"The Wrights of Bedeque' Doris Haslam, page #12-14

Stephen Wright was born about 1768 in Westchester County, New York and died Jan 19, 1841 in North Bedeque, Prince Edward Island, Canada. He married by a licensed issued July 11, 1791, Frances Lord, called Fanny, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Cottrell) Lord. She was born about 1771 in England and died Feb. 4, 1863 in Middleton, P.E.I. Stephen was a lad in his teens living on home farm in Westchester County during the American Revolution. No doubt he and his mother were left in charge because his father was imprisoned for his Patriot sympathies by the Rebels and his brother Nathaniel was away much of the time fighting in the militia. His father returned to find his family deprived of much of their property by the Rebels, with only one bed left in what had been a comfortable farm home and his wife and children sick with yellow fever. Stephen came by sea with his family to Shelburne and thence to the Island of St John in 1784.

Stephen’s father William and his brother Nathaniel both received grants of land as Loyalists, but Stephen’s application was denied because he was under age to receive land. However, he was issued tools and other supplies along with the other an accompanied the Loyalists group to Bedeque harbour to settle on lands of the dispossessed Acadians.

Stephen lived with his father on the north side of the Dunk River. here he brought his bride, Fanny Lord, and here their five sons and five daughters were born. Their marriage license has been preserved and is in the possession today of a great-great-grandson Lorne Cameron.

The License reads:
By His Excellency Edmund Fanning L.L.D. Lieutenant Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over His Majesty’s Island of St. John and the Territories adjacent thereunto Chancellor of the same, etc. etc. etc.
To Stephen Wright, farmer, of Bedeque, and Fanny Lord, Spinster, of Tryon River in said Island
Whereas it hath been signified unto us that you have resolved to proceed to the solemnization of true and lawful matrimony and are desirous to have the same solemnized without Proclamation of Banns-And being willing that these your good intentions shall take effect and for other Lawful causes Do hereby grant this our license and faculty as well to you the parties contracting as to the Rev. Theophilus Disbrisay or any of His Majesty’s Trustees of the Peace for the said island to solemnize the said marriage openly without Publishing of Banns According to the Rule of the Book of Common Prayer as by Law Stablished. provided there shall hereafter appear no lawful impediment by reason of consanguinity, affinity or any other cause whatsoever. And if in case there hereafter appear any fraud suggested, or truth suppressed at the time of obtaining this License then these presents shall be void and of non effect in law. Inhibiting hereby you the said Theo Desbrisay of any of the said Justices of the Peace if anything to the Premises come to your or any of their knowledge that you nor any of them do not proceed to the celebration of the said marriage without consulting us thereupon. Given under my Hand and Seal at Arms at Charlotte Town the eleventh day of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety one in the thirty first year of his majesty’s Reign.
By His Excellency’s Command
Robert Gray D Sec’y

On Sept. 27, 1821 the proprietor of Lot 27, Horatio and Isabella (Searle) Mann, gave Stephen and his nephew Nathaniel Wright Jr. Power of attorney to manage their real estate. It was on eight hundred acres of this land that Stephen settled four of his sons, John, Stephen, William and Job. Their properties were in that part of Bedeque which came to be called South West Bedeque, now Middleton. Nathaniel, the fifth son, remained on the home place and married his uncle Nathaniel’s daughter Ann, called Nancy.

Stephen was a strong vigorous man, suited tot he hard work of a pioneer farmer, clearing the land, tilling the soil and harvesting his crops with the primitive tools for that period. At harvest time he would scythe with or without a cradle, one of his sons would come behind and rake, and another son would follow and bind the grain. After that the sheaves were stooked, if necessary by moonlight, and often by the women in the family.

In 1840 the harvest was a good one and Stephen anticipated a busy winter threshing the oats and wheat stored in his barn and in the stacks beside the barn, built carefully to shed the rain. and snow. The threshing was done on the bar floor, the doors open for the wind to blow out the chaff, while the thresher beat out the grain with his flail. This farm chore was to have been Stephen’s winter pastime but while standing in the barn talking to a young man he suddenly dropped to the barn floor and died in a few seconds. Shortly before, he had been remarking on his good health and his intention to thresh all the grain in the barn himself. he was buried near his brother Nathaniel in the Methodist cemetery across the river. Fanny was a widow for twenty-two years before her funeral procession wended its way from Middleton to the same cemetery at Lower Bedeque. She died at the home of one of her sons "after a lingering illness which she bore with Christian fortitude and resignation", according to her death notice in Ross’ Weekly for Feb. 26, 1863. She was ninety-two years old, the last surviving member of her family.

Stephen died without a will and his widow and sons John and Nathaniel well appointed administrators to settle his estate. The sons received title to the farm they were already living on. The married daughters had received their shares when they married and left home, Lydia to set up housekeeping at South Shore, Frances in Wilmot Valley, and Betty at Shemogue, N.B. The younger girls, Hannah and Nancy were to receive the rent from their father’s share of the grant given to their Grandfather in Lot 19. Hannah soon married her cousin and went to live at South Shore, leaving her mother and sister Nancy in the old house. There Nancy brought up her brother William’s daughter Fannie. She was called "Little Aunt Nancy" by her numerous nieces and nephews, while her brother Nathaniel’s wife, living in a new house on the property, was called "Bid Aunt Nancy". Little Aunt Nancy was of a milder disposition and was the favourite with her Middleton Nieces and nephews. After she died in 1874 the house gradually came to be used as a store house. There are several references to it in her nephew Jesse’s diary: Mary 16, 1883: "Put beehive in old house. Took comb out of the other one. Tried out honey.’ June 6, 1885: "The old house caught fire.: The final entry, June 13, 1902: "tearing down old house." Now, in 1977, the site is barely discernable.