Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/254

 Walter view of the prerogative. Into the validity of the patent of the farmers of the revenue he declined to inquire; and to the merchants who in 1628 resisted the levy of tonnage and poundage he meted out the rigour of the law, committing their persons to gaol and discharging the replevins by which they sought to recover their goods. On the other hand, his prerogatival proclivities did not prevent his concurrence in the resolution in Pine's case (1628) that mere words in no case amount to treason, or blind him to the gravity of the issues raised by the stormy incidents which closed the parliamentary session of 1628-9. Did privilege of parliament cover conspiracy to defame privy councillors and forcibly resist the adjournment of the House of Commons? Such in substance was the case laid before the three common-law chiefs by Attorney-general Heath at the king's express instance immediately after the dissolution of 10 March 1628-9, and the three chiefs dexterously evaded the issue by involving their answer in a cloud of ambiguous verbiage. Charles declined to be put off with riddles, and submitted the case to the entire common-law bench (25 April), with much the same result so far as the formal resolutions of the judges were concerned, but not without securing a practical point of great importance—the sanction of the majority to proceedings in the Star-chamber against the nine members (30 April). Walter alone dissented, holding the offence punishable only by committal. Of Walter, accordingly, Charles determined to make an example, and suggested through Heath that it would be well for him to resign. Walter demurred ; his patent was in the form 'quamdiu se bene gesserit,' i.e. during good behaviour, and he would not surrender it without a scire facias. The king shrank from issuing the writ, but on 22 Oct. 1630 inhibited the judge from sitting in court. Walter obeyed, but retained his place until his death on 18 Nov. following. His remains were interred in the church at Woolvercott, Oxfordshire, in which parish he had his seat, and covered by a stately monument.

Though of the moderate type, Walter was sufficiently high a churchman to deem it obligatory to obtain (2 March 1625-6) an indulgence from the bishop of London before permitting himself the use of meat on fast days. He was on the whole a sound lawyer and an upright judge; and the eccentric course which he steered in the conflict between prerogative and privilege was no more than might be expected from a man of his training when suddenly called upon to adjudicate on questions which he was not really competent to determine.

Walter married twice: first, Margaret, daughter of William Offley of London; and, secondly, Anne, daughter of William Wytham of Ledstone, Yorkshire, and widow of Thomas Bigges of Lenchwick, Worcestershire. By his second wife he had no issue; his first wife bore him four sons and four daughters. A baronetcy, conferred by Charles I upon his heir, Sir William Walter of Sarsden, Oxfordshire, became extinct by the death without male issue of the fourth baronet, Sir Robert Walter, on 20 Nov. 1731.

[Wright's Ludlow.ed. 1852, p. 467; Spedding's Life of Bacon, v. 851, 388, vii. 159; Visitation of Shropshire (Harl. Soc.), p. 483 ; Documents connected with the History of Ludlow and the Lords Marchers, p. 248; Fuller's Worthies, 'Shropshire;' Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 355; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Cal. Inner Temple Records, ed. Inderwick,and Inner Temple Books; Lane's Exch. Reports, ii. 82; Sir William Jones's Reports, p. 228; Croke's Reports, ed. Leach, Car. pref. and pp. 117, 203; Walter Yonge's Diary (Camden Soc.),p.81; Sir Simonds D'Ewes's Autobiography, i. 269; Members of Parl. (Official Lists); Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. App. p. 139, llth Rep. App. ii. 123, 12th Rep. App. i. 382, ix. 126, 13th Rep. App. iv. 247; Metcalfe's Book of Knights; Cal. State Papers, Dom. Addenda, 1566-79, and Dom. 1601-30; Dugdale's Orig. Chron. Ser. pp. 106,107; Wynne's Serjeant-at-Law; Rymer's Foedera, ed. Sanderson, xviii. 309, 368; Rushworth's Hist. Coll. i. 641, 662; Nalson's Coll. of Affairs of State, ii. 374; Whitelocke's Mem. ed. 1732, pp. 13, 16; Forster's Life of Sir John Eliot; Foss's Lives of the Judges; Gardiner's Hist, of England; Smith's Obituary (Camden Soc.), p. 5; Burke's Extinct Baronetage.]

 WALTER, JOHN (1739–1812), founder of 'The Times,' born in 1739, was the son of Richard Walter, a coal merchant in the city of London. He succeeded to his father's business on the death of the latter in or about 1755. He prospered greatly for a time, and, as head of the firm of Walter, Bradley, & Sage (Macmillan's Magazine, vol. xxix.), he accumulated a considerable fortune, taking a leading part in the establishment of the coal market or coal exchange, an institution of which he records that he was 'the principal planner and manager' (The Case of Mr. John Walter, of London, Merchant, a flysheet apparently printed in 1782 or 1783, but having no date or title). For several years he was chairman of the committee of this institution, but he resigned that position in 1781, when he finally abandoned the business of a coal merchant for that of an