Weller, George, 1907-2002

George Weller (1710-1778) was the son of Robert Weller of Tonbridge and Elizabeth Poley of Boxted Hall, Suffolk. He was at Tonbridge School in 1721-2, and probably longer, and continued to live at Tonbridge, and then at Tunbridge Wells until some time after 1766. He was a lawyer and Recorder of Queenborough, and he seems to have played an active role in county affairs. On inheriting Boxted Hall from his mother, he took the added surname of Poley, and later moved to Suffolk, where he died in 1778. Elizabeth Weller, George Weller's aunt, was Jane Austen's great-grandmother. That George maintained some connection with the Austens is evidenced by the poem on p.108. It is also very likely that he knew Jane Austen's father, who was at Tonbridge School in the 1740s.

From the guide to the Miscellany of poems transcribed and in part composed by George Weller, ca. 1750, (Leeds University Library)