The Canon's father, Robert Webber, was said to be an illegitimate son of Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, himself an illegitimate son of King Charles II, while the Canon's mother was Mary Maybank, reputedly a descendant of Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, a mistress of King Charles II.
Among his uncles were Rear-Admiral Charles Webber (1722–1783), nominal father of Lieutenant-General James Webber Smith, as well as the rector of West Stoke outside Chichester, the Reverend Charles Smith (1729–1803).
A graduate of Christ Church, Oxford,[5] he was a master at the Prebendal School and from 1788 Vicar of Boxgrove, holding the living for the rest of his life.
[5] From 1825 to 1828 he served as Warden of the Hospital of St. Mary, Chichester,[10] and on 8 December 1826 was made a trustee of the Bishop's daughter, Sibella Jane Carr, when she married a local landowner, Charles Peckham Peckham, relinquishing the rôle on 2 March 1840.
Mary's brother was the celebrated Army officer Francis Peirson.