Wright was born in Finsbury, London, on 2 February 1822, the son of Edward Fawcett Wright (d. 1856) and his wife, Ann, Skirrow. Two years later, the family moved to Stourbridge, Worcestershire. In 1838 Wright moved to Birmingham in search of work, and found employment at the button manufactory of Smith and Kemp. His talents marked him for a swift ascendancy from traveller to partner in 1850, and eventually sole proprietor of the company. He was a nonconformist (like many of Birmingham's civic leaders at this time). Although he shared the profits of his enterprise, he opposed factory legislation, arguing that it interfered with the individual employer.