By Peter Borrows
Michael Andrews-Reading’s detailed compilation of the monumental inscriptions associated with St Mary’s Church, Amersham, lists 16 monuments to members of the Weller family, as compared with 53 to the Tyrwhitt-Drakes and a further 36 to the Drakes. But then the Drakes arrived in Amersham in 1630 and have their own dedicated chapel within the church. They were Lords of the Manor and provided MPs and Rectors for Amersham whereas the Wellers were ‘in trade’ and did not arrive until 1775.
However, the Weller family are the only people to have their own fenced-off burial plot in the churchyard. It has iron railings and is situated on the north side of the church, adjacent to the West Door but just round the corner from it, easily visible (and accessible) from the path that leads from Church Street to the (new) rectory, just before the river Misbourne emerges from its culvert.
There are 9 stone tombs, all but one (tomb E, left hand end, back row) with a headstone and footstone. Six of them are barrel-shaped. Some of the inscriptions are difficult to decipher now but the tombs commemorate the following. (There are a number of William Wellers, so they are distinguished as William I Weller, William II Weller, etc. See the simplified family tree, below.)
A William I Weller who died 31st March 1802, aged 75, and his wife Ann (née House), who died 2nd April 1817 aged 85. They are the founders of the Weller brewing dynasty in Amersham.
B William II Weller who died 2nd May 1843, aged 80, and his wife Sarah (née Lacey), who died 4th March 1820, aged 57. He was one of the sons of William I Weller and became one of the Amersham brewers.
C John Weller who died 24th December 1843, aged 85 and his (second) wife Elizabeth (née Hickman), who died 23rd October 1851, aged 82. He was the eldest son of William I Weller and also became an Amersham brewer. Note that John and William II died within a few months of each other.
D Katherine (née Fowler), first wife of John Weller, who died 12th April 1799, aged 38 years, and Katherine their daughter who died 19th September 1795, aged 6 months.
E Edward Weller, who died 7th August 1850, aged 59, and Caroline (née Lunan), his wife, who died 13th November 1874, aged 81 years. Edward was eldest son of John and Katherine Weller and another of the Amersham brewers.
F John-Lacey Weller, who died 5th April 1823, aged 33. He was a son of William II and Sarah Weller. It also commemorates Henry Weller, their eldest son, who died at Black River, Jamaica, 23rd March 1815, aged 27. Neither of these sons became brewers but both worked in Black River, Jamaica, which is doubtless how their sister Mary came to know – and marry – George Channer, who also worked there. All three men had children by several women of colour, one of them enslaved, in Jamaica.
G James Weller, who died 16th September 1819, aged 26 and Benjamin Weller who died 9 February 1820, aged 18. They were both sons of William II and Sarah Weller but were not brewers. It also commemorates another son, Charles Richard, who died in London 22nd September 1830, aged 39 and William II and Sarah’s daughter Ann, wife of William Hill Pears, who died at Coventry, 6 September 1829, aged 43 years.
H George Channer, who died at Amersham 28th November 1830, aged 51. It also commemorates his wife Mary, who died 14 November 1860, aged 77, at St John’s Wood. She was the daughter of William II and Sarah and sister of John-Lacey and Henry Weller. George had 9 children by Mary, but he also had 4 children by Sarah Delano, in Black River Jamaica, both before and after his Amersham marriage.
I Eliza Weller, who died 26 October 1810, aged 6, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Weller. Also Lydia Hickman, who died 11 May 1810, aged 65, the mother-in-law of Elizabeth Weller via her first husband.
In addition to the graves, there are 5 commemorative tablets attached to the inside north wall of the church, at the western end.
P William I Weller and his wife Ann (née House).
Q John Weller, his first wife Katharine (née Fowler) and his second wife Elizabeth (née Hickman).
R William II Weller and his wife Sarah (née Lacey).
S Edward Weller and his wife Caroline (née Lunan).
T William III Weller and his wife Lydia (née Holloway, the daughter of a brewer).
There is a further tablet on the wall of the St. Andrew’s Chapel.
It commemorates George Channer (who died in Amersham), his wife Mary (née Weller, who died in St John’s Wood), and the three of their nine children who died in infancy, Emma (aged 9 months), Frederick Lacey (aged 3 months) and Emily (aged 4 years).
Finally, there is a stained glass window in the St. Catherine’s Chapel. The dedication, at the bottom right hand side, is to William IV Weller, and the memorial was installed by his wife Louise Charlotte (née Coyle).
There were 5 generations of Weller brewers in Amersham, shown in the following simplified family tree. Two of their wives were daughters of brewers. Lydia Holloway (wife of William III) brought part of her father’s brewery in Hemel Hempstead to the Weller business. Blanche Heath Masterman (wife of George Weller), the daughter of a brewer from Wanstead in Essex, was married from her brother’s home at Walworth Castle in Durham.
However, brewing only provided employment for 2 or 3 sons in each generation. A surprising number became clergymen, and hence are usually buried or commemorated in their own parishes. Perhaps it reflects the quote often attributed to Benjamin Franklin, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy”. Although it cannot be said that the Rev. John Weller was happy. He was buried in a neighbouring parish, not in his own, and his epitaph, composed by himself and inscribed in Latin (presumably so the villagers would not understand it) translates as:
Here lies John Weller S.T.P., at one time a fellow of Emmanuel College in Cambridge, from where, having left under a bad omen, he was appointed rector of the church of North Luffenham – truly a hard and thankless office, which at the least having caused him to feel utter disgust in the greatest part, he preferred his bones to be laid to rest in this alien ground.
Henry and John-Lacey Weller worked in Jamaica and later generations of Wellers served in the armed forces. Joseph Weller, son of William I, started off as a brewer with his brothers John and William II but ill-health caused him to move to the south coast and then to emigrate to Australia, with those of his family who had survived infancy. Some of his sons set up a whaling business in New Zealand.