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 continued in office on the accession of Queen Anne; he pronounced on 31 July 1702 the decree dissolving the Savoy Hospital, and presided over the commission which on 22 October following met at the Cockpit to discuss the terms of the projected union with Scotland but accomplished nothing.

[3] Without experience of chancery business, Wright worked from a manual of practice compiled for his use; but his care entailed an accumulation of arrears.

He was, however, considered an honest judge; and his intervention, by the issue of writs of habeas corpus (8 March 1705), on behalf of the two counsel committed by the House of Commons to the custody of the serjeant-at-arms for pleading the cause of the plaintiffs in the Aylesbury election case, was brave (see Sir James Montagu).

The House of Commons told the serjeant-at-arms to make no return to the writs, and might perhaps have proceeded to commit the lord keeper, but a prorogation terminated the affair.

[3] The coalition of autumn 1705, between Marlborough and Godolphin and the whig junto, was sealed by the dismissal of Wright, now out of favour with both parties, and his replacement (11 October) by William Cowper.

c. 9, s. 3) of sworn for unsworn testimony on behalf of the prisoner in cases of treason and felony, appears to have been due to Wright's initiative.