Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/253

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Walter
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Walter

sophy, and retained the post until 1830, when he entered on the spiritual duties of the rectory of Haselbury Bryant in Dorset, to which he had been instituted on 7 May 1821 on the presentation of the Duke of Northumberland, who had been one of his pupils at Cambridge. He died at Haselbury Bryant on 25 Jan. 1859, and was buried in the churchyard of the parish. In 1824 he was married to Emily Anne, daughter of William Baker of Bayfordbury, Hertfordshire.

For the Parker Society he edited three volumes of William Tyndale's writings, viz. 'Doctrinal Treatises, and Introductions to different portions of the Holy Scriptures,' 1848; 'Expositions and Notes on sundry portions of the Holy Scriptures,' 1849; and 'An Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue,' 1850. He likewise brought out an edition of 'The Primer . . . set forth by the order of King Edward VI,' London, 1825, 12mo.

Among his own writings are: 1. 'Lectures on the Evidences in favour of Christianity and the Doctrines of the Church of England,' London, 1816, 12mo. 2. 'A Letter [and a second Letter] to the Right Rev. Herbert [Marsh], Lord Bishop of Peterborough, on the Independence of the authorised Version of the Bible,' London, 1823-1828, 8vo. 3. 'The Connexion of Scripture History made plain for the Young by an Abridgment of it,' London, 1840, 12mo. 4. 'A History of England, in which it is intended to consider Man and Events on Christian Principles,' London, 1840, 7 vols. 12mo. 5. 'On the Antagonism of various Popish Doctrines and Usages to the Honour of God and to His Holy Word,' London, 1853, 16mo.

[Hutchins's Hist, of Dorset, 1861, i. 278, 280; Gent. Mag. 1859, i. 326; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 2826, Suppl. p. 57; Bodleian Cat.; Graduati Cantabr.]

T. C.

WALTER, HUBERT (d. 1205), archbishop of Canterbury. [See Hubert.]


WALTER or FITZWALTER, JOHN (d. 1412?), astrologer, was educated at Winchester and Oxford. He died at Winchester, and was buried there about 1412 (Wood, Hist. et Ant. Ovon. ii. 133). He wrote 'Canones in tabulas sequationis domorum,' of which there are copies in the Digby and other Bodleian manuscripts. The 'Tabulse ascencionis signorum' in the Cambridge University Library MS. EE. iii. 61, ascribed to John Walter, is stated by Louis Carlyon to be certainly not his.

[Bale, De Scriptt. vii. 58; Pits, p. 594; Tanner's Bibl. p. 753.]

M. B.

WALTER, Sir JOHN (1566–1630), judge, second son of Edmund Walter of Ludlow, Shropshire, by Mary, daughter of Thomas Hackluit of Eyton, Herefordshire, was born at Ludlow in 1566. His father was then a counsel of some standing, having about 1560 been called to the bar at the Inner Temple, where he was elected bencher in July 1568, was autumn reader in 1572, and treasurer from 1581 to 1583. He was afterwards justice of South Wales, and member from 1586 of the council in the Welsh marches. He died at Ludlow in 1592, and was buried in Ludlow church.

John Walter matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, on 28 March 1579, and was created M.A. on 1 July 1613. He was admitted in November 1582 at the Inner Temple, where he was called to the bar on 22 Nov. 1590, elected bencher in 1605; as autumn reader in 1607 he increased a reputation for learning which already stood so high that more than a year before he had been selected, with Serjeant (afterwards Baron) Altham, to assist the deliberations of the privy council in conference with the barons of the exchequer on the privileges of the court, and to defend the royal prerogative of alnage in the House of Lords (Pell Records, ed. Devon, pp. 32, 64; Whitelocke, Liber Famel. Camden Soc. p. 30). Having established a large practice in the exchequer and the chancery court, he was appointed, towards the close of Easter term 1613, attorney-general to the Prince of Wales, of whose revenues he was also made trustee. In 1618 he was selected to contest the recordership of London against the crown nominee, Robert (afterwards Sir Robert) Heath [q. v.], and was defeated by only two votes. He was knighted at Greenwich on 18 May 1619, and was returned to parliament on 13 Dec. 1620 for East Looe, Cornwall, which seat he retained at the subsequent general election. Though naturally humane, he was so far carried away by the flood of fanaticism let loose by the impeachment (1 May 1621) of Edward Floyd [q. v.] as to propose whipping and sequestration as the meet reward of the incautious barrister's slip of the tongue. On 10 May 1625 he 'succeeded Sir Lawrence Tanfield [q. v.] as chief baron of the exchequer, having been first made king's serjeant (4 May). As assistant to the House of Lords he had a hand in shaping the somewhat puritanical measure (1 Car. I, c. i.) which ushered in the reign of Charles I by a prohibition of bull-baitings, bear-baitings, interludes, plays, and extra-parochial meetings for sport on Sundays. In fiscal matters Walter took a high