Laurence Wright, MD, a native of Essex, was the third son of John Wright, of Wright’s bridge, near Hornchurch, and of Gray’s-inn, esquire, by his second wife, Bennet, the daughter of Laurence Blaseby, of London, merchant. He was matriculated a pensioner of Emmanuel college, Cambridge, in March, 1607-8, and as a member of that house proceeded AB 1609, AM 1613. He was entered on the physic line at Leyden 22nd August, 1612, being then twenty-two years of age; but he graduated doctor of medicine at Padua, and was incorporated on that degree at Cambridge in 1618.
Dr Wright was admitted a Candidate of the College of Physicians, 22nd December, 1618, and a Fellow, 22nd December, 1622. He was Censor in 1628, and was again appointed to that office 8th February, 1638-9, in the vacancy occasioned by the death of Dr Hodson. He was named an Elect 24th May, 1642; Consiliarius, 1647, and again in 1650, whence he was annually re-elected till his death from a quartan ague, on the 3rd September, 1657. He was buried, as was his wife Mary (a daughter of John Duke, MD, of Colchester), in the church of South Weald, co Essex, and is there commemorated by the following brief description:
“Here lie buried the bodies of
Laurence Wright Doctor of Physick
and Mary his Wife.
He died 3 Oct 1657 aged 67
She 16 Feb after.”
Dr Wright(1) was physician in ordinary to Oliver Cromwell, and to the Charter-house, to which he was elected 25th May, 1624, but he resigned that office in 1643, and on the 21st March, 1651-2, was chosen a governor of that institution.
William Munk
[(1) “Ille, præ omnibus Sociis, strenuus cumulandis nummis, et mercandis agris, illisque præcipuè, quorum antiquos dominos, dirâ sorte reos illibata adversus Regem fidei, honesta redimendæ vitæ ac libertatis cupido adigebat ad infesta illa dispendia coactæ venundationis. Huic compendiario ditescendi studio accedebat lucrum famigeratæ sanctimoniæ, quibus simul, evasit Collegarum locupletissimus. Illi, qui fidunt physiognomis, et signaturis (ut vocant), credunt, æstimabant medium utriusque manus mendosum digitum, tantas facultates Laurentio nostro portendisse, quippe digitus hic et ille, inferiori suo articulo, curtus, strigosus et immobilis; duobus autem reliquis, milvini instar rostri, rigidè incurvus, nihil dextrâ sinistrâve arreptum, elabi noctu diuve, videbatur pati. Verùm alii, præter omen præsagi istius mendi in corpore, arbitrabantur monstruosius quid esse debere in illius animo, qui, in tantis opibus, non dubitaret vim omnem honesti, turpi parsimoniâ proculcare, quod tùm liquidò parere dixerunt; cùm, nostro post infandam Regis eædem, posito sub hastâ Collegio, non solum è symbolis esse recusaret, in eo redimendo: verum etiam plenis Comitiis insultaret redempturis, totuspue esset in hirciscendo reliquo tantuli peculii, cum manifesto discrimine solvendæ societatis, tantis fundatoribus, nixæ, tot privilegiis auctæ, totque librorum authoribus nobilitatæ, et contra omne scelus munitæ nostris omnium sacramentis. Sed pudet horum: nec minùs piget meminisse ejusdem in Græcis Latinisque literis, rebusque anatomicis, peritæ ne quando neophyto alicui hæc lecturo vilescant deinceps Musæ: cognito, sine solidâ eruditione, in nostrâ facultate, versutiâ quâdam ad tantas facultates perveniri posse.” - Bustorum aliquot Reliquiæ, auct. Baldv. Hamey.”]