Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/137

 and he was one of the commissioners appointed on 31 July 1458 to make public inquiry into Warwick's unjustifiable attack on a fleet of Lubeck merchantmen [see ]. He seems, however, to have made his peace with the Yorkists after Edward IV's accession, and on 26 Feb. 1460–1 was made receiver of the king's castles, lands, and manors in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire (Cal. Patent Rolls, Edw. IV, i. 111), while his eldest son Richard (d. 21 Aug. 1474), who had represented Hindon in the parliament of 1453, was on 10 May 1461 made commissioner of array for Kent (ib. i. 566). Waller apparently died soon afterwards.

By his wife Silvia, whose maiden name was Gulby, Waller had issue two sons—Richard and John—and a daughter Alice, who married Sir John Guildford. The second son, John (d. 1517), was father of John (his second son), who was the ancestor of Edmund Waller the poet; and he was also grandfather of Sir Walter Waller, whose eldest son, George, married Mary Hardress, and was father of Sir Hardress Waller [q. v.]; Sir Walter's second son, Sir Thomas, was father of Sir William Waller [q. v.]

[Authorities cited; Philpot's Villare Cantianum; Berry's County Genealogies ‘Kent,’ p. 296, ‘Sussex’ pp. 109, 358; Hasted's Kent, i. 430–1; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vi. 231; Burke's Landed Gentry, 1898, ii. 1532; H. A. Waller's Family Records, 1898 (of little value).] 

WALLER, WILLIAM (1597?–1668), parliamentary general, son of Sir Thomas Waller, lieutenant of Dover, by Margaret, daughter of Henry Lennard, lord Dacre (, History of Kent, i. 430;, Kentish Genealogies, p. 296), was born about 1597. Sir Hardress Waller [q. v.] was his first cousin. William matriculated from Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 2 Dec. 1612, aged 15 (, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714;, Athenæ, iii. 812). On leaving the university he became a soldier, entered the Venetian service, fought in the Bohemian wars against the emperor, and took part in the English expedition for the defence of the Palatinate (, Recollections, p. 108;, i. 153). On 20 June 1622 he was knighted, and on 21 Nov. 1632 he was admitted to Gray's Inn (, Book of Knights, p. 180;, Gray's Inn Register, p. 197).

Shortly after his return to England Waller married Jane, daughter of Sir Richard Reynell of Ford House, Woolborough, Devonshire, a lady who was to inherit a good fortune in the west. A quarrel with a gentleman of the same family who happened to be one of the king's servants, in the course of which Waller struck his antagonist, led to a prosecution, which he was forced to compound by a heavy payment. This produced in him ‘so eager a spirit against the court that he was very open to any temptation that might engage him against it’ (, Rebellion, ed. Macray, vii. 100). As he was also a zealous puritan, Waller naturally joined the opposition, and was elected to the Long parliament in 1640 as member for Andover. At the outbreak of the civil war he became colonel of a regiment of horse in the parliamentary army, and commanded the forces detached by Essex to besiege Portsmouth. It surrendered to him in September 1642 (ib. v. 442, vi. 32; Hist. MSS. Comm. 10th Rep. vi. 148; Report on the Duke of Portland's MSS. i. 50, 61). At the close of the year Waller began the series of successes which earned him the popular title of ‘William the Conqueror.’ In December he captured Farnham Castle, Winchester, Arundel Castle, and Chichester (, Jehovah Jireh, pp. 223, 228, 231, 235). Parliament thereupon made him sergeant-major-general of the counties of Gloucester, Wilts, Somerset, Salop, and the city of Bristol, with a commission from the Earl of Essex (Lords' Journals, v. 602, 606, 617). Five regiments of horse and as many of foot were to be raised to serve under him. In March 1643 Waller left his headquarters at Bristol, took Malmesbury by assault on 21 March, and on 24 March surprised the Welsh army which was besieging Gloucester, capturing about sixteen hundred men. He then carried the war into Wales, forcing the royalists to evacuate Chepstow, Monmouth, and other garrisons, and evading by skilful marches the attempt of Prince Maurice to intercept his return to Gloucester. Immediately afterwards (25 April 1643) he also captured Hereford (contemporary narratives of these victories are reprinted in Memoirs, ed. 1894, i. 444;, Civil War in Wales, ii. 63–71; Bibliotheca Gloucestrensis, pp. 28, 193).

In June 1643 Waller was summoned to the south-west to resist the advance of Sir Ralph Hopton and the Cornish army, and gained an indecisive battle on 5 July at Lansdown, near Bath. Hopton and his forces made for Oxford, closely pursued by Waller, who cooped them up in Devizes. One attempt to relieve them was repulsed, and it seemed probable that they would be forced to capitulate; but General Wilmot and a body of horse from Oxford defeated