Name: John Jr. WRIGHT

  Born: ABT. 1787        at: Scotland  

Married: 14 NOV 1817 at: Cumberland Co.; NC

  Died: 17 AUG 1832      at: Greenhill, Lauderdale Co.; AL  

Spouses: Bethany JONES

John was born in 1777 in Scotland.1 John's father was John WRIGHT and his mother was FNU LNU. He had two brothers and two sisters, named Nicholas, Phillip, Polly and Katie. He was the oldest of the five children. He died at the age of 55 in 1832 in Lauderdale County, Alabama. His burial was in Wright Cemetery, overlooking Opossum Creek near Center Hill, Lauderdale County, Alabama.1 1

General Notes

b. Scotland est 1777 (alt 1780-1790 per 1830 census)

migrated Scotland > Fayetteville, NC 1790 (tombstone)

fought in War of 1812 for Fayetteville Independent Co. of NC Militia (Cumberland Cty)

engaged in Battle of Horseshoe Bend 1814 (tombstone)

engaged in Battle of New Orleans 1815 (tombstone)

m. Cumberland Cty, NC 14 Nov 1817 Bethany JONES

sister Catherine (WRIGHT) STEWART removed NC > AL about 1819

residing in Capt MacPhails Dist, Cumberland, NC in Jun 1820 (census)

daughter Prissie b. NC 1823

may have met Lafayette on visit to Fayetteville, NC in 1825

removed NC > AL after 1823 and < Jun 1830

residing in Lauderdale, AL in Jun 1830 (census)

d. Greenhill, Lauderdale Cty, AL

buried Wright Cemetery, Lauderdale Cty, AL (T1 R9, near Center Hill, overlooking Opossum Creek)

brother Philip's will (signed 1841, probated 1847)apparently refers to John Jr.'s heirs:

Lauderdale Alabama will probated 12 Apr 1847 [sic] Philip WRIGHT: To Nicholas WRIGHT, to wife Bosburo [sic] WRIGHT 40 acres. Livestock and other personal property to William GRAY. To Catherine STEWART, 12 1/2 cents. To heirs of John WRIGHT, 12 1/2 cents. Signed 17 Jan 1841, witnesses Drury JOINER, Alexander FIELD.

burial record:

Row 7 (N-S)

Wright, Philip; b. 1788, d. 1860, born in Scotland, unmarried

Wright, Poly; b. 1781, d. 1857, born in Scotland, unmarried

Wright, Bethany (Jones); b. no dates, wife of John Wright Jr.

Wright, John; b. 1777, d. 1832, Fayetteville Indpt. CO North Carolina Mil, war of 1812

http://www.rootsweb.com/~allauder/cem-wright-centerhill.htm

GPS: Wright Cemetery N345625.- W0872750.- N34. W-87. nr Center Hill

Alabama Land Records

about John Wright

Name: John Wright

Land Office: HUNTSVILLE

Document Number: 4979

Total Acres: 39.86

Signature: Yes

Canceled Document: No

Issue Date: 4 Sep 1834

Mineral Rights Reserved: No

Metes and Bounds: No

Statutory Reference: 3 Stat. 566

Multiple Warantee Names: No

Act or Treaty: April 24, 1820

Multiple Patentee Names: No

Entry Classification: Sale-Cash Entries

Land Description: 1 NWNE HUNTSVILLE Yes 2S 8E 4

Name: John Wright

Land Office: HUNTSVILLE

Document Number: 5146

Total Acres: 39.86

Signature: Yes

Canceled Document: No

Issue Date: 4 Sep 1834

Mineral Rights Reserved: No

Metes and Bounds: No

Statutory Reference: 3 Stat. 566

Multiple Warantee Names: No

Act or Treaty: April 24, 1820

Multiple Patentee Names: No

Entry Classification: Sale-Cash Entries

Land Description: 1 NENW HUNTSVILLE Yes 2S 8E 4

Name: John Wright

Land Office: HUNTSVILLE

Document Number: 357

Total Acres: 40.06

Signature: Yes

Canceled Document: No

Issue Date: 4 Sep 1835

Mineral Rights Reserved: No

Metes and Bounds: No

Statutory Reference: 3 Stat. 566

Multiple Warantee Names: No

Act or Treaty: April 24, 1820

Multiple Patentee Names: No

Entry Classification: Sale-Cash Entries

Land Description: 1 SWSW HUNTSVILLE No 5S 2E 17

Name: John Wright

Land Office: HUNTSVILLE

Document Number: 406

Total Acres: 40.06

Signature: Yes

Canceled Document: No

Issue Date: 4 Sep 1835

Mineral Rights Reserved: No

Metes and Bounds: No

Statutory Reference: 3 Stat. 566

Multiple Warantee Names: No

Act or Treaty: April 24, 1820

Multiple Patentee Names: No

Entry Classification: Sale-Cash Entries

Land Description: 1 NWSW HUNTSVILLE No 5S 2E 17

also 39.87 acres Land Description: 1 NWSW HUNTSVILLE No 5S 4E 18

NB above transacations take place after reported death year of 1832

1830 US Census (Jun), Lauderdale Cty, AL, John WRIGHT 1100001-111001, thus:

1m 40-50 (1780-1790) (John Jr)

1f 10-15 (1815-1820) (unknown; cf. female b 1810-1820 from 1820 census record)

1m, 1f 5-10 (1820-1825)

1m, 1f 0-5 (John 1827, Bethana 1826)

1f 30-40 (1790-1800) (Bethany)

No slaves indicated, 7 persons total. Next to (brother) Nicholas WRIGHT; near nbr is (father) John RIGHT [sic] Sen.

Source Citation: Year: 1830; Census Place: Not Stated, Lauderdale, Alabama; Roll: 1; Page: 198.

1820: Cumberland Cty, NC: 3 John WRIGHTs:

1) 000030-00211-0102

3m 26-45 (1775-1794; dtr Catherine 1818 not here)

Source Citation: Year: 1820; Census Place: Capt Cowiets District, Cumberland, North Carolina; Roll: M33_83; Page: 154; Image: 109.

2) 110001-00101-0400000001

1m 45+ (< 1775) (a little too old, dtr Catherine 1818 not here; I think this may be John Sr, who moved with the family NC > AL and was still alive in Lauderdale in 1830)

Source Citation: Year: 1820; Census Place: Capt MacPhails District, Cumberland, North Carolina; Roll: M33_83; Page: 159; Image: 114.

3) 000010-10100-01

1m 26-45 (1775-1794) (John Jr 1777)

1f 16-26 (1794-1804) (wife Bethany 1796)

1f 0-10 (1810-1820) (dtr Catherine 1818)

Source Citation: Year: 1820; Census Place: Capt MacPhails District, Cumberland, North Carolina; Roll: M33_83; Page: 161; Image: 116.

(middle initials make these unlikely matches:)

Jno W Wright Fayetteville,Cumberland,NC 1820

marriage record cite:

Groom: John Wright, Jr

Bride: Bethany Jones

Bond Date: 14 Nov 1817

Bond #: 000036021

Level Info: North Carolina Marriage Bonds, 1741-1868

ImageNum: 004270

County: Cumberland

Record #: 02 332

Bondsman: John Wright, Sr.

Witness: Jno. Armstrong

John's tombstone states that he had engaged in the battles of Horseshoe Bend in 1814 and New Orleans in 1815. That places him with Andrew Jackson's troops. AJ's troops at Horseshoe Bend, the major battle of the Creek War, included the 39th U.S. Infantry, led by Col. John Williams and raised in East Tennessee. It is possible that John Wright was a part of that formation.

The Battle of New Orleans was fought in December 1814-January 1815, climaxing on January 8, 1815 at Chalmette Plantation.

The Battle of Horseshoe Bend was fought on March 27, 1814, near Dadeville, AL in Tallapoosa County in the east-central part of the state.

On NC & War of 1812: troops can be divided into 1) regulars (from regular army with 16,686 officers & men at beginning of war and 38,186 at end; increase came from volunteers) & 2) militia. Engaged in both home defense and as expeditionary forces. Major William S. Hamilton, in charge of recruiting, became a colonel, promised to equip volunteers in “RIFLE DRESS and give you your FAVORITE WEAPON”; pay = $8 to 12/month, plus $124 bounty for enlisting, & 160 acres of free land when war was over. “’About 70 active enterprising young men’ from Fayetteville under Capt. Thomas J. Robeson marched through Richmond County in August, 1812. [...] Newspapers printed reports of volunteers on their way to a ‘rendezvous’ prior to marching off to war.”

Source: North Carolina and the War of 1812, Lemmon, Sarah McCulloh, NC Dept of Cultural Resources – Raleigh Division of Archives & History, 1971, 2d printing, 1984, pp. 9-10.

On recruiting in NC for War of 1812:

As recruits were gatherd in, they were collected at the rendezvous where training began. For every fifty men, one platoon officer was assigned as instructor, Duane’s Handbook for Infantry being the principal manual used for instruction. The primitive methods of handling firearms...thirteen steps were involved in loading and firing [a gun]...

Recruiting...in two particular waves, ...during 1812 and the second one in 1814 after the burning of Washington. Initially ‘considerable’ progress was made. About 800 men had been raised in the state by August 1812. ...Henderson and Fayetteville were regarded as good recruiting districts, in spite of the fact that Fayetteville was the seat of much discord about the conduct of the war. Hamilton had to warn Captain Thomas J. Robeson not to let this discord disturb him, and to remember that his business was recruiting. [Paymaster A. G.] Glynn called the men of Fayetteville except for one or two, ‘mere plodders’ with no taste for ‘War, Politics, or Pleasure.’

On Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry Company (FILIC) in War of 1812:

(page 135, from chapter “The Defense of the Coast”:) The Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry Company rushed to Wilmington to aid in its defenses. ...This company served as Governor Hawkinds’s personal bodyguard when he visited Wilmington to inspect its defenses [about July 1813].

(page 155, from chapter “The War on the Seas”:) [re: The Lovely Lass, one of many privateering vessels from port of Wilmington, captured by British vessel The Circe off Montego Point on 15 May 1813, after a nineteen-hour chase, crew of 60, captained by John Smith] “The crew were held prisoners in Nassau, from whence William L. Robeson wrote to his brother Captain Thomas J. Robeson of the Rifle Corps asking that he not be forgotten when the time came for exchanges.”

Source: Lemmon, Sarah McCulloh. Frustrated Patriots: North Carolina and the War of 1812. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1973, pp. 49, 135, 155.

(page 252:) In 1813, when the enemy threatened to make a landing on our coast, it promptly marched to Wilmington, and there was the special bodyguard of Governor Hawkins, the Commander-in-Chief of the North Carolina forces. Upon the conclusion of its tour of service it was relieved from duty in the following communication:

“To Lieutenant Wm. Barry Grove: I am commanded by his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief of the state of North Carolina...gratitude...for their prompt and soldier-like march to one of the vulnerable points of our state when it was invaded. ...all composing your company have done all that could be expected from officers and soldiers. ..On your arrival in the town of Fayetteville you will dismiss from duty the members composing your company. ...Your obedient servant, F. N. W. Burton, Aid [sic].”

In 1826, it attended LaFayette [sic] upon his visit to Fayetteville, the name of the town having been changed in 1784 from Cross Creek to honor the distinguished soldier who had done so much to achieve for us our liberty.

Source: MacRae, James C. “The Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry Company,” North Carolina Booklet 7 (April 1908), pp. 248-266.

poss mil svc record matches:

View Record Name Company Unit Rank - Induction Rank - Discharge

View Record John Wright 1 REG'T (FLOWER'S) NORTH CAROLINA MILITIA. SERGEANT SERGEANT

View Record John Wright 1 REG'T (FLOWER'S) NORTH CAROLINA MILITIA. PRIVATE PRIVATE

View Record John Wright 1 REG'T (MCDONALD'S) NORTH CAROLINA MIL. PRIVATE PRIVATE

View Record John Wright 1 REG'T (MEANS') SOUTH CAROLINA MILITIA. PRIVATE PRIVATE

View Record John Wright 2 REG'T (MCWILLIE'S) SOUTH CAROLINA MIL. SERGEANT SERGEANT

View Record John Wright 3 REG'T (ALSTON'S) SOUTH CAROLINA MILITIA. PRIVATE PRIVATE

View Record John Wright 3 REG'T (MOORE'S) NORTH CAROLINA MIL. CORPORAL CORPORAL

View Record John H Wright CAPT. GARLINGTON'S CO., NORTH CAROLINA MIL. ENSIGN ENSIGN

View Record John I Wright 5 REG'T (ATKINSON'S) NORTH CAROLINA MIL. ENSIGN ENSIGN

source: National Archives and Records Administration. Index to the Compiled Military Service Records for the Volunteer Soldiers Who Served During the War of 1812. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M602, 234 rolls.

1810 for Capt McDugalds [sic] District, Cumberland, NC (1st pg has heading "No. 5 Alex'r McDugald") has:

John Wright 01201-1000100

1m 45+ (<1765, perhaps John Sr, who was bondsman for John [Jr.'s] marriage in 1817)

2m 16-26 (1784-1794) (Philip 1788, Nicholas 1793?)

1m 10-16 (1794-1800) (?)

1f 45+

1f 0-10 (1800-1810) (?)

(dtrs Catherine 1778 and Polly 1781 may have married by 1810)

Source Citation: Year: 1810; Census Place: Capt Mac Dugalds District, Cumberland, North Carolina; Roll: 39; Page: 576; Image: 462.00.

also Duncan Wright 00001-0000000

thus 1m 45+ (<1765)

Source Citation: Year: 1810; Census Place: Capt Mac Dugalds District, Cumberland, North Carolina; Roll: 39; Page: 579; Image: 465.00.

1800 for Cumberland, Cumberland, NC (margin reads McLain's Company) has:

John Wright 20101-1100100

1m 45+ (<1755) (John Sr 1750-1760 per 1830 census)

1m 16-26 (1774-1784) (John Jr 1777)

2m 0-10 (1790-1800) (Philip 1788, Nicholas 1793?)

1f 45+ (<1755)

1f 10-16 (1784-1790) (?)

1f 0-10 (1790-1800) (?)

(dtrs Catherine 1778 and Polly 1781 may have married by this time)

Source Citation: Year: 1800; Census Place: Cumberland, Cumberland, North Carolina; .Roll: 31; Page: 377; Image: 332.

FILI formed in 1793, when John was 15 or 16. No WRIGHT is listed among its original members, nor in the 1812 muster roll. It was occupied principally with NC coastal defense and appears to be different than the company John Wright was a member of.

see: http://www.bbtyner.com/fili/index.htm

Occupation Details

For during War of 1812 John's occupation was soldier for NC's Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry Company.

Ancestor Pedigree Chart

John WRIGHT - b. 1755 in Scotland d. 1835 in Alabama, Lauderdale County

John WRIGHT Jr - b. 1777 in Scotland d. 1832 in Lauderdale County, Alabama

FNU LNU - b. 1755 in Scotland d. 1835 in Alabama, Lauderdale County