Son of James & Mary Bowater Wright

was born on 4 Nov 1716 in East Nottingham MM, Chester County, Pennsylvania and died before 8 Jun 1790 in Bush River MM, Newberry Co., South Carolina.

Research Notes: Much information can be gleaned about this family from a book by Algie I. Newlin entitled CHARITY COOK, A LIBERATED WOMAN,(Friends United Press, 1981).It is a biography of their daughter,Charity Cook,written and researched by a history professor.

Around 1725,he and his family moved to the northern part of Maryland,Prince Georges Co.,MD possibly living at Goose Creek MM,Cecil Co.,MD first.Rachel's family lived in Prince George's County and they probably met there. John's only wife was Rachel Wells. Some sources list a second wife named Susannah but this has been disproven.The first half of John and Rachel's children were born in Prince George's County Maryland according to Newlin's book: "Charity Cook, A Liberated Woman". John's family moved from 1733-35 to Frederick Co., VA and became members of the Friends Hopewell Monthly Meeting. They lived near Monacy Creek a few miles south of Frederick, Maryland now known as Frederick Co., VA.

The marriage records of John and Rachel Wells Wright can not be located, and it is assumed that they were burned with the Hopewell meeting records. Marriage is therefore approximated as 1737, a year before their first child's birth. Both John and Rachel were appointed overseers of their respective male and female Monthly Meetings in Monocacy in 1745. They were charter members of the Fairfax MM.

Rachel Wells Wright is a very interesting person of her own right.She was a Quaker minister. This involved travel and stamina on her part. She was a very sturdy woman attested by the trials she endured plus the fact that she had three of her children in just a two year period.

What is even more astounding is that during this same two year period, John and Rachel Wright with 7 young children, William through John Jr. moved to the Cane Creek frontier, soon to become Orange County,North Carolina,which was over a distance of 300 miles.They received their letter to go to what was then Carvers Creek MM on 29-5-1749. They were charter members of of Cane Creek Monthly Meeting in Alamance Co., North Carolina when it was established 10m-1751. Six more children were born to them in the Cane Creek area. All thirteen are listed in the Cane Creek records.

John and Rachel moved near Camden,Kershaw Co.,South Carolina in 1761/1762 to the Wateree Meeting in Camden, South Carolina, later to become the Bush River Monthly Meeting area that they helped establish. He sought a land patent for land on Beaverdam on Sep 17, 1769 with an addition joining it in 1786.Parts of both of this land he granted to his son in law Big John.Later,Big John and Rachel then sold it to their son, Wright Coate.

By 1765 there was a decision among some Friends in the North Carolina Piedmont to move to South Carolina.Perhaps this was associated with difficulties growing out of the Regulator Movement. John and Rachel (Wells) Wright and family, including the family of their daughter, Charity, who had married Isaac Cook,were among the first to move to what became the large Bush River Friends settlement in Newberrty County,South Carolina.

John was a member of the first and second Provincial Congress of S.C.

At an ederly age, he lived with his daughter,Susannah. He used to walk to and from the Quaker meetings.The family reunion in 1908 recalled that his daughter prevailed on him to take her horse on one occasion.When the meeting was over, he walked home.When he got there she asked him where the horse was and he replied "Dad, me Sue, I forgot her."

According to this same family renunion provided by Julia Henry,it states that he and his wife had seven sons and ten daughters,4 of whom apparently aren't in the Quaker records.

He wrote his will on 9/17/1789.He named his wife,his deceased son, Joseph and Joseph's son, John; John and his son; Jesse; Nathan and his son William; his son-in-law, Isaac Hollingsworth which he left his shoe-maker tools,cow and calf;Joab Brooks, son of James Brooks;Joseph Cook,his grandson and son of Isaac Cook;William Hollingsworth, grandson and son of Isaac Hollingsworth; son-in-law Isaac Cook and Isaac's daughter Rachel.The witnesses were Isaac Hollingsworth,John Coate and Charity Cook. His Executor was his son Joseph Wright.His will was written in Newberry Co., SC.

His death was about 1790.He was living with his son-in-law, Isaac Hollingsworth's family,in the 1790 census.Before he died,he supposedly gathered all of his descendants which numbered 144 persons at the time.

Will, 17 Sep 1789, ,Newberry Co., SC, USA.
Probate, 8 Jun 1790, ,Newberry Co., SC, USA.

John married Rachel Wells,daughter of Joseph Wells and Margaret Swanson,about 1738 in Hopewell Mm,Frederick County,Virginia.
Rachel was born on 3 May 1720 in All Hallows Parish,Anne Arundel County,Maryland and died on 23 Dec 1771 in Bush River MM,Newberry Co.,South Carolina at age 51.

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John Wright went to Cane Creek, N.C. by 1749, and on to Berkley Co., S.C. by 1768. He's said to be a Revolutionary War soldier, but never left the Friends (Quakers). His will was made September 17, 1789, Newberry Co., S.C. His wife Rachel was born 3 mo (May) 27, 1720, Prince George Co., Maryland the daughter of Joseph and Margaret Wells. She died Dec 23, 1771, Bush River MM, S.C.

The following anecdote about John Wright is in the "Annals of Newberry", page 31: "John Wright, the father of Charity Cook and Susannah Hollingsworth, was a very aged man at the time of which I am about to speak, but principally accustomed to walk to and from meeting. He was living with his daughter, Susannah Hollingsworth, something prevented her from going to meeting; she induced the old man to ride her mare. This he did; but after meeting, he walked out of the meeting house, and home as usual. As he entered the door, his daughter said to him, "Father, where is the mare?" "Dads me, Sue, I forgot her." was the old mans reply."

This ancestor before his death, assembled his children and children at his bedside. When all were assembled, they numbered one hundred and forty-four.

In 1759 the Quaker Colony where the Wrights lived was atacked and James and his wife Mary were killed and scalped. Soon after his parents were killed our gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-grandfather John Wright, his wife Rachel, and their children, in frustration and grief, moved to a Quaker Colony near present day Greensboro, North Carolina. It was at this point the Quaker established the first college in North Carolina. The College still exists and is called Guilford. It is just one of many institutuions of higher learning founded by the Quakers in early America.

But poor John and his family, running from the violence of one Indian War ran head long into another. With the aid of the French, the Catawaba and Cherokee, of the Carolinas, had joined forces and were wiping out white settlements in the Yadkin River Valley, very near the Quaker Colony at Greensboro where the Wrights had settled.

Still seeking a place of Peace our ancestor, John, and his family, moved through the hostile Indian territory of the Yadkin River country to the Bush River Monthly Meeting Colony in South Carolina. (Oh, how I would like to know how this family was able to move through country where hostile Indians had run out all whites!)

John and his family at last found peace at Bush River near present day Newberry, South Carolina until the advent of the Revolutionary War. When the Revolution came, John apparently was fed up with being a pacifist. Even though he was then in his fifties, he immediately joined the celebrated American fighting group called Col. Thompson's Rangers as Pvt. John Wright.

Our ancestor, John Wright, was at the famous Battle of The Cowpens where an American army made up of rough frontiermen defeated an Army of elite British regulars under the command of Banastre Tarleton to win the first vistory against Lord Cornwallis' army.

John died in South Carolina September 17, 1789 and is buried in Newberry County.