Phipps [q. v.], the governor of Massachusetts, to undertake an expedition against Quebec; but as no troops were ready, and it was impossible to get them ready in time, Phipps was obliged to refuse. Leaving Boston on 3 Aug., Wheler went to Newfoundland, but found that Placentia was too well fortified and strongly garrisoned to be attacked in a casual way. A council of war decided that nothing could be done, and the squadron sailed for England, which it reached in the middle of October, ‘in so reduced a state that there were scarcely men enough in health to navigate the ships into port.’
Notwithstanding popular clamour, the ill-success which had attended the expedition was so clearly due to causes beyond naval control that Wheler's conduct could not be called in question, and within a few days after his arrival he was appointed admiral and commander-in-chief of a squadron designed for the Mediterranean, his rank at the time being only rear-admiral of the red. Contrary winds and want of necessaries detained it for several weeks, and it did not sail till 27 Dec. With Wheler were Vice-admiral (Sir Thomas) Hopsonn [q. v.], Rear-admiral John Nevell [q. v.], a Dutch squadron under Vice-admiral Callenburgh, and a large convoy of merchant ships. The recollection of the disaster sustained by Sir George Rooke, with whom Hopsonn had been only a few months before, made Wheler especially cautious; and though several French ships were seen hovering round his charge between Cape St. Vincent and Cadiz, he was careful not to allow his squadron to get separated in pursuit. By 19 Jan. 1693–4 he brought his whole squadron and convoy safely into Cadiz harbour. Here Hopsonn parted from him, returning to England with the homeward-bound trade, and Wheler, having remained a month, sailed on 17 Feb. to pass through the Straits. On the 18th it came on to blow hard; the force of the wind increased to a hurricane; the ships, which were then off Malaga, were dispersed; several running back to the westward, in the darkness of the night mistook Gibraltar Bay for the Straits, ran into it, and were driven on shore. The Cambridge was thrown on shore and broken up a few miles to the eastward. The Sussex, Wheler's flagship, foundered at five o'clock on the morning of the 19th. Of 550 people on board, two Turks only escaped. Two days later Wheler's body, much mangled, was cast on shore. Charnock says that it was embalmed and sent to England; but this seems doubtful. Wheler married Arabella, daughter and ultimately coheiress of Sir Clifford Clinton, by Frances, daughter of Sir Heneage Finch, and had issue two boys and a girl. Of these the girl, Anna Sophia, and the elder boy, Charles, are named in his will (Somerset House: Box, 89), dated 30 Oct. 1692, and proved on 28 April 1694. Wotton (Baronetage, 1741, iii. i. 144) says he left two sons only, William (d. 1738) and Francis, still living in 1741. It would appear that Charles and Anna Sophia died young, and that a third son, Francis, was born in 1693 or 1694. William's son Francis is described by Sir Samuel Romilly (Memoirs, i. 73–4); Jane, the daughter of this Francis, married Henry, second viscount Hood, and was the grandmother of the third Viscount Hood and mother of the second Lord Bridport. The trustees of Wheler's will were his old friend and messmate, Sir Clowdisley Shovell [q. v.], Christopher Packe, probably the son of Sir Christopher Packe [q. v.], and his cousin, William Binckes [q. v.], dean of Lichfield (cf. Wotton, iii. i. 144).
[Charnock's Biogr. Nav. ii. 76; Burchett's Transactions at Sea, pp. 477, 490; Lediard's Naval Hist. pp. 670, 682; Nevell to Secretary of State and to Lords of the Admiralty, 27 Feb. 1693–4, in Home Office Records, Admiralty, vol. vii.; Court-martial on the Officers of the Cambridge, 8 Sept. 1694.]
WHELER, Sir GEORGE (1650–1723), traveller, the son of Charles Wheler of Charing, Kent, colonel in the life guards, by his wife Anne, daughter of John Hutchin of Egerton, Kent, was born in 1650 at Breda in Holland, where his parents, who were royalists, were in exile. He was educated at Wye school, Kent, and at Lincoln College, Oxford, matriculating on 31 Jan. 1667. He was created M.A. on 26 March 1683, and D.D. by diploma on 18 May 1702. In 1671 he became a student at the Middle Temple. In October 1673 he set out for a tour in France, Switzerland, and Italy, and was at first accompanied by George Hickes [q. v.], his tutor at Lincoln College. While in Italy he received some instruction in antiquities from Vaillant, and at Venice, in June 1675, made the acquaintance of James Spon, physician of Lyons, with whom he travelled in Greece and the Levant in 1675 and 1676. Spon published a separate account of the journey in 1678 (Voyage d'Italie, de Dalmatie, de Grèce, &c., Lyons, 12mo). Wheler's account, ‘A Journey into Greece,’ was not published till 1682. These travels in Greece have, as Michaelis (Ancient Marbles, p. 56) remarks, the charm and value of a journey into an almost unexplored country. Among the places visited and described by Wheler are Zante, Delos, Constantinople, Prusa ad Olympum, Thyatira,
