John (Jack) Wright
John (Jack) Wright was probably born at Plowland Hall in Holderness [in the parish of
Welwick]. Along with his younger brother Christopher, he was said to have been a
school fellow of both Oswald Tesimond and Guy Fawkes at the free school of St. Peters
in York, known as "Le Horse Fayre".
Robert and Ursula were staunch Catholics who suffered imprisonment in Hull Prison in
York for a period of "fourteen years together" during the time which Henry Hastings,
the Puritan Earl of Huntingdon, was Lord President of the North. They had
three daughters also, including Martha, who married Thomas Percy the conspirator,
and Ursula, who married firstly John Constable of Hatfield, and secondly Marmaduke
Ward of Mulwith, the suspected brother of Thomas Ward, servant to William Parker,
Lord Monteagle. By his first marriage to Anne Grimston, Robert Wright also had a
son William, and two daughters, Martha and Anne. Very little is known of the
early life of the two Wright brothers and a great deal of what is written is often
attributed to either or both of them, so accuracy and specifics in detail between the
two brothers are often blurred, but later, Father John Gerard described John as a
"strong, stout man, and of very good wit, though slow of speech". Renowned from
his youth for his courage, "he was somewhat taciturn in manner, but very loyal to his
friends, even if his friends were few". By all accounts he was an excellent
swordsman, considered by some to be the best swordsman of his day. He was purported
to be much disposed to fighting until he was reconciled to the Catholic faith,
which according to Gerard occurred during, or just prior to, the time of the Essex
Rebellion. Prior to the Essex Rebellion however, John, his brother Christopher,
and a number of others, including Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham, were arrested
as a precautionary measure during an illness of Queen Elizabeth I. This was later
dubbed the "Poisoned Pommel" incident, although no evidence of a plot or conspiracy
was ever truly uncovered that implicated either these four or any others.
Both John and his wife Dorothy then seemed to endure a great deal of harassment and
persecution by the authorities, and they appear more than once on the recusancy rolls,
for their profession of the Catholic faith.
John, along with his friend Robert Catesby, had formed part of the entourage for
Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex. After the abortive Essex Rebellion of 1601,
John spent an amount of time imprisoned in solitary confinement. After his
release, he moved his family from the ancestral home of Plowland Hall to Twigmore
Hall in northern Lincolnshire, which, even before the Essex Rebellion was noted as
a "resort of priests for his [John's] spiritual and their corporal comfort",
which seems to imply his religious position was established even before Father John
Gerard's claim. (Spink also makes the claim that it would be difficult for the son
of such devout religionists who suffered persecution for their faith to be brought
up with anything other than a Catholic background.)
A government report put it in less flattering terms: "This place is one of the worst
in her Majesty's dominions and is used like a Popish college for traitors in the
northern parts".
Esteemed by Catesby for his valour and secrecy, John was the third to be initiated
into the Gunpowder Plot, some time in May 1604. Along with Thomas Wintour, he was
given the task of officially telling Guy Fawkes of the conspirators' intentions to
blow up the Houses of Parliament, at which time he removed his family from
Twigmore Hall to a house belonging to Catesby at Lapworth in Warwickshire.
John's official position in the conspiracy is somewhat unclear, although by all
accounts he was an active participant in all its events.
On 4 November, the eve of the plot's discovery, John fled London with Catesby to
take the news to Sir Everard Digby and the hunting party which had gathered at
Dunchurch in Warwickshire. Meeting several of their confederates on the way to
the Midlands, their party eventually numbered almost 60 strong. After receiving
Mass at Huddington Court on November 6th, they finally reached Holbeche House, the
home of Stephen Littleton, in the late evening of 7 November. The conspirators by
now were weary, and according to their confessions, had all but given up hope that
their plans would succeed.
On the morning of 8 November, the house was surrounded and laid siege to by the
Sheriff of Worcester's men. In a brief stand, Christopher Wright was killed
outright along with Catesby and Percy. However, according to Tesimond, who was
later told by the Wintours'priest Father Hart (alias Hammond) who had administered
the Mass two days previous, John was also mortally wounded, but "lingered for a day,
if not longer".
After the capture and imprisonment of the conspirators, the
bodies of those who had died at Holbeche were exhumed, and the heads removed for
display at Westminster Palace.
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