Nathan Wright

Sir Nathan Wright (1654–1721) was an English judge, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under King William III and Queen Anne. He offended the House of Commons by his use of habeas corpus in 1704, and lost office in 1705.

Life The eldest surviving son of Ezekiel Wright, rector of Thurcaston, Leicestershire and son of Robert Wright, and his wife Dorothy, second daughter of John Oneby of Hinckley in the same county, he was born on 10 February 1654. In 1668 he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, but left the university without a degree. In 1670 he was admitted at the Inner Temple, where he was called to the bar on 29 November 1677, and elected bencher in 1692.

On the death of his father in 1668 Wright inherited enough to enable him to marry early, and have a standing in his native county. The recordership of Leicester, to which he was elected in 1680, he lost on the surrender of the charter of the borough in 1684, but was reinstated in office on its restoration in 1688. In the same year he was elected deputy-recorder of Nottingham, and was junior counsel for the crown in the case of the seven bishops (29 June). On 11 April 1692 he was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law. On 16 December 1696 he made his reputation with his speech as counsel for the Crown in the proceedings against Sir John Fenwick in the House of Lords; and shortly before the commencement of Hilary term 1696–7 he was made king's serjeant and knighted. , Belgrave, and Brooksby in Leicestershire. Dorothy Wright, who married Henry Grey, 3rd Earl of Stamford and was the mother of Harry Grey, 4th Earl of Stamford.