in Virginia at the age of thirty. Of his eight or nine years of independence, nearly all were passed in Virginia. Such American records of him as remain convey the impression of his having been a typical Londoner of his time - eager for adventure, self-reliant, and imbued with the amazing self-confidence characteristic of young Englishmen. Executive ability is t5he trait chiefly suggested by these Virginia records. As he designated himself "of London," it is an unavoidable inference that the "Pool of London" with its fleet of ships bound to Virginia was a sight common to his eyes. He was not lacking in commercial training, and he certainly became proficient in navigation.
Tobacco was the magnet that drew him overseas. He exemplified the fact that "of all the European people in those times, the English possessed in the most marked degree the bold and intrepid spirit which would move them to leave their native soil behind, and cross many thousand miles of sea, and also the patient and calculating spirit which would enable them, when once fixed in their settlement, to make the most of the advantages."
The first American record now extant of Richard Wright indicates that he was an attractive and pleasing young gentleman - an arrival from London whose personality cause a feminine flutter. This fact is clearly reflected in the record of the case of Alice Atkinson of Northumberland, who had conceived a great fancy for him, and had pursued her quest so much to his displeasure as to cause him to take peremptory action. She, jealous of a rival, made the mistake of misrepresenting him, doubtless in the hope of affecting the attachment which Mistress Anne Mottrom was forming for the favored newcomer. While there is no record known, naming the ship in which he came to Virginia, or giving the date of arrival, it is evident that he arrived in the spring of 1655, not very many weeks before the death of colonel Mottrom; and it is easy to believe that he arrived in the ship William, in which he later appears of record as having some interest. His arrival in Virginia was opportune for the Mottrom family. The mantle of the father, Colonel John Mottrom, upon his death, immediately fell upon the shoulders of Richard Wright. He doubtless became the guide, counselor, and friend" of the children. He made the Mottrom house his domicile soon after his arrival in America; and his attachment to the Mottrom's led to his marriage to one of the daughters within a year, if indeed he was not betrothed to her before her father's demise. The marriages made by all of the Mottrom children attest the high social position of this family in Virginia. In almost nothing, were the gentle families of England more exacting that in the fitness of the marriages of their children.”
Richard died at the age of 30. Very sad, that he died so young, and to think of what he might have accomplished had he lived longer.
|
Abt 1633 - 1663 (~ 30 years)