Fortunatus Wright

Fortunatus Wright (3 May 1712 – 16 April 1757) was an English privateer.

Fortunatus Wright's early days are unrecorded, he may have followed the sea as a boy, but by his twenties he had settled down as a brewer and distiller.

In 1732 he married Martha Painter of his home village Wallasey in Wirral, and they had a number of children, including a daughter, Philippa.

Martha died shortly after, and in 1736 Wright married Mary Bulkeley, daughter of the Anglesey squire and diarist William Bulkeley.

Mary had been staying with relatives in Dublin since 1735. A disappointment to her father, his disappointment greatly increased when his daughter wrote to him "requesting ... speedy consent of her being marryed to [Fortunatus] Wright forthwith whereby she may prevent all further trouble..." She was carrying his illegitimate child.

Wright wed Mary in Dublin, and then visited Bulkeley, He notes in his diary that Wright "shows a fondness to his wife ... always playing with her, and kissing of her..." Shortly afterwards, Fortunatus Wright took his new wife back to Wallasey to meet his family. Sadly, Mary miscarried shortly after.

Although Mary gave birth to a daughter, Ann, the next year, the marriage rapidly became unhappy, and Bulkeley refers in his diary in 1741 to "the barbarous usage and insults received by my Daughter from her husband ... who thereupon went a rambling towards Dublin". On returning next February, Fortunatus Wright set out with his wife for Wallasey, but it seems they quarreled again, and he abandoned her in Beaumaris. Like any Byronic hero-villain, he headed for the Continent.

In Italy, he was challenged at the gates of Lucca, but refused to hand over two pistols to the guards. He aimed one at the soldiers, threatening to kill them. A colonel took Wright prisoner and kept him under guard in his inn. Three days later, he was escorted from the city-state and forbidden to return.

He settled down as a merchant in Livorno for four years, during which time he knew John Evelyn, great-grandson of the famous diarist. Meanwhile, the War of the Austrian Succession, which Britain and France soon entered on opposing sides, had begun. In January 1744 Fortunatus Wright became personally involved when a French privateer took his ship, the Swallow, and ransomed her at sea. This stirred Wright to fulfill his patriotic duty – or perhaps his motive was simply revenge. He fitted out the brigantine Fame "to cruise against the enemies of Great Britain".

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Wikipedia