WRIGLEY, JOHN

BRIEF SKETCH OF JOHN WRIGLEY


(The paternal Great, Great Grandfather of Sarah Wrigley)

Written by Ann W. Larsen, ad great, great granddaughter

(Material in parenthesis and italisized was added by
Carolyn Johnson Christensen)

John Wrigley was born in Barnby Don, Yorkshire England (on September 7, 1774, the sixth child born to John Wrigley and Mary Tyson). (A 4th great granddaughter, Carolyn Johnson was able to visit this small town and take pictures of the Parish Church there. Even though John Wrigley did not belong to the Church of England, it was a law that their birth and death records be kept in the Parish Church, and she was able to see the orignal entry of his birth.) John Wrigley belonged to the Weslyean Methodist Church. Lucky none of them belonged to the Catholic faith, showing they were of the spiritual nature and of the right linage to mold into God's ways.

John Wrigley was a shoemaker by trade. He belonged to the British Militia.

He met Hannah Morgan in North Ireland, and took her to Barnby Don, Yorkshire, England and married her. (Since their first child was born in 1803, they probably married near that year.) Hannah died at the birth of her eight child, Thomas Morgan Wrigley on 27 February 1816 in Dewsbury, Yorkshire England. (Hannah was probably in her late 30s or early 40s when she died. John would have been 42, a working father, with 7 children and a baby to raise.) John put his small son, Thomas, with a family by the name of John Wright and Mary Launcers. This family was very good to him, and raised him to manhood. (Thomas eventually married Grace Mary Wilkinson on 25 September 1837, joined the L.D.S. church on 21 March 1842, and traveled to Zion, settling in American Fork. He and his wife were sealed in the Endowment House. None of Thomas' brothers and sisters joined the church to our knowledge. Thomas was our ancestor.)

After the death of his first wife, John Wrigley married Sarah Butler. (She had been born in 1786 making her 12 years John's junior. Sarah and John Wrigley had one son, James in 1826 indicating their marriage was probably near that year. At that time, John's oldest child would have been 23, and his youngest son who was living elsewhere would have been about 10 years old.) Sarah died September 29, 1860 at the age of 74. John Wrigley died May 1, 1853, at the age of 79.

One son of John Wrigley, William, came to American where he established a soap factory and incorporated it in 1870 in Philadelphia. Later he went into the gum manufacturing business.