Nat Gould

Nathan Wetherell 1726-1807

Nathan Wetherell

Nathan Wetherell was born in 1726 in Durham, the son of Cornelius Wetherell 1679-1758 and his wife née Margaret Simpson, and was baptised on 15 June 1726 at St Nicholas's church in Durham.

He entered Lincoln College in Oxford, matriculating on 20 April 1744. He graduated Bachelor of Arts on 23 February 1747/8 and Master of Arts on 24 January 1750/1, and became a Fellow of the college. He was awarded the degrees of Bachelor and Doctor of Divinity in 1764, and was Master of the College from 1764 to 1808. He was Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1768 to 1762. He was appointed a Prebendary of Westminster and of Hereford in 1775, and became Dean of Hereford (1).

He was a friend of Samuel Johnson 1709-1784, and had an Oxford Doctorate conferred on him (2).

On 22 April 1765 he married Richarda Croke 1743-1812 at Marsh Gibbon in Buckinghamshire. She was born on 27 October 1743 at Studley in Oxfordshire, the daughter of Alexander Croke 1704-1757 and his wife née Elizabeth Barker (born 1709).

They had the following children:

Nathan Croke Wetherell. He was born in 1767 at Oxford. He entered University College in Oxford, matriculating on 24 April 1784. He graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1788, Master of Arts in 1790 and Bachelor of Civil Law in 1795. He was a Fellow of the College until 1840. In 1792 he became a barrister-at-law of Lincoln's Inn, and died in 1840.

Robert Wetherell. He was born in 1768 at Oxford. He entered New College in Oxford, matriculating on 16 December 1784. He graduated Bachelor of Civil Law in 1791, and was a Fellow of the College until 1814. He was appointed Vicar of Stanford-in-the Vale in Berkshire in 1792, Prebendary of Hereford in 1796, and Rector of Newnton Longueville in Buckinghamshire in 1813. He died on 20 October 1842.

Sir Charles Wetherell. He was born in 1770 at Oxford. He entered University College in Oxford, matriculating on 14 January 1786. He graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1790 and Master of Arts in 1793. He became Doctor of Civil Law on 13 June 1834, and a barrister of the Inner Temple in 1794, and King's Counsel and Bencher in 1816. He was successively Member of Parliament for Shaftesbury from 1813 to 1818, Oxford from 1820 to 1826, Hastings in 1826, Plympton from 1826 to 1830, and Boroughbridge from 1830 to 1832.

Knighted on 10 March 1824, he was Solicitor-General from 1824 to 1826, Attorney-General from 1826 to 1827 and in 1828, Recorder of Bristol, Temporal Chancellor of the County Palatine of Durham, and Counsel to Magdalen College in Oxford from 1804.

Sir Charles Wetherell married Sarah Jane Elizabeth Croke on 28 December 1826 at Beckley near Oxford.
He died on 17 August 1846 and was buried in the Temple Church in London on 25 August 1846.

Margaret Wetherell 1771-1845. She was born in 1771. On 17 December 1807 she was married at St Peter's in the East in Oxford to the Reverend Dr George Shepperd, Preacher of Gray's Inn and Rector of St Bartholomew's in London (3). She died on 30 December 1845 at Russell Square in London (4).

Richarda Wetherell. She was born in 1772. On 12 August 1813 she was married at Highworth in Wiltshire to Colonel Love Parry Jones of Llwyn Oun in Denbighshire and 31 Pulteney Street in Bath, Somerset. She died on 13 August 1847 at Dover in Kent aged 75 years (5).

Richard Wetherell 1773-1858. He was born in 1773 at Oxford. He entered University College in Oxford, matriculating on 15 December 1791. He graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1795 and Master of Arts in 1798. He was successively appointed Rector of Westbury-on-Severn in 1798, Rector of Wick Rissington in 1809, Rector of Notgrove in 1810, all in Gloucestershire. He married Caroline May 1778-1833 at Ticehurst in Sussex, and died in 1858.

Henry Wetherell. He was born in 1775 in Oxford. He entered Magdalen College in Oxford, matriculating on 28 July 1791. He graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1795, Master of Arts in 1798 and Bachelor of Divinity in 1817. He was made a Fellow of University College in Oxford in 1802.In 1825 he was appointed Chaplain to the Duke of Kent, and a Prebendary or Canon of Gloucester. He was Archdeacon of Hereford from 1825 to 1852, Rector of Thruxton in Herefordshire in 1799, and Rector of Kentchurch in Herefordshire in 1818. He died on 23 December 1857.

Sarah Wetherell. She was born in 1778. She was married to the Reverend Thomas Lane Freer 1777-1835, Rector of Handsworth in Staffordshire. She died on 2 January 1842 at Southsea in Hampshire aged 63 years (6).

Mary Wetherell. She was born in 1779. She was married on 28 January 1801 at St Peter's in the East in Oxford to the Reverend John Clutton, Prebendary of Hereford and Chaplain to the Bishop of Peterborough (7). He later became Rector of Kinnersley in Herefordshire and Canon Residentiary of Hereford Cathedral, and died on 7 May 1838 at Hereford. His widow Mary Clutton née Wetherell died on 22 May 1849 aged 70 years at Bishopstone, Herefordshire (8).

Charlotte Wetherell. She was born in 1780. She was married on 20 December 1804 at St Peter in the East in Oxford to Richard Spooner MP of Glindon House in Warwickshire (9). They lived at Claines near Worcester. She died on 14 February 1860 at Leamington aged 81 years (10).

Elizabeth Wetherell. She was born in 1782. On 13 August 1811 she was married to the Reverend Edward Rowden 1780-1869, Vicar of Highworth in Wiltshire, at St James' church, Cowley near Oxford. She died on 9 September 1825 at Highworth (11).

James Wetherell. He was born at Cowley near Oxford on 12 July 1786, and baptised at St James' church in Cowley on 22 July 1786. He entered New College in Oxford, matriculating on 14 November 1805. He graduated Bachelor of Civil Law in 1813 and was a Fellow of the College until 1816. He was successively appointed Perpetual Curate of Upton St Leonards in Gloucestershire in 1815, Vicar of Lyonshall in Herefordshire in 1816, and Prebendary of Hereford in 1822. He died on 16 July 1857.

Their father the Very Reverend Nathan Wetherell died on 30 December 1807 (12).

His widow Richarda Wetherell née Croke died in 1812.

(1) Alumni Oxonienses 1715-1866 Later Series (1883) page 1530. Details of the university careers and ecclesiastical and other appointments of the sons of Nathan Wetherell are also from the same source pages 1530-1531.
(2) As Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1775 he arranged for the degree of Doctor of Civil Law to be conferred on Samuel Johnson, who was an undergraduate at Pembroke College in 1728-1729 but had been unable to continue his studies then through poverty. The University had already conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts in 1755 when Dr William King, the Principal of St Mary Hall, personally brought the diploma to him in London. Nathan Wetherell and Oxford University were not however the first to create "Doctor Johnson", the name by which he is now generally remembered, for he had been made Doctor of Laws in 1765 by Trinity College, Dublin. Samuel Johnson: a Biography by Peter Martin (2008) pages 63 to 82, 258, 328-329 and 396.
(3) Oxford Journal 19 December 1807; Hampshire Telegraph 28 December 1807.
(4) Hereford Times 3 January 1846; The Era 9 January 1846.
(5) London Daily News 18 August 1847; Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette 19 August 1847. Her husband Colonel Love Parry Jones died on 5 March 1843 aged 81 years Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette 9 March 1843.
(6) Morning Post 4 January 1842; Staffordshire Gazette and County Standard 6 January 1842; Coventry Herald 7 January 1842; Oxford Journal 8 January 1842.
(7) Reading Mercury 2 February 1801; Hereford Journal 4 February 1801; Stamford Mercury 6 February 1801.
(8) Hereford Times 26 May 1849.
(9) Morning Post 25 December 1804.
(10) Bristol Mercury 18 February 1860.
(11) Oxford Journal 17 September 1825.
(12) Oxford Journal 2 January 1808; Bury and Norwich Post 6 January 1808; Kentish Gazette 8 January 1808; Norfolk Chronicle 9 January 1808; Stamford Mercury 15 January 1808.