Abraham Wright

Who was Abraham Wright?

Abraham Wright was a theological writer and deacon. He was sent to the Mercers' chapel school in Cheapside, and was afterwards from 1626 at Merchant Taylors' school. He was elected scholar of St John's College, Oxford, on 11 June 1629, and matriculated on 13 Nov.. He was especially favoured by Juxon for his good elocution. He was elected fellow of his college in 1632, graduated B.A. on 16 May 1633, and M.A. on 22 April 1637.

When Laud received Charles I in St. John's on 30 August 1636, Wright delivered the speech welcoming the king to the new library, and after dinner he acted in the play ‘Love's Hospital,’ by George Wild [q. v.], before the king and queen. St. John's had long been famous for its plays, and ‘was at that time so well furnished as that they did not borrow any one actor from any college in town’. Wright is said himself to have written a comic interlude called ‘The Reformation,’ acted at St. John's about 1631.