Frances Hall
Written by Frances Hall who has connections to the Wrights of North Meols dating back to the late 1770s
I live in the Yukon in the far north of Canada. I was born in Bolton Lancashire and lived there and briefly in Wigan for the first 26 years of my life. Then I moved to Hong Kong for a while before emigrating to Canada in 1980 with my husband and three daughters. In Canada I had a son and another daughter. Some years ago I became fascinated with my family tree. My distant ancestor, John Wright, was born in North Meols in 1776. I am seven generations away from him. My great grand father, James Kay Wright, was John’s great grandson.
When I first began researching my Wright family John my husband told me that there were a lot of people called Rimmer, Ball and Wright in the Southport area. At that time, six years ago, I thought that my Wright family had originated in Bolton. There are people named Wright in Bolton Parish Church Parish Register from the 17th century. Wright is a very widespread surname in Lancashire.
I began my research with my oldest relative. This is my mother who is now 92 years old. She remembered her grandfather although he died in the 1920's when she was a little girl.. He was a “Big Man” with a tickling moustache. What was his name I asked, “Grandad” she replied. However she did think that her baby brother was named after both his Grandfathers. He was called Jacky and died just before his sixth birthday. His real name was John James. John Rock was my grandfather’s father and James Wright was my grandmother’s father.
Actually his name was James Kay Wright and for a while I wondered if his mother had been a Miss Kay. But that was not the case at all. This rather lovely name is part of my Wright family’s fascination with the Bible Christian Church, but I didn’t know this until I discovered James’ grandfather was William Wright born 17th April 1816 in Salford.
William Wright who was born 17th April 1816 in Salford at 17 John Street baptized 27th May 1816 in the Bible Christian Church Salford, and died 29th Aug 1872 in 16 Russell Street Bolton.
He had married Ann Leather born 21st March 1814 daughter of James Leather and Elizabeth Turner baptized 1st May 1814 in Wigan who died 18th April 1868 at 142 Deansgate, Bolton and was buried in Tonge Cemetery. The marriage took place on 25th December 1838 at Saint Peter’s (Bolton Parish Church). William was a Provision shopkeeper.
The Bible Christian Church
It was Joseph Brotherton Wright that interested me most. I could understand that the eldest son John Wright was named for his grandfather and James his brother was named for James Leather his maternal grandfather but who was Joseph Brotherton Wright?
I Googled the name and finally made the Nonconformist connection. It was a startling revelation for me. I had been brought up as a Catholic, in fact so had my grandmother the former Frances Beatrice Wright and so had my mother Frances Rock - I am Frances Thompson (although my married name is Frances Hall). I was shocked and excited since this meant I would be able to trace my family farther back than I had hoped. In fact the Wrights are about the most difficult family name to trace and I am still struggling with them but their wives, my maternal side of these families have led me back into the middle ages and even into the dark ages. But that’s another story. With this strong connection to the Bible Christian Church I realized I was looking at Chapel folk, nonconformist with strong moral codes.
Further research into the Joseph Brotherton name was started and I was delighted to find that he had been the first member of Parliament for Salford and that he was a Vegetarian and a preacher in the Bible Christian Church of Salford and preached total abstinence from alcohol. He was born in 1783 and died in 1837 and had been a successful Mill owner but had sold his business to take up preaching and politics. He was a supporter of parliamentary reform and was a member of a group of nonconformist liberals. Also associated was John Kay who became the second mayor of Salford in 1846: probably the first vegetarian Mayor in the country! (I believe that my great grandfather James Kay Wright was named after him).
Frances
Hall
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