WALLER, Richard

Hailing originally from Lamberhurst in Sussex, the Wallers had moved east across the Kentish border in the fourteenth century, when Thomas Waller purchased the manor of Groombridge from William Clinton. It was, however, Richard Waller’s synonymous father whose service to the house of Lancaster brought the family to prominence. The elder Richard distinguished himself at the battle of Agincourt and was believed to have been responsible for the capture of the duke of Orléans, a feat commemorated in the family’s armorial achievement by the suspension of a shield of the duke’s arms from its canting helm crest of a walnut tree, and by the motto ‘Hic fructus virtutis’.4 Oxf. DNB, ‘Waller, Richard’. After Henry V’s death, he entered the service first of the dead King’s brother, John, duke of Bedford (distinguishing himself further at the battle of Verneuil in 1424), and subsequently of the King’s uncle, Cardinal Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester. In 1434 Beaufort rewarded his ‘good and laudable services’ with an annual pension of £20, and Waller subsequently rose to become steward of the bishop’s estates and master of his household. His importance among the cardinal’s men was further emphasized by his appointment as one of his master’s executors.5 Reg. Common Seal (Hants Rec. Soc. ii), nos. 233, 293, 301, p. 228; Hants RO, Bp. of Winchester’s pipe rolls, 11M59/B1/182, 184 (formerly 159437, 159438); R.A. Griffiths, Hen. VI, 99. He continued in office as steward under Beaufort’s successor, William Waynflete, into the 1460s.6 Hants RO, bp. of Winchester’s pipe rolls, 11M59/B1/187, 193, 195 (formerly 155828, 155830, 159441); Reg. Waynflete 1 (21 M65/A1/13), f. 1**. At the same time, however, Waller continued to play a part (albeit increasingly an administrative one) in the conduct of the war in France. In 1443 he served alongside Sir John Fastolf as treasurer of the duke of Somerset’s expedition to Guyenne, and in subsequent years he undertook a string of tasks in the King’s financial administration.7 Griffiths, 396, 432; E13/148, rot. 38d; C67/41, m. 26. By the end of the 1440s he was in receipt of livery as one of the esquires of Henry VI’s household,8 E101/410/3; 410/6, f. 41. and following the turmoil of Jack Cade’s uprising in 1450 he was charged with the seizure of the forfeited goods of the ‘captain of Kent’ for the King,9 E159/231, recorda Mich. rots. 18d, 37; E403/779, m. 9. as well as with the administration of the affairs of the murdered treasurer James Fiennes*, Lord Saye and Sele.10 C67/44, m. 7.

Conversely, nothing is heard of the younger Richard Waller prior to his return for Bishop Waynflete’s borough of Hindon in February 1453, the circumstances of which are obscure. The insertion of his name into the election indenture over an erasure may indicate a late alteration of the return,11 C219/16/2. and perhaps even that his election was controversial. It is likely, however, that his father’s position as steward of the estates of the bishopric, wielding authority at Hindon as elsewhere on the bishop’s domains, was an important factor in his selection, and that the bishop himself would have approved. Unlike Waynflete, however, the younger Waller seems to have been prepared to make a quick accommodation with the Yorkist rulers after Henry VI lost his throne, and to enter Edward IV’s service. Certainly it was he (styled ‘junior’) who in May 1461 was included in the commission of array for the county of Kent. Richard’s father died intestate, probably in the course of that summer, and in late August Archbishop Bourgchier committed the administration of his goods to him and his brother John.12 Reg. Bourgchier (Canterbury and York Soc. liv), 198. In February 1462, Richard, now in possession of his family estates, was appointed the King’s receiver and approver of his lands in the southern counties of Hampshire, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, and the town of Southampton, as well as more specifically of the Kentish lordships of Milton and Marden.13 E364/102, rot. P; C66/495, m. 19; C67/44, m. 7.

As a result of the latter appointment, by the summer of 1466 Waller found himself in dispute with (Sir) John Lisle II* and Isabel, his wife, over an annuity of 40 marks from Milton granted to Isabel by Edward IV,14 E13/152, rots. 26, 37d. and he was probably the ‘gentleman of London’ entrusted in 1467 with the goods and chattels of Edmund Hosy of St. John’s Street.15 CCR, 1468-76, no. 168. His attitude towards Henry VI’s brief restoration in 1470-1 can have been at best ambivalent, but he took the precaution of procuring a copy of the general pardon offered by the regime in January 1471.16 C67/44, m. 7. Waller’s subsequent fate is uncertain, although he may have met his death at one of the decisive engagements fought that year at Barnet and Tewkesbury, most likely fighting on the side of the newly-returned Edward IV, for he had died intestate at some point prior to 1 Dec., when the administrator of his goods procured a royal pardon.17 HP Biogs. 916. Waller left no offspring, so the family estates now passed to his younger brother, John (d.1517), who was later called upon to answer for their father’s unsettled affairs.18 KB27/942, rex rot. 2d. Richard was to be the first in a long line of distinguished parliamentarians, which included apart from John (who followed his brother as Member for Hindon in 1478), the latter’s descendants Sir Walter† and Sir Thomas Waller†, the parliamentary general Sir William Waller† (d.1668) and his son Sir William† (d.1699), the notorious priest-catcher.19 The Commons 1660-90, iii. 657-9. Through marriage to Sir John Guildford, the MP’s sister Alice became the mother of Hen. VII’s trusted servant, Sir Richard Guildford†, whose gt.-gds. Guildford Dudley was the ill-fated husband of the nine-days’ queen, Jane Grey: HP Biogs. 402-3, 916; The Commons 1509-58, ii. 65-66.