William Wright, Jr. was born on November 13, 1794, in Clarkstown, Rockland County, New York, the son of Dr. William Wright, Sr. His father, a descendant of old Connecticut stock, came from Saybrook, Connecticut, was graduated from Yale in 1774, studied and practised medicine at New Haven, and moved across the Hudson about 1785.
His death upon a southern trip in 1808 made it necessary for the son to earn a living, and abandon his college preparatory studies at Poughkeepsie Academy.
At fourteen Wright, Jr. began his long career as a manufacturer of harness and saddlery, being apprenticed to Anson Greene Phelps, who was at that time engaged in that business in Hartford. Wright, Jr. took part in the defense of Stonington in 1814 and the next year, when Phelps went to New York to make a fortune in metals, Wright, Jr. with savings of three hundred dollars, moved to Bridgeport. There he married the daughter of William Peet, who apparently financed Wright's partnership with Sheldon Smith in the saddlery business. In 1822 the firm of Smith & Wright moved from Bridgeport to Newark, New Jersey, which was just then becoming a very active center of the leather industry; with Edwin Van Antwerp and William Faitoute later as silent partners, they developed an extensive factory. It is said to have become one of the largest establishments of its kind in the country, to have contributed much to the industrial development of Newark, and to have attained a commanding position in the southern trade. The improvement of roads and opening up of new agricultural lands stimulated the demand for harness and saddlery, and the European importations were poorly suited to the needs of the West and South. The West began its own saddlery but the South did little. Starting with a branch at Charleston, South Carolina, Smith & Wright soon had agents in all the principal southern cities. Wright, Jr. seems to have become the dominant member of the firm and had built up a considerable fortune by the time he retired from active business in 1854. His wealth and position in the industrial world seemed to have been the chief reasons for his political prominence. From 1840 to 1843 he was the fifth mayor of Newark. In 1843 he began two terms in the national House of Representatives. He was a candidate for the New Jersey governorship in 1847 but was defeated by Daniel Haines. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1853, was defeated for reelection in 1858, but returned again to serve from 1863 until his death. William Wright, Jr. died on November 1, 1866, at his home in Newark, New Jersey, after a painful illness.
An Episcopalian, he was the chief benefactor of the House of Prayer at Newark.
Never a strong partisan, William Wright, Jr. shifted about 1850 from Whig to Democrat.
William Wright, Jr. was a member of the U. S. House of Representatives from New Jersey's 5th district.
His portrait indicates a man erect, dark, and smooth-shaven, with an expression of marked strength and determination.
The congressional eulogists also stressed his urbanity, integrity, toleration and spotless life.
William Wright, Jr. was married to Minerva Peet, by whom he had a son and a daughter.
