Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/146

 reputation in the colony by her portraits in wax, she removed to England in 1772 and settled in London, where she became celebrated as the ‘Promethean modeller.’ Her residence was in Cockspur Street, Haymarket, and there she arranged an exhibition of her works, comprising life-sized figures and busts of contemporary notabilities and historical groups, which was superior to anything of the kind previously seen. She modelled for Westminster Abbey the effigy of Lord Chatham, which is still preserved there. During the American war of independence Mrs. Wright, who was a woman of remarkable intelligence and conversational powers, acted successfully as a spy on behalf of Benjamin Franklin, with whom she regularly corresponded. Her house was much resorted to by artists, especially Benjamin West [q. v.] and John Hoppner [q. v.], the latter of whom married her second daughter Phœbe. In 1781 Mrs. Wright paid a visit to Paris, and returned only shortly before her death, which took place in London on 23 March 1786. An engraving of Mrs. Wright accompanies a notice of her in the ‘London Magazine’ of 1775.

(1756–1793), only son of Patience Wright, accompanied his mother to England, and, with the assistance of West and Hoppner, became a portrait-painter. In 1780 he exhibited a portrait of his mother at the Royal Academy, and at about the same time he painted a portrait of the Prince of Wales. In 1782 he returned to America, where he practised both painting and wax-modelling; Washington sat to him several times. He was appointed the first draughtsman and die-sinker to the mint at Philadelphia, and died in 1793.

[Dunlap's Hist. of the Arts of Design in the United States, 1834; London Mag. 1775, p. 555; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists.] 

WRIGHT, PETER (1603–1651), jesuit, was born at Slipton, Northamptonshire, in 1603 of poor parents, who were zealous catholics. After being engaged for ten years as clerk in a solicitor's office, he enlisted in the English army in Holland, but soon left it, and entered the Society of Jesus at Watten in 1629. In 1633 he was at Liège studying philosophy; in 1636 in the same college pursuing his theological course, and in 1639 prefect in the English jesuit college at St. Omer. He was appointed camp commissioner to the English and Irish forces at Ghent in 1642. Being sent to the English mission in 1643, he served for two years in the Oxford and Northampton district. He removed to London in 1646, was apprehended on 2 Feb. 1650–1, was committed to Newgate, tried for high treason under the statute 27 Elizabeth, condemned to death, and hanged at Tyburn on 19 May (O.S.) 1651.

Among the manuscripts at Stonyhurst College are sixty-two of his sermons, preached in the course of a year. His portrait has been engraved by C. Galle, and again by J. Thane.

[An account of Wright appeared under the title of ‘R. P. Petri Writi … Mors, quam ob fidem passus est Londini xxix Maii 1651’ [Antwerp, 1651], 12mo. It was translated into Italian (Bologna, 1651) and into Dutch (Antwerp 1651). See also Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests; Dodd's Church Hist.; Florus Anglo-Bavaricus, p. 84; Foley's Records, ii. 506–64, vii. 870; Granger's Biogr. Hist. of England, 5th edit. iii. 348; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 229; Tanner's Societas Jesu, 1675.] 

WRIGHT, RICHARD (1735–1775?), marine painter, born at Liverpool in 1735, was brought up as a ship and house painter. An entirely self-taught artist, he first appeared as an exhibitor in London in 1760, and between that date and 1773 exhibited twenty-five works with the Incorporated Society of Artists and one with the Free Society. He was a man of rough manners and warm temper, and during his membership of the Incorporated Society he took an active lead among those discontented with its affairs. His exhibited pictures included ‘A Storm with a Shipwreck;’ ‘Sunset, a Fresh Breeze;’ ‘A Fresh Gale;’ ‘River with Boats, &c., Moonlight.’ In 1764 a premium was offered by the Society of Arts for the best marine picture; this he won, as was the case with similar prizes given by the society in 1766 and 1768. His most notable work is a sea-piece, for which he obtained a premium of fifty guineas in 1764; from it William Woollett [q. v.] engraved his fine plate ‘The Fishery.’ No doubt owing to excellence of the engraver's work, a copy of this was published in France, on which the name of Vernet is affixed as painter. There is a picture by him in the collection at Hampton Court, ‘The Royal Yacht bringing Queen Charlotte to England in a Storm.’ His wife and daughters were also painters. He died about 1775.

[Bryan's Dict. ed. Graves; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists.] 

WRIGHT, RICHARD (1764–1836), unitarian missionary, eldest son of Richard Wright, was born at Blakeney, Norfolk, on 7 Feb. 1764. His father was a labourer; his mother, Anne (d. 11 Oct. 1810), claimed