His father, Thomas Weld, a former pupil of the Jesuit school in Bruges, had in 1794 donated 30 acres of land with buildings, to the Society of Jesus to establish Stonyhurst College.

He distinguished himself in relieving the misfortunes of the refugees of the French Revolution, and supported the English Poor Clares who had fled from Gravelines, and the Visitandines; and he founded and maintained a Trappist monastery at Lulworth.

[2] Later when Weld was installed as a cardinal in Rome, he persuaded Pope Pius VII to declare his aunt's marriage to George sacramentally valid.

On 6 August 1826 Weld was raised to the titular see of Amyclae, a town in the Peloponnese, in a ceremony performed at St Edmund's College, Ware, by Bishop William Poynter.

The ceremony occurred on 15 March 1830, with Weld becoming cardinal priest of San Marcello al Corso in Rome.

[4] His elevation to the Sacred College prompted assurances from people of high influence in England that his nomination had excited no jealousy, and was met with general satisfaction.

In his opulent premises he periodically received visits from the aristocracy of Rome, native and foreign, and from large numbers of his fellow-countrymen.

There he hosted the exiled Royal family of France at Lulworth in August 1830, the king and his suite remaining there for some days, until their move to Holyrood House.