Ancestry of Wyman Virdell TAYLOR Jr.

Family #8.
Robert (Lord) Wright was born 9 Apr 1516 in Kelveden Hatch, Co Essex, England, and died 25 Jan 1585/86 in Brook Hall, South Weald, Co Essex, England. He married Mary Greene 10 Sep 1541 in Kelvedon Hatch, Co Essex, England, daughter of Robert Greene and Mrs Greene. She was born 25 Nov 1519 in Navestock, Co Essex, England, and died 1587 in Brook Hall, South Weald Co Essex, England.

Notes for Robert (Lord) Wright:
Robert was of Brook Hall (Moat House) Parish of South Weald
Lord of the Manor of Great Little Ropers,
Also a member of Henry lll's House of Lords.
Taken from a will dated Jan 17,1587 and proved Feb 22,1587.

Notes for Mary Greene:
Mary was the daughter of Robert Green of Navestock
Robert was buried within the chancel of St Peter's Weald
Mary was buried St Peter South Weald Co Essex, England

Children of Robert Wright and Mary Greene are:

   i. Dorothy Wright,   b. 07 Nov 1542; Brook Hall South Weald, Essex,
                                        England
                        m. 28 May 1566; John HATCH,  
  ii. Katherine Wright, b. 19 Jan 1543; Brook Hall South Weald, Essex,
                                        England
                        m. 28 Nov 1565; William KENT, b. 1542. 
 iii. Olive Wright,     b.    Mar 1544, Brook Hall, South Weald, Essex,
                                        England
                                        (See Family 11) 
  iv. John Wright,      b. 18 Jan 1545; Brook Hall South Weald, Essex,
                                        England
                        d.        1640;
                        m.            ; Elizabeth Linsell b. 1548; d. 1602.
   v. Thomas Wright,  chr. 17 Aug 1548; St Peter South Weald, Essex,
                                        England
                      bur. 21 Oct 1617; St Peter South Weald, Essex,
                                        England.
                        (See Family 12) 
  vi. Robert Wright,    b.        1550;

In a message dated 9/24/2002 7:08:09 PM Central Daylight Time, you wrote

My brother just returned from visiting the Kelvedon Hatch part of Essex and actually spent the night in the very nice inn which is the house from which Thomas Wright of Wethersfield emigrated. It isn't Kelvedon Hall: that went to the eldest son and was later rebuilt. Second son Robert Wright, who married Mary Green and was Thomas's gt grandfather, got the Moat House (alias Ropers or Brook Hall or Brook Street), recently renamed Mary Green Manor. When my brother discovered that there were guestrooms in the original Tudor part of the house, his sentimentality overcame his parsimony, for the first time in his life. He says that the Wright crest is all over the place - even the bathrobes. The inn has a website at www.marygreenmanor.co.uk . It's just outside the London city limits, in Brentwood, about two miles off the M25, London's beltway.

George Lloyd's 1997 book about the building - covering history, politics, construction, architecture, ownership, etc. - is still in print, though now softbound, and available from Marygreen. The title is "The Place at Brook Street." Some mailing list postings from 1997 and 1998 talk about it. The only glitch that I've found in it is the statement that the aviator Wright Brothers descend from Tom of Wethersfield. Isn't Samuel of Springfield their ancestor? Other than that, it's fascinating reading.

Anne Wright Brown (Mrs. G. S. ), Trustee
New York Marble Cemetery, Inc.
www.marblecemetery.org

Dear Ann,

Thank you so much for the message below that brought a very pleasant flashback for my wife and I. You didn't mention the very nice restaurant that is also in the west wing of the Mary Green Manor Inn. I am sure your brother dined there if he stayed at the Inn. My wife and I stayed there several days a few years ago while researching the location of the old Wrightsbridge/Dagnum Park estates of Lord John Wright, the Kelvedon Hall estate and the parish records for St. Nicholas Church in Kelvedon Hatch and St. Peters in South Weald. During our stay at the Mary Green Manor we met the Lord of the Manor, Paul Pearson, as he strode about the Inn in full riding gear and red tails. A wonderful sight to behold from right out of the days of England's glory years! He played the part to the hilt and was busy building this aspect of his management of the Inn into a tradition. I hope he is still doing it and your brother had a chance to chat with him.

George Lloyd's book was intended as an architectural history of the building and he included genealogical information on the owners of the manor as a bonus to that effort. As such, he was not primarily focused on genealogy, and his research into the genealogy of the Robert Wright family ownership was, understandably, not 100% accurate. The somewhat antidotal reference to the Wright Brothers descendant from Thomas Wright in the text is an example you gave that is clear to all that have spent any time on the Deacon Samuel Wright family, but there were other mistakes as well.

For instance, on page 187 (hardbound volume) of the book is Appendix K, the Wright family genealogy chart for the Robert Wright family. In that chart, Mr. Lloyd, has listed as a child to John and Grace (Glasscock) Wright a son, Anthony, born 1609. From our research in the South Weald church records, we believe this son was not the son of John and Grace Wright of the "Brook" but the son of his cousin, John and Martha (Castell) Wright of Romford. Both men used the South Weald church as their home parish and were contemporary with each other in that use. Not only that, but Lord John Wright of Wrightsbridge and another cousin, John Wright of Bishop's Hall also used the South Weald Church during some of these same years. So, parish register entries in the St. Peter's church register have to be read with special care as to which John Wright was being referred to as the father in a baptismal record. This is true for almost all the early St. Peter's registers because there were no less than four John Wrights using the church at the same time for nearly the entire time between the mid 1500s through the mid 1600's. As a result, the scribes usually, but not always, made some attempt to differentiate between them by adding a place name to the entry or other identifying title. Hence, because the Moat House was on the road called Brook Street running west from Brentwood (AKA early on as Burntwood) it was sometimes referred to as Brook Hall and the Wrights of that manor home were termed in the parish register as "... of the Brook", while Lord John Wright of Wrightsbridge, was usually referred to as John Wright "...of the Bridge", and John Wright of Romford was referred to as simply "Mr." John Wright or John Wright, "Esq.", and the various John Wright's of Bishop's Hall descent were referred to variously as John Wright of "White Notely" or of "Bishops", or "...of Burntwood", depending on where they were living at the time of the register entry.

The real father of Anthony Wright (b. 1609), John Wright of Romford (b. 1569), was a barrister and the eldest son of Lord John Wright of Wrightsbridge (b. 1546). Lord John Wright (Peerage granted 20 June 1590) was the son of Myddle John Wright (b. 1524), who, in turn, was Robert Wright's (b. 1522) younger brother.

John Wright of Romford was a prominent London lawyer and became the Clerk of the House of Commons in the second decade of the 1600s. Although he was married to Martha Castell in Cambridgshire, after entering the practice of law, he removed to one of his father's homes in Romford and used the nearby South Weald church to have his children baptized. South Weald was his family's historical parish home, just as it was the parish home of the Robert Wright family of Brook Street (The Mary Green Manor home). Incidentally, the Estate of Greater and Lesser Ropers you mentioned is separate from the Moat House estate grounds and the site of the Mary Green Manor Inn. It lies a little further east up Brook Street toward Brentwood from the Moat House and was considered a separate estate at the time of Robert Wright's inheritance.

At this time in our continuing research efforts on the parentage of Deacon Samuel Wright, we still believe the strongest candidate for his parents are John and Martha (Castell) Wright, and that the Anthony mentioned in Mr. Lloyd's book was actually the Deacon's younger brother, as well as being the last child born to John Wright and Martha Castell before her death the following year.

CHILDREN of Robert WRIGHT and Mary GREENE:

   1. ROBERT    chr: 30 Jun 1542; South Weald, Essex, England.
                  d:        1567; , Essex, England.
   2. DOROTHY   chr:  7 Nov 1542; South Weald, Essex, England.
                 md: 28 May 1566; , Essex, England.
                                  John HATCH
   3. KATHERINE chr: 19 Jan 1543; South Weald, Essex, England.
                 md: 38 Nov 1565; , Essex, England.
                                  William KENT
   4. OLIVE     chr:    Mar 1544; South Weald, Essex, England.
                 md: 19 Oct 1563; , Essex, England.
                                  Richard THRESHER
   5. JOHN      chr: 10 Jan 1545; South Weald, Essex, England.
                 md:            ; , Essex, England.
                                  Jane RICHALL
                  d:        1640; ,
 + 6. THOMAS    chr: 17 Aug 1548; South Weald, Essex, England.
                 md: 25 Apr 1568; Kelvendon Hatch, Essex, England.
                                  Roberdye PAKE
                bur: 21 Oct 1617; St. Peters  South Weald, Essex, England.

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