WHELER, JOHN, son of John Wheler, Evesham, Worcs.; b.; adm. 21 Jan 1772; KS (aged 13) 1772; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1776, matr. 25 Jun 1776, but resigned from his Westminster Studentship 27 Jan 1777, before being admitted, as he had married his bed maker; 2nd Lieut., Royal Marines 17 Dec 1777; 1st Lieut., 18 Aug 1779; half-pay 1 Sep 1783; tried at Old Bailey 30 Oct 1793 (as John Wheeler) for theft of watch belonging to David William Murray, 3rd Earl of Mansfield (qv), from College dormitory at Westminster on 12 Oct; Wheler stated in evidence that he had found the watch in St. James’s Park and was acquitted; a witness stated that he was then in a “deplorable condition”; probably John Wheeler (spelled thus) who was found guilty of bigamy and sentenced to transportation for seven years at the Old Bailey 24 Oct 1798, then aged 38, his first marriage having been to Mary Goodall at St. James’s, Piccadilly, on 5 Dec 1776 (his surname given in register as Wheler), and his second, bigamous, marriage having been to Elizabeth Watkins at St. Bride’s, Fleet Street 22 Apr 1798.