WRl 
tjpon the death of Sir John Denham, in 
1668, he succeeded him in the office of 
surveyor-general of the King’s works, and 
from this time he had the direction of a 
great many public edifices, by which he 
acquired the highest reputation. He built 
the magnificent theatre at Oxford, St. 
Paul’s cathedral, the Monument^ the mo- 
dern part of Hampton Court, Chelsea 
College, one of the wings of Greenwich 
Hospitalj the churches of St. Stephen 
Walbrook and St. Mary-le-Bow, with Up- 
wards of sixty other churches and public 
works, which that dreadful fire made ne- 
cessary. In the management of which 
business he was assisted in the measure- 
ments, and laying out Of private property, 
by the ingenious Dr. Robert Hook. The 
variety of business in which he was by this 
means engaged, requiring his constant at- 
tendance and concern^ he resigned his Savi- 
lian professorship at Oxford in 1673, and 
the year following he received from the 
King the honour of knighthood. He was 
one of the commissioners who, on the mo- 
tion of Sir Jonas Moore, surveyor-general 
of the ordnance, had been appointed to 
find out a proper place for erecting an 
observatory, and he proposed Greenwich, 
which was approved of; the foundation 
stone of which was laid the tenth of August, 
1675, and the building was presently finish- 
ed, under the direction of Sir Jonas, with 
the advice and assistance of Sir Christo- 
pher. 
In 1680 he was chosen president of the 
Royal Society ; afterwards appointed archi- 
tect and commissioner of Chelsea College; 
and in 1684, principal officer or comp- 
troller of the works in Windsor castle. Sir 
Christopher sat. twice in Parliament, as a 
representative for two different boroughs. 
While he continued surveyor-general, his 
residence was in Scotland-yard ; but after 
his removal from that office, in 1718, he 
lived in St. James’s-street, Westminster. 
He died the twenty-fifth of February, 1723, 
at ninety-one years of age ; and he was in- 
terred with great solemnity in St. Paul’s 
Cathedral, in the vault under the south 
wing of the choir, near the east end. 
WRIGHT (Edward), in biography, a 
noted English mathematician,who flourished 
in the latter part of the sixteenth century, 
and beginning of the seventeenth. He was 
contemporary with Mr. Briggs, and much 
concerned with him in the business of the 
logarithms, the short time they were pub- 
lished before bis death. He also contributed 
WRI 
greatly to the improvement of navigatlori 
and astronomy. He was the first under- 
taker of that difficnlt but useful work, by 
which a little river is brought from the town 
of Ware in a new canal, to supply the city 
of London with water ; but by the maneeu- 
vres of others he was hindered from com- 
pleting the work he had begun. For the 
improvement of the art of navigation he 
was appointed mathematical lecturer by 
the East India Company, and read lectures 
in the house of that worthy knight, Sir Tho- 
mas Smith, for which he had a yearly salary 
of fifty pounds. 'Fliis office he discharged 
with great reputation, and much to the 
satisfaction of his hearers. He published 
in English a book on the Doctrine of the 
Sphere, which is very scarce and dear, and 
another concerning the construction of sun- 
dials. He also prefixed an ingenious preface 
to the learned Gilbert’s book on the load- 
stone. He published other works, and died 
in the year 1615. 
WRIT is the King’s precept, whereby 
any thing is commanded touching a suit or 
action ; as the defendant or tenant to be 
summoned, a distress to be taken, a dis- 
seisin to be redressed, &c. And these writs 
are diversely divided; some in respect of 
their order or manner of granting, are 
termed original, and some judicial. Origi- 
nal writs are those that are sent out for the 
summoning of the defendant in a personal, 
or the tenant in a real action,. before the 
suit begins, or rather to begin tlie suit. 
The j udicial writs are those which are sent 
out by order pf tlie court, where the cause 
depends, upon occasion, after the suit be- 
gins. 
Original writs are issued out of the Court 
of Chancery, for the summoning a defend- 
ant to appear, and are granted before the 
suit is begun, to begin the same: and judi- 
cial writs issue out of the court where the 
original is returned, after the suit is begun. 
The originals bear date in the name of the 
King, but the judicial writs bear teste in 
the name of the chief justice. 
Writ of inquiry of damages, a judicial 
writ that issues out to the sheriff, upon a 
judgment by default, in action of the case, 
covenant, trespass, trover, &c. commanding 
him to summon a jury to inquire what da- 
mages the plaintiff hath sustained occasi- 
one pramissorum ; and when this is re- 
turned with the inquisition, the rule for 
judgment is given upon it, and if nothing 
be said to the contrary ; judgment is there- 
upon entered. 
