In our A to Z of the Chiswick House archives, volunteer archivist Cluny Wells has been exploring some of the fascinating history hidden within Chiswick House & Gardens. In this edition of the A to Z, June Ford-Crush is our Guest Contributor for the letter W. She is responsible for the research and reporting back.

W is for Wright – Richard Wright (1672-1734), known as Lord Burlington’s favourite bricklayer.

So was he just a bricklayer?

Wright’s grave is on the south side of St Nicholas Church, with the inscription: “Erected by Lord Burlington to the memory of his favourite bricklayer.”

The grave is in need of restoration, with the Friends of St Nicholas Church taking on the task, and June Ford-Crush undertaking the job of uncovering more about him.

He is known to have worked on the construction of Chiswick House, as well as Burlington House (now known as the Royal Academy), and in the archive accounts he is named as ‘Mr Wright’, recognising his status, as only a few tradesmen who received payment were given the title.

From the archives:

Burlington entrusted the erection of his entirely new and unusually shaped brick building to his regular bricklayer, Richard Wright, whose total bills came to £517 6s 8d, the work having ended on 18^th June 1728

Chiswick House and Its Gardens, 1726-1732, Burlington Magazine

The bricks for the house came from Thomas Barratt of Brentford, whose name also appears in the 1720’s Chiswick House accounts. He charged £70 17s for bricks delivered during the first seven months of 1728.

We know Richard Wright was a wealthy man.  He was not married but lived with another wealthy man (William Skynner) at Corney House. It stood beside the river, west of St Nicholas Church, where the Corney Reach development is today – built sometime before 1542 with a grand list of notable owners – before being sold to the Duke of Devonshire in 1830 – and he had it demolished in 1832.

Jacob Knyff: Chiswick from the River, Corney House (with Church of St Nicholas), 1676-80

(Acknowledgment: London Museum. Jacob Knyff, 1676-80. Museum of London image no. 000857)

He had a brother, Thomas Wright, to whom he left:

A house or tenement in Slutts Hole, 4 tenements and a barn in Old George Yard, 2 tenements on Turnham Green,4 tenements and the French Chappel with their orchards and gardens in Hammersmith, and a freehold house in Brick Street, St Martin’s in the Fields. He also left money to his family and servants.

The tomb is the most decorated of all the tombs in this fascinating graveyard, with egg and dart decorations.   It features Venus shells and a prominent skull and cross bones on its pediment.  Today badly eroded is a shield containing three castles, part of the heraldic arms of the London Company of Masons, which it appears Richard Wright would have belonged to.  The tomb was designed by William Kent.

I would like to suggest that he is known more as a Master Builder than a humble bricklayer.

The final bit of information uncovered, is that surprisingly there are 3 more Wrights in the grave, although the inscription is badly eroded.

Alphonso Wright (died 1864 age 13 years) also Alphonso Matthew Wright, father, died 1888 and his wife Eliza Wright died 1897.  So, who are they?  Well, it turns out that Alphonso was a Sexton (and according to the church archives a bricklayer.)  A Sexton at that time was a church employee who maintained the church buildings and grounds, dug graves and rang the church bell etc.  He lived in Red Lion Place.

Sources:

• Val Bott, local historian
• Local Studies /Chiswick Library
• St Nicholas Church archives
• The Burlington Magazine
• Ricky Pound, a previous Site Manager at Chiswick House