 He was the oldest son of Richard Bright (1754–1840), a merchant and banker in Bristol, and Sarah , and the older brother of the physician Richard Bright, who described Bright's disease.His grandfather was Henry Bright (1715–1777), a Bristol merchant active in the Jamaican slave trade, Mayor of Bristol in 1771–72.He was educated at Reading School and Peterhouse, Cambridge (admitted 1801, graduated B.A.