– 8 November 1605), were members of the group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a conspiracy to assassinate King James I by blowing up the House of Lords.

Educated at the same school in York, the Wrights had early links with Guy Fawkes, the man left in charge of the explosives stored in the undercroft beneath the House of Lords.

At about midnight on 4 November Fawkes was discovered and arrested, following which John, Christopher and the rest of the conspirators travelled across the Midlands, attempting to gain support for a popular uprising.

Gerard also noted that John's household, Twigmoor Hall in Lincolnshire, was a place where "he had Priests come often, both for his spiritual comfort and their own in corporal helps",[9] although the government's description, "a Popish college for traitors", was somewhat less favourable.

[11] Two years later, as the queen's health waned, a nervous government ensured that John and Christopher were again imprisoned, the English antiquarian William Camden describing them as men "hunger-starved for innovation".

[3] By March 1605 Christopher had joined the conspiracy as well,[15] but in October that year, as the plan was nearing its culmination, its existence was revealed to the authorities by an anonymous letter delivered to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, warning him to stay away from Parliament.

That same evening John probably set off for the Midlands with Catesby and his servant Thomas Bates, while the others moved into their positions, ready for the planned explosion the following day.

[17] At about midnight the authorities made a search of the House of Lords, and in the chamber's undercroft they discovered and arrested Fawkes, who was guarding the gunpowder the conspirators had placed there.

[18] As news of Fawkes's capture spread, particularly through the great houses of the Strand, Christopher deduced what had occurred and went to Thomas Wintour at the Duck and Drake inn, exclaiming "the matter is discovered".

On 6 November, the same day they were helping to raid Warwick Castle for supplies, the brothers were identified by the Lord Chief Justice Sir John Popham as suspects.

[21] The group tried unsuccessfully to recruit more rebels at Hewell Grange, but on 7 November, tired and desperate, they decided to make their stand at Holbeche House, on the border of Staffordshire.

[22] With medical attention they might have survived, but "the baser sort" among the sheriff's men hurriedly stripped them of their clothes (Christopher's boots were pulled off to reach his silk stockings), and left them to die.