Susan Barrantes - Background and Family

Background and Family

She was born Susan Mary Wright in Bramcote, Nottinghamshire, the daughter of FitzHerbert Wright and the Honourable Doreen Wingfield. The Wrights can be traced back at least to John Wright alias Camplyon of Stowmarket who made his will in 1557, although wills and deeds show the family holding land in Suffolk and Norfolk at least a century earlier. His son, John Wright, a captain in Colonel Whalley's Regiment of Horse, was imprisoned in Newark Castle for his attachment to the Parliamentary cause, but later acquired estates in Nottinghamshire and Suffolk. Captain Wright's grandson, Ichabod, was a banker who owned estates in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, and established Wright's Bank with two of his sons. His great-grandson, Samuel Wright of Gunthorpe, married a daughter of Lord Coventry. Samuel's brother John of Langar and Lenton Hall was a banker and principal proprietor of the Butterley Works. His granddaughter became the wife of the Earl of Buckinghamshire. John Wright's son, Francis, married Selina, daughter of Sir Henry FitzHerbert, 3rd Baronet of Tissington Hall, Derbyshire and was a noted philanthropist; he was Susan's great great grandfather. Susan's maternal grandfather was Mervyn Wingfield, 8th Viscount Powerscourt.