Born in London
Born on the 27th of the eleventh month 1771 in Conduit Street, Hanover Square, the youngest son of William and Sarah Wheeler, members of the established church.
1771–1840 · Conduit Street, Hanover Square, London, England
Daniel Wheeler
Sailor, Soldier, the Tsar's Drainage Engineer, and Missionary to the South Seas
“I believe that I have nothing to do but to be quiet, and endeavour patiently to trust in the all-sufficiency of His power.” — Daniel Wheeler
Life & Ministry
A Midshipman's Visitation
At about sixteen, unwell aboard a ship of war, he 'was made sensible of a divine visitation'; he served nearly six years in the navy before entering the army as a volunteer.
Convinced at Sea
Commissioned in a regiment bound for the West Indies in the autumn of 1795, he came through a hurricane convinced 'altogether the immediate work of the Holy Spirit upon my heart', and quit the army early in 1796 for his sister's home near Sheffield.
Marriage
Received into membership and settled in the seed trade at Sheffield, he married Jane Brady of Thorne on the 13th of the sixth month 1800.
Acknowledged a Minister
Recorded as an approved minister by his monthly meeting in the sixth month 1816.
The Emperor's Marshes
Sailed to Russia in 1817, where the Emperor Alexander took him by the hand, saying 'Sit down, sir'; in June 1818 he embarked with wife, family and assistants, twenty souls, and settled at Ochta near Petersburg to superintend the drainage works.
Overland with Thomas Shillitoe
Liberated to attend the yearly meeting in Dublin, he crossed Europe with Thomas Shillitoe, landing at Harwich after thirty-six days.
Resignation and Bereavement
The imperial edict releasing him from his Russian appointment was signed in the seventh month; at the end of the year news came of the death of his wife.
The Henry Freeling
Sailed from the Thames on the 13th of the eleventh month 1833 in the Henry Freeling on a religious visit to Hobart Town, Sydney, Tahiti, the Sandwich Islands and New Zealand; the ship was sold at Sydney in 1837 and he reached London by Cape Horn in the fifth month 1838.
America
Landed at New York on the first day of 1839 and attended the yearly meetings of Philadelphia, Virginia, New York, New England and Ohio.
Death in New York
After watching his son Charles die at St Germains in the second month, he sailed again in the Mediator, fell ill a week out, and died at the house of John Clapp in New York a little after midnight on the 12th of the sixth month 1840.
Connections & Relationships
Thomas Shillitoe
Traveling CompanionShillitoe arrived at Petersburg in the autumn of 1824 and stayed through the winter; in 1825 the two crossed Europe together overland to England, a journey Wheeler recalled years later on the Henry Freeling.
John Woolman
Carried His WritingsAt Tahiti Wheeler distributed John Woolman's Serious Considerations along with Testaments and tracts, and cites Woolman's Journal in his own.
Sarah Tuke Grubb
Glimpsed as a YouthAs a naval youth in 1785 he saw the packet that carried Sarah Grubb on her way to Ireland, 'that dedicated servant of the Lord', a memory he recorded decades later.
William Penn
Invoked as PrecedentContrasting a baron's armed scheme for New Zealand with Penn's founding of Pennsylvania, Wheeler wrote of 'our predecessor William Penn'.
Available Works
Memoirs of Daniel Wheeler
ProposedHis unfinished autobiography begun in 1831, his Russian and South Sea journals and letters, the addresses to Balby monthly meeting, and the account of his death at New York, edited by his son and reprinted in the Friends' Library, volume 7 (1843).