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1768 - bef 1820
1799 - 1889
1820-1849
1843 - 1887
1881 - 1933
1909 - 1977
WRIGHT AND KINDRED FAMILIES
There were no family names in England until the reign of King William I (usually called William the Conqueror). Records, titles and deeds to property, were listed in single names until the reign of King William (1066-1087) when he decreed that all Englishmen must assume a family name.
The surname WRIGHT, as a suffix, means "maker". Hence it’s many compounds! Copperwright, Shoewright, Glasswright, Cheesewright, Boatwright, Wainwright, Cartwright, Wheelwright, Shipwright, etc. Thus Shoewright would be a shoemaker, wheelwright, a wheel maker etc. Alone, WRIGHT means a worker in hard metals or wood and later was applied to a carpenter. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon "Wyrhta", which is translated to: workman.
The name is found in ancient English records in various spellings: such as Wryte, Wricte, Wryght and Wright, of which the last is the generally accepted form today.
Families of this name were to be found at early dates in the English countries of Essex , Cambridge , Norfolk , Suffolk and others, as well as in London . The family was mostly of the landed gentry and nobility of England .