Rev. Dr. William Wright: ‘Man of God, Man of Mystery’
Abstract of a talk sponsored by The Edmund Wood Foundation, and delivered at the Church of St. John the Evangelist on June 4, 2017 by Frank Mackey.
In Mount Royal Cemetery there is what appears to be an Irishman’s grave, a Celtic cross, among whose tangle of Celtic knots there is carved into the granite Revd William Wright, M.D./Professor McGill University.
William Wright was born at Quebec City, July 2, 1827, graduated from McGill’s Medical School, May 5, 1848, and was ordained on Pentecost Sunday, 1871. He taught Medicine at McGill for 33 years, was an attending physician at The Montreal General Hospital, and served for 33 years, until his death in 1908, as an unpaid Curate at St. John the Evangelist.
Appearance to the contrary, however, Wright was not Irish, but of English and Black African stock! Wright was the grandson of Joseph Wright, a member of the celebrated corps of Black drummers of the 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot; he was also the second of eleven children of William Wright, a Nova Scotia-born clerk, and his British-born wife Mary Blake. On May 2, 1843, age 15, William Jr. began medical studies as a five-year student-apprentice to Dr. James Crawford of McGill, graduating - with the right to practice - two months shy of 21. In 1850, he began his teaching career at McGill as a demonstrator of Anatomy, but Pharmacology soon became his area of specialization. With Dr. Duncan McCallum, in 1853, he launched and co-edited the Medical Chronicle or Montreal Monthly Journal of Medicine & Surgery, through its six years of publication, while also contributing numerous articles. In his early years, he was considered to be an excellent teacher and clinician who raised the Medical Faculty’s standards. Sir William Osler admired him. Even so, in 1883, he was forced out of McGill after first and second-year students threatened to boycott his classes, claiming they were not up-to-date.
1864 was an important year for Wright – he was ordained Deacon by Bishop Francis Fulfordon on Trinity Sunday (May 22), married Margaret Mason Harbeson, a Quebecer of Irish descent, at Sillery on September 3, and became the first Curate of the recently opened Church of St. James the Apostle, Montreal. He remained at St. James until Pentecost Sunday (May 28) 1871, when he was ordained a priest by Bishop Ashton Oxenden at St. Stephen’s Church in Lachine where he served for one year as Rector. Both of the couple’s two sons followed in their father’s footsteps, becoming Anglican clergy.
Questions linger about Wright’s education – pre- and post-McGill. Nothing is known about his primary and secondary education in Montreal and Quebec City, or how he obtained his general culture and knowledge of literature. Concerning Theology, he did not attend Bishop’s, founded in 1845, and could not have attended The Diocesan Theological College, which opened in 1873. The suspicion is that, in part, he may have been self-taught, and tutored in theology by the Rector of St. John’s, Fr. Wood.
From 1875 to 1908, Wright served as an Honorary Assistant at St. John’s. It was later said of him,
“... few knew of his many acts of liberality in supporting by augmentation or unostentatious donation, the work of the Parish with which he was associated and also the work of much serving in the Foreign and Home Mission Fields of the Church.”
Wright neither trumpeted his ‘colored’ identity, nor attempted to hide or deny it. From his photographs, it would be impossible to identify him conclusively as White or coloured. Although his medical career ended on an unhappy note, his life accomplishments must be considered significant – particularly for someone of African/European descent in Victorian Canada.
Sir William Osler and Fr. Edmund Wood commissioned the Memorial window on the north wall of St. John’s commemorating Rev. Dr. William Wright.
Frank Mackey is a Montreal writer-researcher who has written extensively on Black History. An article he has written on Rev. Dr. Wright is to published in the fall 2017 issue of the Quebec Family History Society magazine, 'Connections'.
The Edmund Wood Foundation is dedicated to supporting the parish and the Anglo-Catholic tradition, and is a registered charity. For further information, please contact:
The Edmund Wood Foundation
32-5009 Clanranald Ave.
Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1Z8