| Authorised form of name | Waller; Edmund (1606 - 1687); poet and politician |
| Dates | 1606 - 1687 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Stocks Place Manor House, Coleshill, Hertfordshire, England, Europe |
| Date of birth | 3 March 1606 |
| Place of death | St James's Street, Westminster, London, England, Europe |
| Date of death | 21 October 1687 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Baptism:
Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England, Europe (9 March 1606)
Burial:
Parish church of Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, Europe |
| Occupation | Politician; Poet |
| Activity | Education:
Mr Dobson's School at High Wycombe; Eton College; King's College, Cambridge (matriculated 1621); Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1622)
Career:
MP for Ilchester (1624), for Chipping Wycombe (1626), for Amersham (1628, 1640), for St Ives (1640-1643), for Hastings (1660), and for Saltash (1685); conducted the impeachment of Sir Francis Crawley (1641); opposed the raising of troops by Parliament (1642); leader in 'Waller's plot' to seize London for Charles I; imprisoned in the Tower of London (1643-1644); sold his estate to save himself from hanging; in exile in Paris (1644-1651); pardoned and returned to England (1651); Commissioner for Trade (1655-1657, 1660-1668); Commissioner for Plantations (1660-1674) Commissioner for Corporations (1662-1663); Commissioner for Assessment for Buckinghamshire (1663-1674, 1679-1680), for Middlesex (1664-1669), and for Westminster (1673-1679); Commissioner for Accounts, Ireland (1668)
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| Membership category | Original Fellow |
| Date of election | 20/05/1663 |
| RSActivity | Committee and panels:
Committee of Agriculture [Georgical Committee] |
| Other Royal Society activity | While Waller was never fully expelled from the Society, his name was placed on multiple lists to collect years' worth of arrears |
| Relationships | Parents: Robert Waller and Anne Hampden;
Married: 1) Ann Banks 2) Mary Bracey [Bressy]
Children: Edmund Waller (MP for Amersham); Margaret Waller (his amanuensis) [11 surviving ones in total]
Second cousin-by-marriage of Oliver Cromwell (whose mother was Waller's mother's sister) |
| PublishedWorks | RCN: R64979 |
| OtherInfo | His actions after the failed Waller's plots served to alienate from multiple parties as his full confession led to the execution of co-conspirators and his sentence of imprisonment and subsequent exile. An overview of Waller's placement within parliaments show him both on the side of parliamentary opposition and within the court of the King. He was tied to the latter in particular as a Commissioner of Trade and Plantations, within the Board of Trade government body, where Waller worked to further the government's colonial interest. In his post, he made £500 quarterly. The Council's orders and tasks fell within a broad remit and included finding ways in which to take and enslave people to bring to the colonies, mediating between the Royal African Company and the colonies, as well as enforcing the 'reeducation' of Native Americans and enslaved people in the colonised regions. |
| Related images | Discover a selection of related images in our picture library |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; Venn; Aubrey; Henning; ODNB
Note:
The election date is Waller's re-election date into the Society after the grant of the second charter in April 1663. All Fellows admitted in a two-month window after this charter, until 22 June 1663, are considered Original Fellows. He was previously elected on 16 January 1661.
Some sources state his place of death as Hall Barn, Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire. |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/47109686 |
| Code | NA6133 |