Nicholas Wright

Father of Rebecca (Wright) Frost, and one of the three Wright brothers, Peter, Anthony and Nicholas, who went from Lynn to Sandwich and then, in 1653, to the founding of Oyster Bay on Long Island. Latting, writing in 1872, has the brothers in Massachusetts “as early as 1636-7,” and believed, “although not positively proved,” that they came of the old Wright family of Norfolk (source, p. 35); the Frost Genealogy states that pedigree as fact, and it is not used here.

Sandwich. “They are found first residing at Lynn, then called Saugus, in Massachussetts, but shortly afterwards removed to Sandwich, Cape Cod … Here several of the children of Peter and Nicholas were born” (source, p. 35). On the Plymouth list of 1643 of the Sandwich men able to bear arms, “Nicholas Wright,” “Peter Wright” and “Anthony Wright” stand with John Ellis, Thomas Tupper, John Freeman, Edmund Freeman Jr. and Henry Feake (source, PCR 8:192-193): Rebecca grew up among the Freeman-Ellis ancestors. Their minister at Sandwich was William Leverich.

Oyster Bay. “In 1653 they joined the company led by the Rev. William Leverich, and came to Long Island, and united in the first purchase from the Indians” of Oyster Bay (source, p. 35). The Indian deed of 1653 sold the land between Oyster River and the Papaquetunk “unto Peter Wright Samuel Mayo, William Leverich” for “Six Indean Coats, Six Kettles, Six ffathum of Wampam Six Hoes, Six Hatchetts, Three paire of Stockings, Thirty Aule-blades or Moxes, Twenty Knives, Three Shirts” and some peague (record, pp. 354-355). Nicholas’s land lay on the Beaver Swamp Creek, at Hog Island and by Joseph Weekes’s home lot; “the town records contain abundant entries, showing him to have been a man of large estate, for those days, and occupying sundry public offices” (Latting, p. 43). The brothers were early Friends: Anthony’s house was the Oyster Bay meeting place, and in 1672 he gave part of his home lot for the Quakers’ burying ground and meeting house.

His daughter’s case. In March 1669/70 he carried to Governor Lovelace “a Peticon from Rebecka ye wife of Eleazer Leveredg … by ye hands of her father Nicholas Wright,” and on 1 April 1670 the governor ordered a hearing because “Nicholas Wright of Oyster bay hath on ye behalfe of Rebeckah his daught[er] wife of Eleazer Leveridg of Huntington made Complaint unto me of ye uncomfortable condition wherein his said Daughter hath for diuers yeares past liued w[i]th her said husband” (record, pp. 43, 331-332). The marriage was declared void that October, on his petition again.

His will. “Oysterbay, the 10th of April, 1674. I, Nicholas Wright, aged sixty-five years or thereabouts. Being sick and weake, yett in perfect memory … I make my Loving wife, Ann Wright, sole Executor of my movables, both within my house and without, both of kine, horse-flesh, and swine, together with my house and Lands.” The home lot and orchard went, after Ann’s death, to Caleb, and the lands and meadows to “my three sonns, Caleb, John, and Edmund”; witnesses Thomas Townsend and Gideon Wright (source, p. 44). It names no daughters, “probably because they were all married” (source, p. 20). Twenty years later his sons John and Edmund sold to David Underhill land “formerly given by the town to Nicholas Wright and by him to his sons John and Edmond” (source, 2:78).

His children, by Latting: Caleb; John, who married Mary, daughter of the first Henry Townsend; Sarah, who married Josias Latting; Edmund, who married his cousin Sarah, Peter’s daughter; Martha, who married Nathaniel Coles; Mercy, who married Robert Coles; and Rebecca (p. 44). Only Rebecca has a page.

His brother Anthony, who never married, left small bequests in 1673 to Nicholas’s wife and children, “To Rebecca ffrost, two shillings, six pence,” and, at the end, “Alsoe, I give unto Isaack Dotye one cow” (Latting, p. 37). Peter’s daughters were among the boldest of the early Quakers: Hannah Wright, at fourteen, went to Boston in 1662 and “warned the magistrates ‘to spill no more innocent blood’” (Latting, p. 39, quoting Sewel), and drowned in Maryland in 1675 on a Friends’ journey with Matthew Prior, who wrote her testimony.

Research: research/mcmillan/Frost_Underhill_Bowne_Feake.md.

Open questions

• Where he came from in England. The Norfolk (Beaupré Hall, Kilverstone) pedigree is “believed, although not positively proved” (Latting, p. 35).
• Whether Ann was his only wife, and so Rebecca’s mother.
• The year of probate (December 1682 or 1683): his will in New York Wills, Lib. 2, pp. 133-135.