Author: Wells, Christopher
Biography:
WELLS, Christopher (1749-92 ancestry.co.uk)
He was baptised on 7 Feb. 1749 at St. John’s, Cardiff, Glamorganshire, Wales, the son of Rev. Nathaniel Wells. His mother’s name is not known. He was probably educated locally, was ordained deacon (1771) and priest (1773) and was appointed Curate of Leckwith and Llandough, near Cardiff, in 1771. On 24 Oct. 1770 he married Anne Dawkin at St. Mary, Swansea, Wales, with one daughter, Elizabeth Anne, as only issue. He went to Jesus College, Oxford (matric. 1774) and was Lecturer at St Gluvias with Budock, Cornwall (1773-79), Curate at St. John the Baptist, Margate, Kent (1783) and Rector of Leigh with Bransford, Worcestershire (1784-92). At the time of writing Religion(1777) he was also Curate at St. Olave’s, Southwark, and afternoon preacher at Bermondsey. By the time of Address to the Genius of America (1781), he was also a Chaplain in the Royal Navy and Chaplain to Earl Harcourt. By 1789 he was in India and was Chaplain to Commodore Cornwallis. In Aug. 1790 he was appointed Chaplain and Paymaster to the 1st Battalion of European Infantry. He died at Bangalore sometime before May 1792 when his death was reported in the English press and his will (with inventory) proved in Madras on 27 June with his daughter Elizabeth Anne as executrix. GM described him as “ a man of the utmost suavity of manners and genuine piety.” His wife may also have died in India but there appears to be no record. He was variously described in contemporary correspondence and in reports of his death as Dr. Wells and D.D. but the Oxford registers make no mention of this and only record his matriculation. (ancestry.co.uk 30 Aug. 2022; findmypast.co.uk 30 Aug. 2022; London Chronicle 18 May 1792; GM May 1792, 482; William Urquhart, Oriental Obituary [1809-13] 2:76; Madras Wills & Administrations, BL, IOR, L/AG/34/29/194, f. 265-8; Frank Penny, The Church in Madras [1904] 1: 377, 381,390,410, 681, 2:404) AA