A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Wright, John
WRIGHT. (Lieut., 1814. f-p., 19; h-p., 22.)
John Wright was born 14 Feb. 1794, and died about the early part of 1848. He was son of the late Sam. Wright, Esq., of Cheshire, a Major in the Army, who, at the breaking out of the Irish rebellion in 1798, assisted in raising the Loyal Lancashire Fencibles, commanded by the late Earl of Wilton. His brother, Peter, a Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, served with the highest distinction during the war in the Peninsula, and fell in the attack upon New Orleans, where he was at the time Chief Engineer and Aide-de-Camp to Sir Edw. Pakenham.
This officer entered the Navy, 24 Feh. 1806, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Mars 74, Capts. Robt. Dudley Oliver, Wm. Lukin, Jas. Katon, John Surman Carden, and Henry Raper. Under Capt. Oliver he aided, 28 July, 1806, in making prize, off the coast of France, after a chase of more than 150 miles, and in presence of three other heavy French frigates, of Le Rhin of 44 guns and 318 men; and under Capt. Lukin he contributed, 25 Sept. in the same year, to the capture off Rochefort, by a squadron under Sir Sam. Hood, of four more frigates, two of which, the Gloire 46 and Infatigable 44, surrendered to the Mars. On the latter occasion he was struck by a splinter. In 1807 he accompanied, in the capacity of Midshipman, the expedition against Copenhagen; and on the fall of that city he aided in equipping and navigating to England the Fyen, one of the 74-gun ships there taken. During the passage he experienced a terrific gale, and was all but wrecked. When subsequently at Lisbon he was sent up the river Tagus in charge of an armed launch as far as Alhandra, for the purpose of cooperating with the British army, then occupying the lines of Torres Vedras. In Feb. 1813, after having again visited the Baltic, Mr. Wright, who for two years had held the rating of Master’s Mate, left the Mars. In the ensuing spring he sailed with the Earl of Moira for India in the Stirling Castle 74, Capt. Sir Home Popliam; and on his arrival he joined, as Admiralty-Midshipman, the Minden 74, flag-ship of Sir Sam. Hood. On hearing of his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, which took place 6 July, 1814, he returned home, as First, in the Victor sloop, Capt. Basil Hall. His last appointments were, 25 Sept. 1824, to the Astrea, Capt. Wm. King, at Falmouth; and 31 May, 1825, and 19 Oct. 1832, to the command of the Hope and Hermes packets. The latter vessel he quitted at the close of 1833.
Lieut. Wright married, 6 June, 1818, Miss Emily Mills Woodley, sister of Commander Wm. Woodley, R.N. (to whose memoir refer), and a relative of the Earl of Falmouth, by whom he has left issue four sons and three daughters. His eldest son, John Allen, is a Captain in the Hon.E.I.Co.’s service. Agents – Messrs. Chard.