The following material, on our surname, is from Marshall R. Wheeler and will be used in the first chapter of his next book on the Wheeler Family.
How do we happen to have the surname "Wheeler?" In truth, I suppose, no one knows for sure, but a lot of people have expressed an opinion. Clearly, the Wheelers who came to America beginning in the early 1600's were British, and most of them had lived in the southern part of England, especially Essex, Sussex, Kent, Hampshire, Somerset, Wiltshire, etc. On the other hand, passenger lists of ships bringing immigrants to America show that many came from places, like Holland, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, etc. But many, is not all, of thses had been in England earlier. The Dutch, for example, operated numberous ships to American poarts, so it was a monnon pratice for those planning to emigrate to America to go to Holland first. Others, living near the Scottich-English Border, migrated first to Ireland and then, after a generation or two, left for America. They are often referred to as the "Scotch-Irish."
"Immigration fever" was so great and widespread that there were as many ships sailing from those other European ports as from English ones, all busily carrying passengers to the New World. For more than a centruy, this was truly a big and profitable business. It is recorded, for example, that by the year 1640 more than 200 ships had crossed the Atlantic, and about 20,000 native Englishmen had come to these shores!
The name WHEELER was well represented among these immigrants. In the years prior to 1650 it was the most common family name in America. For example, by 1629 Wheeler families were already common in the settlements (Colonies) of Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts. In other words, it seems likely that some Wheelers were here before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.
In those early days people who were educated enough to read and write just spelled words phonetically -- there weren't any rules than about spelling! The point is that our name wasn't always spelled W H E E L E R - far from it. In older documents the name appears at times as WHEALER, WHEELOR, WHELER, WHELLER, WHIELER, WIHLER, and even WHEIGHLER. Of course, in the very early days, people's names were spoken, seldom written, so such variations in spelling were of no importance. And it is likely that a person's accent, like that of Yorkshire, for example, influenced how a name was spelled.
But where did the name come from in the beginning? Here is what I have learned so far....
Many people have associated the English name WHEELER with WHEELS, due to the similarity in sound and spelling no doubt. They claim that the name is one of the so-called "occupational names" which families assumed when the use of "family names" or "surnames" became common. Some examples are MILLER, SMITH, SAWYER, and CARPENTER. A WRIGHT was a person who "made" something, so there artisans named CARTWRIGHT and WHEELWRIGHT. These last were the ones who made wheels, most often as spinning wheels, which were a necessity in the days of long ago. It seems unlikley that they were called WHEELERs for that reason, and in support of this view, there is an excerpt, not verbatim, from an important, and thorough, study of the Wheelers of America (#1* see the full reference at the end):
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