Born at Amherst, Mass., Silas Wright came to Weybridge as an infant and grew up there. He graduated from Middlebury College in 1815, studied law at Sandy Hill, N.Y., began practicing law at Canton, N.Y. in 1819, and entered politics there. By 1824 he was a brigadier general, and he served as state senator from 1825 to 1827, U.S. congressman from 1827 to 1829, comptroller from 1829 to 1833, U.S. senator from 1833 to 1844, and governor of New York from 1845 to 1847. In 1844 he declined the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. vice-president. He always regarded Weybridge as his natal place.