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Wright comes from the Old English wryhta, meaning a craftsman, and usually described a maker or user of machinery.  The name in England could have a Norman heritage, from John Wryta of Bayeux whose family was expert in the manufacture of wooden and metallic articles and in weapons of war and whose sons may have accompanied William the Conqueror to England in 1066.
 
Wright existed as an occupational name in its own right, or in compounds such as Cartwright and Wainwright.  Wright was a more generic name in the north of England, taking over trades such as carpenter which appeared as its own surname in the south.  Thus Thomas Wright who worked on the roof of Berwick castle in 1324 was by trade a carpenter. 

Select Wright Resources on The Internet

• History of the Surname Wright.  Wright name in history.
• Descendants of John Wright.  The Wright family and the Gunpowder Plot.
• The Wright Family of Wheathampstead.  Wrights in Hertfordshire.
• James Wright History. James Wright, Quaker in Pennsylvania, and descendants.

England.  Some early Wrights came from the south of England.  A Le Wright family was recorded in Hornchurch Priory documents in Essex in the late 14th century.  Sir Henry Wright of this family built Dagnam Park nearby in the 1660's.  The Rev. Henry Wright lived in South Weald, Essex in the 1450's.  From his line came John Wright who purchased Kelvedon Hall near Brentwood in 1538.  His descendants were to live there for nearly four hundred years.  They stayed Catholic well into the 18th century.  In 1648 Nathan Wright, a merchant in London, acquired another Catholic house in Essex, Cranham Hall in Bishop's Ockendon.   

John Wright, it is said from Kent, was a steward to Henry VIII and he bought Plowland Hall in Holderness in north Yorkshire in the early 1500's.  His family also remained Catholic and two of its later members (Jack and Kit Wright) were involved in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot.  A branch moved to Bolton-le-Swale near Darlington; while Richard Wright of this family emigrated to Virginia in 1655 and prospered there.  

Later distribution showed the Wright name strongest on the east coast of England, in a line running south from Durham through Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and East Anglia to Essex and London.

Scotland and Ireland.  The Wright name moved north across the border and Wrights were recorded as far north as Aberdeen.  Those from the Highland clan named McIntyre (meaning "son of the wright") sometimes anglicized their name to Wright.  Other than Aberdeen, however, Wright has been very much a Border and Lowland name. 

Some Scots Wrights migrated to Ireland in the 17th century, settling primarily in Ulster.  Captain John Wright from Yorkshire was with Cromwell's army in 1649 and was granted lands in county Monaghan.        

Edward Wright was a noted English mathematician and cartographer of the 16th century.
John Wright was the London bookseller who published Shakespeare's First Folio in 1623.
Orville and Wilbur Wright, two brothers, were the first to fly in 1903.