John Wright III (1728 - 1789)

Born 30 Oct 1728 in Leesylvania, Prince William, Virginia [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Ann (Williams) Wright — married about 1753 (to about 1765) in Fauquier, Virginia

Descendants

Died 30 Oct 1789 at age 61 in Flat Rock Creek, Surry, North Carolina, United States

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Biography

John Wright III lived in Virginia.

John Wright III performed Patriotic Service in North Carolina in the American Revolution.

John Wright III, a son of John Wright and Elizabeth Bronaugh was born 30 October 1728 in Prince William County, Virginia.

John was too old to join the military ranks during the American Revolutionary War, but was honored by the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution for his Patriotic Service for furnishing supplies for the Continental Army and for his Civil Service, as he served as a juror and an assessor in Surry County, North Carolina. ^[1]

He married Ann Williams about 1753 in Fauquier, Virginia. ^[2]

John Wright died 30 October 1789 (aged 61) at Flat Rock, Surry County, North Carolina, United States, and was buried at Wright Family Cemetery in Hamptonville, Yadkin County, North Carolina, United States.^[3] His will dated 8 October 1789 was proven in Surry, North Carolina, United States in May term of 1790. He appointed his wife and son John as executors of his last will and testament, and names his "loving wife Anne," ten daughters, and five sons in his will:

1. Elizabeth Wright Arnold
2. Agatha Wright Elliot
3. Lucretia Wright Petty
4. Frances Wright Riley
5. Nancy Ann Wright Elsbury
6. Amelia Wright Martin
7. Patsey or Peggy Wright
8. Sucky Wright
9. Polly Wright
10. Rosey Wright
11. Thomas Wright
12. John Wright
13. Major Daniel Wright
14. James Wright Sr
15. William Wright ^[4][5]

Slaves

John Wright was a slaveholder. His probate records recorded the enslaved at his death.

• Unnamed Male age 21^[6]
• Unnamed Female age 24^[6]
• Phyllis Wright^[7]
• Sarah Wright^[8]

Research Notes

Excerpt from Emily Anne Ledbetter Bishop's Genealogy of the Wright Family

John Wright, “Gent,” “Surveyor,” “Captain,” was doubtless born upon his grandfather’s thousand-acre estate between Powell’s Run and Neapsco creek, soon after 1730 (10/30/1728?) and before the death of his grandfather, John Wright, Gent, who had purchased that estate of Henry Lee, Gent, in 1723. After its sale by his uncle Francis, in 1741, he, John, must have lived with his father upon the latter’s new estate about a mile northwest of the present Midland railway station and so near to the early home on Licking Run of John Marshall, later Chief Justice of the United States, that these two youths could scarcely have avoided being intimates.

He married in 1753 Ann Williams daughter of Jonas, Sr. and Honor (Morgan) Williams. The marriage and parentage is proved by the plaintiffs filed “Bill of Complaint” by John Wright, Jr., in his suit in chancery against his mother-in-law, Honour Williams, et al, for the fulfillment by her of the marriage stipulation of a gift to him of some of her personal property, her husband Jonas having died, testate, in 1749 [Fauquier county court minutes book, volume 2, page 9, etc, session of March 24, 1763] This John Wright, Jr., Gent, was commissioned as Captain of the Fauquier Militia and on July 29, 1763, “took the usual Oaths to his Majesties Person & Government & subscribed the Teste “ before the justices of the county [Fauquier court minutes book, volume 2, page 152] On April 17, 1771, this John Wright, Jr., Gent, was commissioned by “the President and Masters of the College of William and Mary” as a surveyor of the County of Fauquier.” [Fauquier deed book No. 4, page 165]

In 1774, John Wright, his wife and 14 children departed through the gap in the Blue Ridge, for the long Indian trail between the ridge and the Cumberland mountains, which, by the treaty of Lancaster, had become the best and chief highway overland to the south from northern Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania for Buck Shoals, Surry County, NC. [Descendents of John Washington]

The removal of John Wright, Jr., Gent, from Fauquier county to Buck Shoal township, Surry (now Yadkin) county, North Carolina is proven by various indications, among which are:

1. He disappears completely from Fauquier records (except in his father’s will) immediately after his sale to Peter Grant of the last of his property in Fauquier county, 21 September, 1774, and his wife Ann’s waiver of dower rights therein, October 10, and his acknowledgment of the deed in court on October 24 following

2. He first appears on record in Surry county, North Carolina in February, 1775, as defendant in an action at law brought by Joseph Crouch, in which John Wright’s son-in-law, Samuel Arnold, became one of the “sureties” named on the defendant’s bond. [Surry county, North Carolina, filed court papers for February term, 1775; also in “A Civil Docket for the County of Surry” book 1 (unpaged), “New Actions to Feb. Term 1775.”]

3. In his will [recorded in office of the clerk of the court at Dobson, North Carolina proved at the May term of court, 1790, of Surry county, North Carolina], he bequeaths to “my son Thomas Wright” of said county. This son’s deposition proving his own services in detail in the War of the Revolution and his right to a pension, dated 12 February, 1833, made before the justices of the court of Surry county, North Carolina, states: “I was born in Fauquier county, State of Virginia on the 18th of Feby. 1758,” and filed with this affidavit now in the United States Pension Office is the original leaf of his family Bible bearing records of births, marriages and deaths, among which is the entry “Father Departed this Life October 30, 1789.” [See Pension Papers, file No. 11,899, at United States Pension Office.]

4. In his will, John Wright, Gent, and surveyor directs that his “surveyor Instruments be sold to buy a horse;” also, he names therein “my loving wife Ann” (Williams) and their sons “Williams Wright, William Wright,” and daughter “Lezebeth Arnold” and her husband “Saml Arnold,” who were married in Fauquier county, Virginia, September 5, 1771, before her parents moved to North Carolina [See record of their marriage license bond in county clerk’s office, Warrenton, Virginia]. This Elizabeth was the eldest daughter and probably named for her grandmother Elizabeth Wright.

This will of Captain John Wright, Gent, also names his eighteen children, all by wife Ann (Williams) Wright. Thus he and his brother, William Wright, who died in Fauquier county, Virginia in 1805 left between them thirty-two children. ^[9]

Records held by the Society of the DAR show that he married Ann Williams. Application for membership in the Society have been filed by the descendants of his sons:

1. Daniel Wright, who married Nancy Young;
2. James Wright, who married Mary Ray;
3. Thomas Wright, who married Mary Clanton; and
4. William Wright, who married Sally Mitchell; and of his daughters,
5. Frances Wright, who married Garrard Riley;
6. Agatha Wright, who married Isaac Ellsberry;
7. Margaret Wright, who married Samuel Marsh;
8. Elizabeth Wright, who married Samuel Arnold;
9. Rosanna Wright, who married William Martin Brittain; and
10. Lucretia Wright, who married William Petty.^[10]

From US Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files at ancestry.com:

The Revolutionary War pension application records of Thomas Wright state that "father departed this life October 30, 1789". Also is a death date for father-in-law of Sept 22 1793. It appears that this was Thomas Wright's Bible, and his father passed away in 1789, based on the John Wright's 1789 will date and the appearance of Ann Wright, apparently widowed, and Thomas Clanton (Mary's father was Thomas Clanton) in the 1790 Surry census. Application file documents state that Thomas Wright was born Feb 18, 1758 in Fauquier County VA, and died June 22, 1840 in Surry County NC. Widow Mary. Also gives birth/death info for wife and children.

The military pension records also state that Thomas Wright, then a resident of Surry County NC, volunteered for service in June 1776, and served as a private in Captain Jacob Ferree's company until August 1776 in the Cherokee Indian Wars. A few days afterward he enlisted and served 3 months in Captain Jacob Ferree's company, Colonel James Martin's NC Regiment, where he fought and destroyed Cherokee towns. In the spring of 1780 he volunteered for Revolutionary War service as a minute-man and served whenever called upon for Captains Horn, Gibson Wooldridge and Samuel Mosbey, Colonels Joseph Phillips and Joseph Williams until the surrender of Cornwallis. Thomas Wright was a senior magistrate in the Surry County courts, had served in the state legislature, and was an exemplary member of the Baptist Church. The application also states that he volunteered to serve in the Indian war. ^[11]

Sources

1. ↑ Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed July 24, 2020), "Record of John Wright", Ancestor # A130877.
2. ↑ Charles Arthur Hoppin, "Fauquier County (Virginia), Filed Papers, at court on July 13, 1766," The Washington ancestry and records of the McClain, Johnson, and forty other colonial American families, (Greenfield, Ohio: Priv. print., 1932) Vol. 1, p. 428; Link to the Record.
3. ↑ Find a Grave Memorial, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/142236680/john-wright.
4. ↑ North Carolina Probate Records, 1735-1970, Surry Wills, 1783-1792, Vol. 02 images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:SQWF-D7DD-9?cc=1867501&wc=32L2-K66%3A170003101%2C170782501 : 21 May 2014), Surry > Wills, 1783-1792, Vol. 02 > images 183 and 184 of 213; county courthouses, North Carolina.
5. ↑ "North Carolina Estate Files, 1663-1979," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2Z7-3PZH : 17 March 2018), John Wright, 1794; citing Surry, North Carolina, United States, State Archives, Raleigh; FHL microfilm.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Record of wills, 1771-1963: "North Carolina Probate Records, 1735-1970"
   Catalog: Record of wills, 1771-1963 Wills, v. 1-3 1771-1827
   Image path: North Carolina Probate Records, 1735-1970 > Surry > Wills, 1783-1792, Vol. 02 > image 403 of 626
   FamilySearch Image (accessed 12 November 2021)
   • Surry Co, NC will bk 2 p.172
7. ↑ North Carolina Probate Records, 1735-1970: "North Carolina Probate Records, 1735-1970"
   Image path: North Carolina Probate Records, 1735-1970 > Surry > Accounts, Inventories, Sales, 1784-1809 > image 66 of 769
   FamilySearch Image (accessed 12 November 2021)
   • Surry Co, NC, Aug 1793
8. ↑ North Carolina Probate Records, 1735-1970: "North Carolina Probate Records, 1735-1970"
   Catalog: Accounts, inventories and settlements, 1772-1963; index, 1794-1963 Inventories & accounts of sales May 1772-Aug. 1803, Aug. 1818-May 1831
   Image path: North Carolina Probate Records, 1735-1970 > Surry > Accounts, Inventories, Sales, 1784-1809 > image 65 of 336
   FamilySearch Image: S7WF-3MY2-29 (accessed 1 February 2024)
   • further inventory of John Wright 1794
9. ↑ -Excerpt from "GENEALOGY OF THE WRIGHT FAMILY (November 2010, Revised)" by Emily Anne Ledbetter Bishop
10. ↑ U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970 Ancestry.com Publication: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Volume: 305; SAR Membership Number: 60940
11. ↑ https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/1995/MIUSA1775D_137283-00810/83227?backurl=https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/108300348/person/220081673529/facts#?imageId=MIUSA1775D_137283-00810

Acknowledgments