Sir James Wright, 1st Baronet
Sir James Wright, 1st Baronet (c. 1730 – 8 March 1804) was an English diplomat and art collector who served as the Minister Resident of Great Britain to Venice from 1766 to 1774.
His sister Mary Wright married Rice Charleton, an English physician, medical researcher, and Fellow of the Royal Society[22][23][24] on 11 November 1759 at Walcot St. Swithin, Somerset, England.
[28] His father, James Wright of Warwick, purchased his wife's sisters' shares of the manor Hurstborne,[29][30] and owned lands on Cubbington[31][32] and Butlers Marston.
[22][27][33] His maternal grandparents were Sir John Huband, 2nd Baronet of Ipsley Court in Warwickshire[34] and Rhoda, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Broughton, Baronet of Broughton in the county of Stafford[35] by Rhoda, daughter of John Amcotts of Aisthorpe in Lincolnshire, Esq.
[46] Wright was from that time on good terms with Lord Bute, who became Prime Minister in 1762, the relationship being described by William Bodham Donne as "private friend".
He was an art dealer, and made exaggerated claims for the works: a painting now attributed to Palma Vecchio was described by him as a Giorgione.
[64][65][66][67] He purchased amongst other works The Finding of Moses by Giambattista Tiepolo (as a Benedetto Caliari) in 1769, on behalf of Lord Bute.
He commissioned portraits: from Robert Fagan, Matthew William Peters, Joshua Reynolds, and Johann Zoffany.
Joseph Farington recorded in 1796 that at a Royal Academy committee meeting: A letter was read from Sir James Wright stating that 'having observed how much Crayon painting is fallen off in what he sees at the Exhibitions'.
The witnesses were Sir James Wright's maternal aunt Rhoda Cotes and her third husband William Maddott.
[84][85][86] The Stapletons were slave-owning proprietors of West Indian sugar plantations, and Sir William had died in 1740.
[90][91][92] The acquaintance with Haweis in 1791 drew Wright into unsuccessful negotiations on episcopal ordination of some missionaries hoping to sail on the Second Breadfruit Voyage of William Bligh to Tahiti, with John Moore, now Archbishop of Canterbury.
[94] Lady Wright travelled to Italy in 1790, with her son, and Maria Cosway with her brother George Hadfield.
[73] Their son George Ernest James Wright was baptised on 8 April 1770 at Walcot St. Swithin, Somerset, England.
Far more likely, as other sources note, she was the daughter of Duncan Maclane (d.1773) of the East India Company, gentleman, of Saint John, Hackney, Middlesex,[102][103] and his wife Rebecca Brandey (d.1792) of Clapham, Surrey[104] at the time she wrote her will.
[4] In 1807, Sir George Wright sold his Ray House estate to Benjamin Hanson Inglish.
