Benjamin Wright, First Settler in Killingworth
Thomas L. Lentz, Municipal Historian
Benjamin Wright (1610-1677) is one of the most interesting persons in the history of Killingworth. He was the first person to settle in Killingworth, although he was actually a squatter as he settled in 1659, four years before the General Court (Assembly) of the Connecticut Colony gave permission for the settlement of the Plantation of Homonoscitt (Hammonasset). In 1667, the General Court named the settlement Kenilworth. Wright came to America from Bolton, Lancashire, England and settled in Guilford in 1639.His residence was on the corner of State and North Streets. He took the oath of fidelity on May 9, 1645. In September of that year, he was granted permission by the authorities to put up a tan-mill and to “take water yt issueth from ye waste gate provided it hurt not ye town mill.” In 1650 a list of planters was made out, and also a list of freemen, and his name appears in the former, but not in the latter, probably because he was not a church member. Guilford only allowed members of the Congregational Church to be freemen. He was said to have been of a quarrelsome temperament, and to have had unpleasant relations with many of the town's people. He was once arraigned before the Guilford authorities for being a "pestilent fellow." In 1648, he was brought before a court of Magistrates. Wright had desired to purchase Mr. John Caffinch's homelot, which the latter had sold to Thomas Standish of Wethersfield. The magistrate, William Leete, told Wright that he was “no fit planter for such an accomodation,” but Wright went ahead and bought the lot from Standish. For this contempt of court, and other “grave miscarriages” of like nature, he was whipped at New Haven in 1649. In 1659, he was living in what was to become Kenilworth west of theMenunketesuck River. It is not known why he chose to move to an isolated place with no neighbors, but it was probably to escape difficulties in Guilford. When the disputed boundary between Saybrook and Kenilworth was eventually settled, his lands were found to be located in both towns. He appears to have been a very large landholder owning land in Saybrook, Kenilworth, and Guilford. In 1671, he gave land at Hammonasset in East Guilford (now Madison) to his son-in-law, Joseph Hand.
Benjamin Wright wrote his will in 1676 and died the following year. He had five sons, (James, Benjamin, Joseph, John, and Jonathan) and three daughters (Jane, Anna, and Elizabeth). In his will, he bequeathed “my Farm to my Son Benjamin, with all the medow and upland thereto belonging, lying within the bounds of Say Brook to him and the Heirs of his body... I give to my Son Joseph my house and Land lying in Kenelworth with half the barn, the other half to my Son Benjamin to my sd Son Joseph I give all the upland and medow thereto belonging, and Ten acres of medow at Hamanasset. I give to my two Daughters Elizabeth and Anna all my Land at Guilford Town upland and medow to be Equally Divided between them... I give my Son James five shillings.” Benjamin must have had difficulties with his son James as he gave large amounts of land to Benjamin and Joseph and only five shillings to James. James then challenged the will. In October 1685, the General Court set aside the will for legal deformities. James and his siblings (one brother dying in the interim) agreed to arbitration and property was divided among Widow Jane and her children according to court order. James received the lands in Saybrook and Joseph the lands in Kenilworth. The Wrights had a large number of descendants along the shoreline. Noteworthy descendants include Silas Wright (1795-1847), Senator and Governor of New York; William Wright (1794-1866), Senator from New Jersey; and Horatio Gouverneur Wright (1820-1899), an engineer and general in the Union Army during the Civil War.