Nathan Wright (judge)

Sir Nathan Wright (1654–1721) was an English judge, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under King William III and Queen Anne. He offended the House of Commons by his use of habeas corpus in 1704, and lost office in 1705.

The eldest surviving son of Ezekiel Wright, rector of Thurcaston, Leicestershire and son of Robert Wright, and his wife Dorothy, second daughter of John Oneby of Hinckley in the same county, he was born on 10 February 1654. In 1668 he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, but left the university without a degree. In 1670 he was admitted at the Inner Temple, where he was called to the bar on 29 November 1677, and elected bencher in 1692.

On the death of his father in 1668 Wright inherited enough to enable him to marry early, and have a standing in his native county. The recordership of Leicester, to which he was elected in 1680, he lost on the surrender of the charter of the borough in 1684, but was reinstated in office on its restoration in 1688. In the same year he was elected deputy-recorder of Nottingham, and was junior counsel for the crown in the case of the seven bishops (29 June). On 11 April 1692 he was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law. On 16 December 1696 he made his reputation with his speech as counsel for the Crown in the proceedings against Sir John Fenwick in the House of Lords; and shortly before the commencement of Hilary term 1696–7 he was made king's serjeant and knighted.

Wright opened the case against Edward Rich, 6th Earl of Warwick on his trial on 28 March 1699 for the murder of Richard Coote; he conducted on 12 October 1699 the prosecution of Mary Butler, alias Strickland, for forgery; and was one of the counsel for Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk in the proceedings on his divorce bill in March 1700. In the same year he was offered the great seal, as willing to succeed Lord Somers. He accepted, and was appointed lord keeper and sworn of the privy council on 21 May. He took his seat as speaker of the House of Lords on 20 June following, and the oaths and declaration on 10 February 1701.

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