[9] According to The Bench and Bar of Mississippi (1881):[5] Daniel W. Wright was born in the eastern portion of the State of Tennessee, and was reared near Huntsville, Alabama, whither his father's family had removed.
Here he prepared himself for the bar and began the practice of law, but in 1822–3 he emigrated to Mississippi and settled in Monroe County, at a place called Hamilton.
Here he rose to eminence in his profession, and at the first election under the Revised Constitution, in 1833, was chosen one of the judges of the High Court of Errors and Appeals, for the term of six years.
This office he held until 1838, when he resigned, and having lost his wife about this time he retired also from the bar, and made his residence with his daughter, in the town of Pontotoc, where he died a year or two afterwards.
He never wrote an opinion during the five years he occupied a seat upon the high bench, which was not at all in conformity with his early vigorous career at the bar, and can be accounted for only upon the ground of an unfortunate conviviality to which he became addicted, and which impaired his energies.Writing in 1881, Reuben Davis recalled of him, "Daniel W. Wright was very kind to us both, and I have to record my gratitude to him for much friendly notice and encouragement.