▶Date of birth:  (bapt) 3 May 1822        Place of birth:  Heaton Norris, Stockport, Lancashire

▶Father: John Wright, accountant    Mother: Betty Harrison

▶Spouse(s): Mary Thorp    Date(s) of marriage:  8 October 1845     Place(s) of marriage:  St Mary, St Denys, and St George, Manchester

▶Occupation: Clergyman

▶Lifestory: William Henry Wright attended St Bee’s Theological College in Cumberland, and was ordained Deacon (Chester) in 1845, and Priest (Oxford) in 1846. In 1845 he married Mary, daughter of William Thorp, manufacturer, of Fallowfield Lodge, Burnage, Manchester; they had six sons and seven daughters; in 1861 the family  lived at 10 Springfield, Everton. In 1845 he was licensed Curate of St Paul, Bury, where he remained until 1846, when he became Curate of Bicester for a year. In 1847 he moved to become Minister of St James’ Episcopal Chapel, Jersey 1847-8, and then Perpetual Curate of Christ Church, Everton 1848-70. In 1870 he was appointed Vicar of St Paul’s, Cheltenham, remaining in the post until 1888:

“During the earlier years of his ministry in Cheltenham he aroused considerable interest and controversy by the outspoken manner in which he rebuked the shortcomings of his congregation, and once told them from the pulpit that it had never been his lot to witness so much inattention and want of devotion in church as he found amongst them. Though a powerful and an earnest extempore preacher, he was apt to lose the thread of his discourse by coughing or any slight disturbance of a similar character, and sometimes rebuked such disturbers from the pulpit much to their discomfiture. He held somewhat extreme ideas from a modern point of view on such doctrinal points as justification by faith, eternal punishment, &c., and his sermons on them evoked much attention and controversy. He will also be remembered in connection with a discussion on the nursing question at the Hospital [etc.].” (Cheltenham Chronicle, 11 June 1898).

In 1871 he lived with his family at No 1 Bath Buildings, St Luke, Cheltenham; between about 1874 and 1888 he lived at St Arvan’s, Evesham Road, Pittville (in 1881, married with three daughters born in Everton and Ilam, Staffordshire). After leaving his post in Cheltenham, the Revd. Wright lived on the Continent, and latterly in Croydon, Surrey.

▶Moved to Pittville from:   Moved from Pittville to:

▶Date of death:  1 June 1898    Place of death:

▶Date of burial:  4 June 1898       Place of burial:  Cheltenham Cemetery

▶Notes:  There is considerable confusion between this William Henry Wright and a contemporary who attended Jesus College, Cambridge (usually distinguished as BA on MA in the newspapers), who died in 1880 while Vicar of Hemingborough, Yorkshire.    ID: 3325

Contributor(s):  Alan Munden/John Simpson