Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/78

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in 1887. In June 1883 he was made an honorary LL.D. of Cambridge University. In 1895 he took charge of the geodetic work of the international geographical congress at the Imperial Institute in London. In May of that year he contributed a valuable paper to the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ of the Royal Society (vol. clxxxvi.) entitled ‘India's Contribution to Geodesy.’ Walker contributed to the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’ (9th edit.) articles on the Oxus, Persia, Pontoons, and Surveying. He also contributed to the ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ the ‘Transactions of the Royal Society,’ and the Royal Geographical Society's ‘Journal.’

Walker died at his residence, 13 Cromwell Road, London, on 16 Feb. 1896, and was buried in Brompton cemetery. He married in India, on 27 April 1854, Alicia, daughter of General Sir John Scott, K.C.B., by Alicia, granddaughter of Dr. William Markham [q. v.], archbishop of York. His wife survived him and four children of the marriage—a son Herbert, lieutenant in the royal engineers, and three daughters.

[India Office Records; Royal Engineers' Records; Despatches; obituary notices in the London Times, Standard, and other daily newspapers, February 1896, in L'Étoile Belge, in Nature, March 1896, in Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. lix., in the Geographical Journal, vol. vii., in the Scottish Geographical Magazine, vol. xiii., and in the Royal Engineers' Journal vol. xxvi.; Vibart's Addiscombe, its Heroes and Men of Note; Porter's History of the Corps of Royal Engineers; Kaye's Hist. of the Sepoy War; private sources.]

R. H. V.

WALKER, JOHN, D.D. (d. 1588), archdeacon of Essex, graduated from Cambridge, B.A. in 1547, B.D. in 1563, and D.D. in 1569. He was presented to the small living of Alderton, Suffolk, and at some time was a noted preacher at Ipswich. In February 1563 he attended convocation as proctor for the clergy of Suffolk. In this capacity he voted in favour of the six articles for reforming rites and ceremonies, and signed the petition of the lower house for improved discipline. In 1564 he was licensed to be parish chaplain in St. Peter's, Norwich. Here his gift of preaching was so much admired that Matthew Parker, finding in 1568 that Walker was about to return to Alderton to avoid an information for non-residence, suggested that one of the prebendaries named Smythe, 'a mere lay body,' should resign in Walker's favour, who else 'might go and leave the city desolate.' Parker also appealed to Lord-chancellor Bacon, as did the Duke of Norfolk, with the result that, after some delay, Walker was installed a canon of Norwich on 20 Dec. 1569. In September of the following year Walker and some other puritan prebendaries protested against the ornaments in Norwich Cathedral. He was cited, it appears, to Lambeth in 1571 in consequence of his puritanism, but was collated to the archdeaconry of Essex on 10 July 1571, to the rectory of Laindon-cum-Basildon, Essex, on 12 Nov. 1573, and on 14 Aug. 1575 was installed prebendary of Mora in St. Paul's Cathedral.

Bishop Aylmer summoned Walker in 1578 to elect sixty of the clergy to be visitors during the prevalence of the plague. In 1581 he was prominent in the conviction of Robert Wright, Lord Rich's chaplain, who because of his ordination at Antwerp was refused a license by the bishop; and on 27 Sept. of the same year he assisted William Charke at a conference in the Tower with Edmund Campion [q. v.], the Jesuit. The fourth day's dispute was chiefly in Walker's hands (cf. A Remembrance of the Conference had in the Tower betwixt M. D. Walker [sic] and M. William Charke, Opponents, and Edmund Campion, 1583, 4to). Bishop Aylmer also employed him to collect materials for a work in refutation of Campion's 'Decem Rationes,' and in 1582 appointed him to confer with captured catholic priests. He preached at Aylmer's visitation on 21 June 1583, but resigned the archdeaconry about August 1585, and died before 12 Dec.1588, on which date the prebend in St. Paul's was declared vacant by his death.

Walker wrote a dedicatory epistle to 'Certaine Godlie Homilies or Sermons,' translated by Robert Norton from Rodolph Gualter, London, 1573, 8vo.

[Cooper's Athenae Cantabr. ii. 37; Le Neve's Fasti, ed. Hardy. ii. 336, 412, 498; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 748; Cal. State Papers Dom. 1547-80, p. 545; Blomefield's Norfolk, iii. 665, iv. 187; Parker Correspondence, pp. 312, 313, 382; Newcourt's Report. Eccles. i. 73, ii. 357; Strype's Works (General Index).]

C. F. S.

WALKER, JOHN (1674–1747), ecclesiastical historian, son of Endymion Walker, was baptised at St. Kerrian's, Exeter, 21 Jan. 1673–4. His father was mayor of Exeter in 1682. On 19 Nov. 1691 he matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, was admitted fellow on 3 July 1695, and became full fellow on 4 July 1696 (vacated 1700). On 16 Jan. 1697–8 he was ordained deacon by Sir Jonathan Trelawny [q. v.], then bishop of Exeter; he graduated B.A. on 4 July, and was instituted to the rectory of St. Mary Major, Exeter, on 22 Aug. 1698. On 13 Oct.