800-1050 CEThe Wright family descended from the Normans who settled in Normandy in northern France before 1000 C.E. These peoples were Saxon Vikings that had originally come from northern Germany and the Jutland peninsula – "Norman" was Old French for "Norse men." William the Conqueror In 1066, the English throne passed to Harold Godwinson of Wessex who became King Harold II. William, Duke of Normandy claimed that the throne had been promised to him and gathered an army to invade England. This army was equipped in part by John Wryta of Bayeux, a renowned armorer and skilled craftsman in metal and wood. John Wryta, circa 1050 CE
All five of the Wryta brothers were rewarded with grants of land and manors in the former kingdoms of Essex, Sussex, and East Anglia, which became counties under Norman rule. We don’t know which Wryta got what land, but we do know that at least one of the brothers settled in the vicinity of Kelvedon Hatch in Essex County, northeast of London. Ingrebourne River Grants of land often came with the responsibility of maintaining bridges in the vicinity, and the Wrights were given the responsibility for a bridge over the Ingrebourne River. This became "Wright's Bridge" and later, "Wrightsbridge." There is still a Wrightsbridge Road just three miles south of Kelvedon Hatch. Darkness Decends for Several CenturiesAnd here the lineage breaks. It’s no wonder -- these were dangerous times. Family records, if they were kept at all, were often lost or destroyed. Little is known or documented about the family for several hundred years. But the few records that remain from this time do mention the Wryta family, sometimes as prominent players in this history. They pop up as knights, lords, judges, architects, soldiers, and members of the government. They spread out across England, Scotland, and Ireland. The surname morphs from Wryta to Wryte to Wrighte and finally Wright. One fanciful tale mentions a carpenter, John Wright, in Sir William Wallace’s army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297. Wallace led the Scots in a war of independence, and this was an important victory for his cause. According to an historian/poet remembered as “Blind Harry,” Wright cleverly sabotaged the bridge over the Forth River at Stirling, Scotland, causing it to collapse as the English army marched across. Some of the English soldiers were drowned; most were caught in the muddy bogs surrounding the bridge and were cut down by Wallace’s archers and spearmen. Blind Harry’s account may be fiction, but it shows that the Wright surname had spread across the British Isles in just a few centuries.
THOMAS WRIGHT 1365- circa 1400
LORD THOMAS WRIGHT 1396 - 1492
Upminster, Essex historic windmill
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