George Wheler (travel writer)

[2] In October 1673 he set out for a tour in France, Switzerland, and Italy, and was at first accompanied by George Hickes, his tutor at Lincoln College.

While in Italy he received some instruction in antiquities from Jean-Foy Vaillant; and at Venice, in June 1675, met Jacob Spon, with whom he travelled in Greece and the Levant in 1675 and 1676.

Among the places visited and described by Wheler were Zante, Delos, Constantinople, Prusa ad Olympum, Thyatira, Ephesus, Delphi, Corinth, and Attica.

The botanists John Ray, Robert Morison, and Leonard Plukenet received rare plants from Wheler.

By his will he secured a provision for the minister officiating at the chapel in Spital Fields, built in 1693, chiefly at his own expense.

[5] Wheler married Grace, daughter of Sir Thomas Higgons of Grewel, near Odiham, Hampshire, and they had eighteen children.