Caleb Wright

Caleb Wright (1 August 1810 – 28 April 1898) was an English mill owner and Liberal politician in Lancashire, north-west England.

Family and chapel Wright was one of thirteen children of William Wright, bookmaker of Tyldesley, near Manchester. The only education he received was by attending night schools. Wright, a Unitarian, was a member of the congregation at Chowbent Chapel where he succeeded his father as organist in 1832. Wright played the trombone but learned to play the organ in a month so he could replace his father. In 1890 Wright donated a site for Chowbent Sunday school next to the chapel.

When Wright was in London he attended Bedford Chapel in Bloomsbury where Stopford Brooke was minister. At the age of 15 he became a spinner and rose to become manager of the mill in 1830. In 1845 he established his own cotton-spinning business in Tyldesley in partnership with Henry Barton. In 1855 the partnership was dissolved, and Caleb Wright and Company's Barnfield Mills was established. Politically Wright was an advanced radical, and supported both Home Rule for Ireland and women's suffrage.

Death

Wright, "Owd Caleb", died at his home, Lower Oak, in Shakerley, Tyldesley in 1898 aged 87. He is buried in Tyldesley Cemetery. The gravestone of Caleb Wright in Tyldesley Cemetery, a prominent mill owner in the East Lancashire area.