Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

English architect, landscape gardener and astronomer, for whom see Howard Colvin, A Biographical dictionary of British architects 1600-1840 (4th edn., 2008), 1167-1169. As an architect Wright is particularly associated with the design of garden buildings in a rustic idiom. His Six Original Designs of Arbours was published in 1755, followed by Six Original Designs of Grottos in 1758; a projected third volume was not completed. A facsimile edition of both works was published by the Scolar Press in 1979, with an introduction by Eileen Harris, which provides the most comprehensive account of Wright's life and works to date.(1)

In 1746-1747 Wright spent a year in  Ireland at the invitation of James Hamilton (1691-1758), Viscount Limerick, proprietor of the town of Dundalk, Co. Louth, and of an estate at Tollymore, Co. Down.   Lord Limerick, one of Wright's most constant supporters, had been introduced to him by his wife, a daughter of Wright's patron the Duke of Portland.  Both Lady Limerick and her sister the Duchess of Kent had been Wright's pupils and remained his patrons.(2) Wright came to Ireland in June 1746. From his base in Dundalk he travelled extensively in the northern counties and at the end of his stay made a rapid journey through the midlands and the south west before sailing home from Waterford in June 1747. He also spent a month in Dublin during the winter. His travels are recorded in his journal(3) and in his topographical drawings.(4) While he was in Ireland he prepared the illustrations for Louthiana, or an Introduction to the Antiquities of Ireland, which was published in London in 1748 and dedicated to Lord Limerick.(5) The work is divided into three books, the first devoted to ancient forts and earthworks, the second to castles and towers and the third to miscellaneous antiquities and curiosities. Four of the plates are individually dedicated: Book II, Plate VII, to William Read, Bailiff of Dundalk; Book III, Plate V, to Lord Limerick's brother-in-law Thomas Fortescue, MP for Dundalk, who had estates at Reynoldstown and Ravensdale, Co. Louth; Book III, Plate XVII, to Mrs Elizabeth Neal, and Book III, Plate XVIII  XVIII to Viscountess Limerick. A letter from George Stone, Archbishop of Armagh, to Lord Limerick written early in 1749, appears to be in response to a suggestion by the latter that a position for 'poor Wright' might be found in Ireland; the Archbishop replies that it is the wrong time to put him on 'this establishment' because of the 'present temper of people here'.(6)

A pen and ink drawing of a large house with a hexastyle pedimented portico in the Castletown Album on deposit in the Irish Architectural Archive has been attributed to Wright by John Harris and is possibly associated with Wright's design for the entrance front of Horton Hall, Northamptonshire.(7) The Irish Architectural Archive also holds a copy of Wright's Louthiana.

See WORKS, for Irish work only, and BIBLIOGRAPHY. BIBLIOGRAPHY.



References



(1) Eileen Harris is currently (2013) working on a definitive study of Wright.
(2) Eileen Harris, 'Architect of Rococo landscapes: Thomas Wright - III', Country Life150, 9 Sep 1971, 614-5;  Eileen Harris , 'Thomas Wright and Viscount Limerick at Tollymore Park', Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies 16 (2013), 
(3) British Library Add,. MS. 15627, published in County Louth Archaeological Journal II (1909), 165-185.
(4) Some of these are in a sketch book in the Victoria & Albert Museum's Drawings Collection, others in a sketchbook in the Avery Library, Columbia University.
(5) Limerick was created Earl of Clanbrassill in 1756; the copy of Louthiana in the Irish Architectural Archive although dated 1748 on the title pages of the three parts, has an inserted dedication to the Earl of Clanbrassill dated December, 1757.
(6) George Stone, Archbishop of Dublin, to James, Viscount Limerick, 4 Feb 1748/9, Roden MSS, PRONI Mic 147/9, vol. 17, M 31-2; [Edward McParland files (IAA, Acc.2008/44) note that another Wright MS. is in the Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, but is this the same Thomas Wright?]
(7) IAA Acc. 98/131, f.29; for Horton Hall see Eileen Harris, 'The wizard of Durham - the architecture of Thomas Wright - I', Country Life 150, 493(illus.),495.


4 work entries listed in chronological order for WRIGHT, THOMAS #


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Building: CO. LOUTH, DUNDALK, DUNDALK HOUSE
Date: 1746-47
Nature: TW 'probably designed garden buildings for same [James, 1st Viscount Limerick] at Dundalk' (Malins & Glin)
Refs: Eileen Harris, 'Architect of Rococo landscapes: Thomas Wright - III', Country Life150, 9 Sep 1971, 614E. Malins & the Knight of Glin, Lost Demesnes: Irish landscape gardening, 1660-1845 (1976), 119; Christine Casey & Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster (1993), 262; Howard Colvin, A Biographical dictionary of British architects 1600-1840 (3rd edn., 1995), 1101

Building: CO. FERMANAGH, FLORENCE COURT
Date: 1746?
Nature: Arbour & cottage 'may well have been sketched out by him when he was there' (Malins & Glin). For John Cole, MP (later 1st Baron Mount Florence).
Refs: Eileen Harris, 'Architect of Rococo landscapes: Thomas Wright - III', Country Life150, 9 Sep 1971, 615; E. Malins & the Knight of Glin, Lost Demesnes: Irish landscape gardening, 1660-1845 (1976), 119-120.

Building: CO. DOWN, TOLLYMORE PARK
Date: 1751ca
Nature: Small house and perhaps also 'thatch'd open place to dine in', for James Hamilton, 1st Viscount Limerick.  Probably lso  Barbican Gate, Horn Bridge, and 'Lord L:imerick's follies' (roadside towers and gate piers) (Harris, 2013)
Refs: Eileen Harris, 'Architect of Rococo landscapes: Thomas Wright - III', Country Life150, 9 Sep 1971, 614; E. Malins & the Knight of Glin, Lost Demesnes: Irish landscape gardening, 1660-1845 (1976), 119; Howard Colvin, A Biographical dictionary of British architects 1600-1840 (4th edn, 2008), 1169;  Eileen Harris , 'Thomas Wright and Viscount Limerick at Tollymore Park', Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies 16 (2013), 132-143 (illus.);  see also Peter Rankin, Tollymore Park: the Gothick Revival of Thomas Wright & Lord Limerick (Belfast: The Follies Trust, 2010).

Building: CO. WESTMEATH, BELVEDERE
Date: ?
Nature: Artificial ruin and Jealous Wall both similar to plates from Wright's Six Original Designs of Grottos.
Refs: Eileen Harris, 'Architect of Rococo landscapes: Thomas Wright - III', Country Life150, 9 Sep 1971, 615(illus.); E. Malins & the Knight of Glin, Lost Demesnes: Irish landscape gardening, 1660-1845 (1976), 119; Christine Casey & Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster (1993), 171, Pl.92; Howard Colvin, A Biographical dictionary of British architects 1600-1840 (4th edn., 2008), 1169.

Author Title Date Details
Buckley, James (ed.) 'The Journal of Thomas Wright, Author of Louthiana (1711-1786)' 1909 County Louth Archaeological Journal 2 (Pt. 2, 1909), 161-185.
Harris, Eileen 'The Wizard of Durham: the architecture of Thomas Wright - I'; 'A flair for the grandiose: the architecture of Thomas Wright - II'; 'Architect of Rococo landscapes': Thomas Wright - III' 1971 Country Life 150, 26 Aug, 2 & 9 Sep 1971, 492-495, 546-550, 612-615
Mccarthy, Michael 'Thomas Wright's "Designs for Temples" and Related Drawings for Garden Buildings' 1981 Journal of Garden History 1, No. 1 (Jan 1981), 55-66.
Mccarthy, Michael 'Thomas Wright's Designs for Gothic Garden Buildings' 1981 Journal of Garden History 1, No. 3 (July-Sep 1981), 239-252.
Mccarthy, Michael 'Ireland Ancient and Modern: The Architectural Sketches of Thomas Wright of Durham in 1746/7' 1981 The Connoisseur 206 (Feb 1981), 158-161.
Thomas Wright Six Original Designs of Arbours 1755 London, 1755. Facsimile edition of this and Designs of Grottos with introduction by Eileen Harris published by Scolar Press, 1979.
Thomas Wright Six Original Designs of Grottos 1758 London, 1755. Facsimile edition of this and Designs of Arbours with introduction by Eileen Harris published by Scolar Press, 1979.