Author: Wheeldon, John
Biography:
WHEELDON, John (c. 1735-1800: ancestry.co.uk)
The Cambridge registers record him as the son of William Wheeldon of Staffordshire, and his age as twenty when he was admitted sizar to St. John’s College in 1755; his death notice and burial record his age at death as 65. His birth date is therefore probably 1736 or 1735 but there are no records to match. He went to school in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, and proceeded to St. John’s College, Cambridge (matric. 1756, BA 1759, MA 1762). He entered the church and was ordained deacon (1758) and priest (1759) and served as curate at St. Ives, Huntingdonshire (1758-1772), where he was sometime master of the grammar school. He married Mary Green in 1772 either at St. Ives or at her parish of Buckden. Their eldest son, John, was born at St. Ives; four further children were baptised at St. Helen’s, Wheathamstead, Hertfordshire, where Wheeldon served as rector 1773-1800. In 1772 he was appointed prebendary of Lincoln cathedral, a post he also held until his death. He died on 26 July 1800 at Wheathamstead and was buried there on 1 Aug. His widow, Mary, died at St. Albans on 24 Jan. 1820. He published some occasional verse, including A Poetical Epistle (1769) on St. John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness. The Jewish Bard (1779), listed here, has been surprisingly neglected given the high status of Welsh bards in English poetry, painting, and scholarship of the time, and is worth another look. It is, however, rare, with the only known UK copy at Worcester College, Oxford, and the only US copy at the University of Pennsylvania. He had a long-standing interest in the Caroline divine Jeremy Taylor (1613-67), editing a selection of his works in Sacred Prolusions (1768) and writing The Life of Bishop Taylor (1789) with further extracts. He also wrote A New Compendium of Grammar (1766) and preached several sermons which were printed but never collected. (ancestry.co.uk 27 Nov. 2023; Huntingdonshire Marriage Index; GM Aug. 1800, 799; Stamford Mercury 4 Feb. 1820) AA