Samuel Wright (nonconformist)

Samuel Wright (1683–1746) was an English dissenting minister.

Left early an orphan, Wright was brought up in his mother's family, who sent him to boarding schools at Attercliffe, near Sheffield, and Darton, near Wakefield. In 1699 he entered the Attercliffe academy of Timothy Jollie. Leaving in 1704, he became chaplain at Haigh, Lancashire, to his uncle, Cotton, on whose death he repaired to another uncle, Thomas Cotton (1653–1730), presbyterian minister at Dyott Street, Bloomsbury. For a short time he was chaplain to ‘the Lady Susannah Lort’ at Turnham Green, preaching also the Sunday evening lecture at Dyott Street. In 1705 he was chosen assistant to Benjamin Grosvenor at Crosby Square, and undertook in addition (1706) a Sunday evening lecture at St. Thomas's Chapel, Southwark, with Harman Hood. On the death (25 January 1708) of Matthew Sylvester, he accepted the charge of ‘a handful of people’ at Meeting House Court, Knightrider Street, and was ordained on 15 April; his "confession of faith" was appended to The Ministerial Office (1708), by Daniel Williams.

Wright's ministry was successful: the meeting-house was twice enlarged, if wrecked by the Sacheverell riots in 1710. He was elected a Sunday lecturer at Little St. Helen's. His Calvinistic orthodoxy was unimpeachable, but, probably influenced by Grosvenor, he took (1719) the side of non-subscription at the Salters' Hall conference. He contributed also to the Occasional Papers (1716–19), the organ of whig dissent. Popular, he was chosen (1724) one of the Salters' Hall lecturers, and elected (1724) a trustee of Dr. Williams's Foundations. On 1 May 1729 the diploma of D.D. was granted to him by Edinburgh University. In 1732–3 he had a sermon debate with Thomas Mole (d. 1780) on the foundation of virtue, which Wright could trace no higher than to the divine will.

...
Wikipedia