Jacob Lynds Wright (1801 - 1888)

Born 14 Jan 1801 in Onslow, Colchester, Nova Scotia, Canada

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Fulton) Wright — married 7 Dec 1825 in Upper Stewiacke, Colchester, Nova Scotia, Canada [uncertain]

Husband of Elizabeth (McMullin) Wright — married Jul 1858 in Upper Stewiacke Colchester Nova Scotia Canada

Descendants

Died 23 Apr 1888 at age 87 in Upper Stewiacke Colchester Nova Scotia Canada

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Kerry Ellard [send private message]

Jacob Wright was related to a passenger on the Mayflower. Join: Mayflower Project Discuss: mayflower

Biography

Early Life and Background

Jacob Lynds Wright was born and raised in Onslow, Colchester, Nova Scotia on January 14, 1801. His parents were John Wright (1766-abt.1820), who was born in the Truro region of Colchester, and Sarah (Lynds) Wright (1768-1846), who was born in the Onslow region of the same county.

Jacob was brought up in Onslow was part of a large family; he had at least ten siblings, most of whom survived well into adulthood. As an adult, he told census-takers that he was a Presbyterian of Irish origin.

All four of Jacob's grandparents were born in Massachusetts and relocated to the Nova Scotia due to some combination of loyalist and/or pro-slavery sympathies, French and Indian War service, and inducements by the British to get New England planters, some of who were slaveholders, to relocate. Jacob's maternal grandfather changed the family's surname from Lynde to Lynds upon moving to Nova Scotia, and he was given his mother's maiden name a a middle name.

Jacob was descended from Mayflower passengers and Plymouth Colonists Susanna (Jackson) Winslow (abt.1594-bef.1675) and her daughter Resolved White (abt.1615-aft.1687) on his father's side. Via the same Hayward branch of father's family that traced back to the Mayflower, he shared a common ancestor with Diana Ross. On his mother's side, he shared a common ancestor with Sir Isaac Newton.

Later Life

Jacob spent his entire life farming in the Colchester area, settling in Upper Stewiacke by 1858. He married twice, first in 1825 to Mary Fulton of Stewiake, who was about the same age, and then, after Mary's death in 1854, to the much-younger Elizabeth McMullin, also of (Upper) Stewiake. Both of his wives were also natives of Nova Scotia.

What children Jacob and Mary (Fulton) Wright had together, if any, has been difficult to confirm, but it is reported that they had three sons and three daughters together before she died on August 12th of an unknown year.

It seems reasonable to suppose that Martha E. (Wright) McMillan, who was born in 1835 and appears to have spent her entire life in Upper Stewiacke, Colchester County, Nova Scotia, was a daughter of theirs, but I cannot confirm that suggestion. Martha married Adam McMillan, a relative of Jacob's second wife, Elizabeth. Some have suggested that Martha had a full-brother named David born a few years later, which I have been unable to confirm.

Jacob and Elizabeth (McMullin) Wright, who wed in July 1858 in Upper Stewiake, seem to have had a large family of at least twelve children together despite(?) a 35-year age difference. At the time of their marriage, Jacob was fifty-six, and Elizabeth, whose father's surname was often given as McMullen or McMillin in contemporary Canadian documents, was twenty-one. It was reported, however, that they had two sons and three daughters, so perhaps some of these children were from his previous marriage.

Many of Jacob's descendants are fairly hard to track in the record, either due to an absence of data or an inability to confirm that what records exist actually refer to the descendant in question. But most of the ones who are documented as having survived well into adulthood relocated to the United States. Several of these gave their mother's maiden name as either MacMillan or MacMillian when filling out official documents, and they gave their father's name as either Jacob Wright or Jacob L. Wright.

Descendants

While Jacob, like many of the other Wrights in Colchester, had a large number of children who survived to adulthood, among those he had with his second wife, which were the majority, only three married and had children, and of those three, only two had any grandchildren.

Possible Family Health Issues

There seems to have been a propensity for both heart disease (or arteriosclerosis) and senile dementia in the Colchester branch of the Wright family; the latter may have been something like familial Alzheimer's, which was present in some of the grandchildren of Jacob's daughter Lucilla (Wright) Locke (1859-1912).

For example:

Jacob's son George Fulton Wright (1872-1956), who married late in life but had no children (and appears to have permanently separated from his wife not long into the marriage), died at the age of 84 what his death certificate listed as senility.

Jacob's daughter Marie Creelman (Wright) Bates (1882-1967), who married late in life and had no children, died at the age of 85 from coronary occlusion due to hypertension, arteriosclerosis, and heart disease.

Another of Jacob's daughters, Jessie W. Wright (1868-1943), who never married, died at the age of 74 from a sudden embolism caused by a condition I cannot decipher in the handwritten document, with senility as a contributing factor.

And another of Jacob's daughters, Mary Wright (abt.1866-1945), who never married, died at the age of 79 from cardio-renal disease caused by senility and dementia.

(I think the idea with the latter three was that the dementia interfered with being physically active, etc., which exacerbated the risks associated with other conditions such as heart disease and arteriosclerosis).

Additionally, Jacob's great-grand-nephew Alexander Wright (1862-1950), who married and had at least one child, died at the age of 87 from what his death certificate described as coronary thrombosis "caused" by generalized arteriosclerosis and senile psychosis. And Alexander's brother David, who married and had children, died at the age of 85 from arteriosclerotic heart disease caused by generalized arteriosclerosis and senile psychosis. Their father was Solomon Wright (II/Jr.), the son of Jacob's sister Mariam Wright.

Sources

• Source: S350058341 Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. Record Collection 1030Ancestry Family Tree APID 192468951488:1030:115577501.
• Public Ancestry.com family tree and associated research maintained by descendant Kerry Ellard.
• ↑ "Canada Births and Baptisms, 1661-1959," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FLG8-ZG6 : 10 February 2018), Jacob Lynds Wright, 14 Jan 1801; citing , ONSLOW, COLCHESTER, NOVA SCOTIA, 14 Jan 1801, reference 2:16SXMFQ; FHL microfilm 928,972.
• Historical and genealogical record of the first settlers of Colchester county down to the present time by Miller, Thomas, Publication date 1873; Publisher Halifax, N.S. : A. & W. MacKinlay.
• Marriage record of Susan MacMillan and Addison Phineas Morse, Somerville, Massachusetts, 22 Mar 1910, in the Massachusetts, U.S., Marriage Records, 1840-1915.
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/213163129/martha_e-mcmillan: accessed February 13, 2024), memorial page for Martha E Wright McMillan (1835–14 Mar 1866), Find a Grave Memorial ID 213163129, citing Riverside Cemetery, Upper Stewiacke, Colchester County, Nova Scotia, Canada; Maintained by Helen MacLeod (contributor 49687481).