Exhibition: The History of Walton Hall

Parishioners of Walton during the Eighteenth Century

Rev. William Waller and his family

Gratiana Waller (1712-1738) was buried at Walton on 17 September 1738 at the age of 25. In the 1909 Buckinghamshire Monumental Inscriptions her grave was described as 'a massive stone placed flat on a slightly elevated base'. It is situated on the east side of the church beneath the chancel window. Gratiana was the daughter of Reverend William Waller and his wife Elizabeth. The inscription on the grave reads: "Here lieth the body of Miss Gratiana Waller the daughter of Mr Wm Waller, Rector of Walton and Elizabeth his wife, who died Sept. 24, 1738. Aged 25." There is also a verse in smaller text which cannot be read. 

 

William Waller (1671-1750) was Rector of Walton from 1711 until his death on 18 February 1750. He was born in Newport Pagnell in 1671, the son of Dr John Waller M.D. (a surgeon) and his wife Mary, and was baptised at Newport Pagnell on 24 September of that year. According to research recorded by descendants on the genealogy website WikiTree, William married Elizabeth Savile, daughter of Reverend William Savile. The couple had three children all baptised at Newport Pagnell – John (1710), Gratiana (1712) and William (1714). Elizabeth died in 1726 and was buried at Newport Pagnell.

 

Rev. William Waller attended Wadham College, Oxford from where he matriculated in 1688 and achieved a BA in 1691. He then achieved an MA from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1697. He became Rector of Gressenhall in Norfolk in 1700 and then the neighbouring parish of Brisley in 1704. He returned to Buckinghamshire and was made Rector of Walton in 1711. He was presented at Walton on 23 June 1711 by his father John Waller. He remained at Walton for almost forty years and died on 18 February 1750 aged 80. He was buried at Walton on 25 February 1750 'in the churchyard, under the east window of the chancel' according to ‘The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckinghamshire Vol IV’. Therefore it seems likely that William was interred in the same grave as his daughter Gratiana.

 

William left a will and probate was granted to his son William the following year:

“Memorandum: That the Revd. William Waller of Walton in Bucks Clerk (in the Will and probate the same) Dyed possessed of Two Hundred & Fifty Pounds Annuities at £3.10 percent Anno 1748 and by his last Will and Testament dated 26 October 1747 constituted and appointed his son William Waller sole Executor in which having made no mention of these annuities therefore the said £250 is at his disposal. 

Probate dated at Doctors Commons 28^th March 1751. Registered 3 May 1751. E Bangham.”

 

Rev. William Waller had at least nine siblings, one of whom, John Waller (1673-1754) migrated to Virginia as a young man in the early 1690s. He was very active in the affairs of the Virginia Colony in Spotsylvania and held various posts including justice of the peace, the first sheriff of King William County in 1701 and later of Spotsylvania County in 1722, a Colonel in the militia, a politician of the House of Burgesses and a vestryman.

 

John Waller was a slave owner. He established two tobacco plantations including one he named ‘Newport’ after his home town in Buckinghamshire - Newport Pagnell. According to Alex Hayley’s book ‘Roots’ it was the Waller family of Spotsylvania who bought his famous ancestor Kunta Kinte after his capture and transportation from his home in Gambia, West Africa in about 1767. Although many of Hayley’s genealogical claims have been disproved since the book’s publication in 1976, there is no doubt that several generations of the Wallers of Spotsylvania owned slaves during the eighteenth century.