James Wright (1643–1713), was an antiquary and writer, author of a county history of Rutland (1684), and the Historia Histrionica (1699), an account of theatre in England in the seventeenth century.
"During the fluctuations of government and afterwards", says Thomas Warton, "he was attached to the principles of monarchy in their most extensive comprehension, and from this circumstance he might have derived his predilection for the theatre which had been suppressed by the republicans."
He was "a skilful antiquary and not a bad poet", and possessed many rare and valuable old manuscripts, being "one of the first collectors of old plays since Cartwright"; but all his literary curiosities, among which was an excellent transcript of John Leland's Itinerary of the age of Queen Elizabeth, were unfortunately consumed in the fire of the Middle Temple of 1678.
[3] A versatile writer with a lucid style and a genuine touch of humour, especially as an essayist, Wright was author of: Besides these works, Wright prepared an accurate epitome in English of William Dugdale's Monasticon (London, 1693), in the dedication of which he remarks: "Warwickshire has produced two of the most famous and deserving writers in their several ways that England can boast of—a Dugdale and a Shakespeare."
[7] William Hazlitt doubtfully attributes to Wright a volume of translations entitled Sales Epigrammatum: Being the choycest Distichs of Martials Fourteen Books of Epigrams & of all the Chief Latin Poets that have writ in these two last Centuries.