Concerning the parentage of these brothers, I can find no more than that
they were of the family of Wright of Plowland, in Holderness, Yorkshire.
They were cousins of Robert Winter, perhaps through his mother; were
both schoolfellows of Guy Fawkes, and "neighbours' children." John
Wright originally lived at Twigmore, in Lincolnshire, and removed to
Lapworth, in Warwickshire, when he became a party to the plot. He was
the first layman whom Catesby took into his confidence, Thomas Winter
being the second, and Fawkes the third. Like so many of the others, the
brothers were involved in Essex's rebellion. They were perverts, and
since their perversion John had been "harassed with persecutions and
imprisonment." Greenway says he was one of the best swordsmen of his
time. Gerard describes him as "a gentleman of Yorkshire, not born to
any great fortune, but lived always in place and company of the better
sort. In his youth, very wild and disposed to fighting... He grew to
be staid and of good, sober carriage after he was Catholic, and kept
house in Lincolnshire, where he had priests come often, both for his
spiritual comfort and their own in corporal helps. He was about forty
years old, a strong and a stout man, and of a very good wit, though slow
of speech: much loved by Mr Catesby for his valour and secrecy in
carriage of any business." Of Christopher he says that "though he were
not like him [John] in face, as being fatter, and a lighter-coloured
hair, and taller of person, yet was he very like to the other in
conditions and qualities, and both esteemed and tried to be as stout a
man as England had, and withal a zealous Catholic, and trusty and secret
in any business as could be wished." But little is known of the
relatives of these brothers. John Wright's wife was named Dorothy, and
she was "sister-in-law of Marmaduke Ward of Newby, Yorkshire,
gentleman;" they had a daughter who was eight or nine years old in 1605,
and probably one or more sons, as descendants of John Wright are said
still to exist Christopher's wife was called Margaret, but nothing is
known of his children. The brothers had two sisters,--Martha, the wife
of their co-traitor, Percy; and another who was the mother of a certain
William Ward, spoken of as Wright's nephew. (_Gunpowder Plot Book_,
articles 44, 47, 52, 90.)
By Greenway, Gerard, or both, it is asserted of nearly every one of the
conspirators that they were very wild in youth, and became persons of
exemplary virtue after their perversion to Popery.
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Note 1. "Thursday, 24th October," (not 26th, as usually stated), is the
endorsement on the letter itself (_Gunpowder Plot Book_, article 2), and
also the date given in the official account (_Ibidem_, article 129).