Nicola Wright (née Watson)

Awardee for a group of enslaved people in Manchester Jamaica and claimant as executrix of Robert Benstead Wright in an adjacent claim for the Kensworth estate, the proceeds of which were paid into the colonial court.

1. In 1851 Nicola Wright widow aged 62 annuitant born Edinburgh was living with her daughter Edwina Anderson (born Jamaica aged 33 ) and Edwina's son Freeman, (also born Jamaica aged 9) at 9 Hatherly Place Cheltenham Gloucestershire with Edwina's young nieces, all born Bombay.

2. Nicola, eldest daughter of the late James Watson Writer to the Signet, married Robert Benstead Wright of Southampton Jamaica 20/09/1808 [possibly 1807].

3. Buchan [Warren] Wright, son of Robert Benstead Wright and Nicola his wife, born 06/08/1809 and baptised 18/02/1810 in St Elizabeth. He received his Diploma from Surgeon’s Hall, Edinburgh, 01/08/1828, and was Assistant Surgeon, Madras Medical Service, when he graduated MD, Edinburgh, 01/08/1837 (inaugural dissertation: Jungle Fever in India); was admitted at Clare Hall, Cambridge, 26/10/1837, graduated BA and was ordained; British Chaplain at Trieste when appointed Vicar of Cuckney, Notts, 1853; an inmate of Nottingham Asylum when he committed suicide in 1887; married (i) 05/04/1836, Sarah, youngest daughter of late Sir Thomas Woollaston White, Bt.

4. Their son William Burt Wright was born 20/7/1812 and baptised at YS 05/03/1813. Their daughter Nicola Eliza Wright was born 25/11/1813 and baptised 15/4/1814 and of Kensworth, aged 21, when she was buried in Snowdon Burial Ground, Manchester parish, 21/05/1835. A daughter, Isabel Catherine, was born at Kensworth 20/06/1815 and baptised there 30/09/1816, and another daughter, Edwina, was born 05/05/1817 and baptised in St Catherine 10/12/1817.

5. Robert Benstead Wright was buried at Kensworth, 21/11/1820, aged 34 [ie born c. 1786]. Nicola died in Edinburgh, Scotland, 02/11/1857, age 67 years at 19 Maitland Street, St Cuthbert's parish. The informant on her death certificate was her son Buchan Warren Wright. Note she appears on her death certificate as Niclo Wright and her mother's maiden surname was given as Buchan. This corresponds to the Nicola Watson, daughter of James Watson, clerk to the signet and Mrs Nicolas Buchan his spouse, born 21/02/1789 and baptised 02/03/1789 in Edinburgh.

T71/860 Manchester nos. 432 and 433.

1. 1851 census online

2. The Scots Magazine, Vol 70 p. 797.

3. A.C.P. Callisen, Medicinisches Schriftsteller-Lexicon (1835); Scots Magazine Vol.LXX, October 1808, p.797; Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online]. Email from Paul Hitchings 02/05/2020 sourced to: The Scotsman, 02/08/1828; Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol.48, 1837, p.564; Alumni Cantabrigienses; Liverpool Mail, 16/07/1853; Western Daily Press, 09/09/1887; Asiatic Journal, Vol.XX, May-August 1836, p.362. Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (1869) p. 1043.

4. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online].

5. Ibid.; The Scotsman, 04/11/1857; GROS Statutory Deaths 1957 685/1 424; GROS OPR Births 685/1 380 128 Edinburgh.

We are grateful to Paul Hitchings for his assistance with this entry.