[1] He became rector of Leake,[2] Nottinghamshire, in 1737, and prebendary of Southwell in 1753, posts he held until his death.
There he carried out experiments into electricity with his friends, including John Godfrey, Thomas Ruddock and Stephen Gray, on the lines of those published by Benjamin Franklin and others, confirming Franklin's identification of lightning as an electrical discharge.
They investigated ways to communicate electricity, using a variety of material threads running through the building.
Wheler was the first[citation needed] in England to electrify a live animal.
Wheler married, first, Lady Catherine Maria (d. 1740), daughter of Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon, and had by her seven children.