There seem, from the “Memorials of Ripon,” vol. iii. (Surtees Soc.), to have been “Wrights” in Ripon and the neighbourhood for many generations, certainly long before the reign of Henry VIII., when the grandfather of the plotters is said to have come from Kent into Yorkshire. — See Foster’s “Glover’s Visitation of Yorkshire.” Possibly the Wrights of Kent originally sprang from Yorkshire.
“A Christopher Wright” lived at South Kilvington, near Thirsk, in the nineteenth century. — See the tablet to his memory in the church of that parish.
Hence, from the foregoing evidence, the conclusions are inevitable, first, that Thomas Warde, of Mulwith, who married Marjory (or Margery) Slater[A] in 1579, was almost certainly a connection and relative of Lord Mounteagle, in whose household Warde held an honoured and honourable position; or, as doubtless we should say nowadays, was the young peer’s private secretary: and, secondly, that, through the said Thomas Warde, Christopher Wright likewise was almost certainly by affinity connected with, if not related by blood to, the same highly-favoured English nobleman.
[A] This marriage of Thomas Warde, of Mulwaith, to Marjory (or Margery) Slater, “servant to Mr. Cotterill,” of the Parish of St. Wilfrid, York, forcibly reminds one of the romance which Lord Tennyson has immortalized in his charming little poem, “The Lord of Burleigh.” Moreover, it is worthy of remark that there was a family connection between the family of Cecil and a family of Ward, most probably the Wards of Mulwith, or those akin to them. — See Hatfield’s “Hist. MSS.” (Eyre & Spottiswoode), pt. viii., p. 553, where it says, “Pedigree connection of the Cecil and Ward families, partly in Lord Burleigh’s hand,” pt. i., 204-289.
CHAPTER XIX.
But again, seeing that we know that a certain Thomas Ward lived at Court, by reason of his being a member of the household of Lord Mounteagle, who had been admitted to Court ever since the accession to the throne of James the First, by this point also I know not how to escape from these several probable conclusions: that the Thomas Warde (or Ward), the gentleman-servant of Lord Mounteagle, was the brother of Marmaduke Warde (or Ward); that, by consequence, he was the connection of Christopher Wright; and that by remoter consequence, Christopher Wright himself was a connection of Lord Mounteagle likewise.
Now, granting the family connection between Thomas Warde and Wright, there is no antecedent improbability, but the contrary, in the supposal that Christopher Wright, if and when stricken with remorse at the thought of his sworn part and lot in the iniquitous Gunpowder Plot, had recourse to this Thomas Warde, who was his connection, for trustworthy and effectual help in saving from a sudden and cruel death, haply himself and his confederates, but certainly his Sovereign and the Senators of his Fatherland, along with Heaven alone knows whom else beside!
Furthermore, if there were any antecedent improbability in such a supposal as that Christopher Wright should have recourse to this particular Yorkshireman, Thomas Warde, in the hour of his need, it should