Family and Education

b. c.1563, 1st s. of Edmund Walter, c.j. of south eastern circuit of great sessions of Wales 1581-94, of Balterley, Staffs. by his 1st w. Mary, da. of Thomas Hakluyt of Eyton, Herefs. educ. Brasenose, Oxf. Mar. 1579, aged 15; I. Temple 1581, called c.1586. unm. suc. fa. 1594.

Offices Held

Biography

Walter probably came in for New Radnor Boroughs through his father, in whose circuit Radnorshire lay. James’s younger brother John kept up the legal tradition of the family, becoming chief baron of the Exchequer. Walter himself was a country gentleman, probably the James Walter who in 1595 leased property at Knocklas and elsewhere in Radnorshire, formerly belonging to the Earl of March. He died on 24 June 1625, and was buried in Ludlow church, as he had asked in his will, drawn up in February the same year: he requested his brother John to see that a monument was erected there to their parents. Among the bequests was an annual sum of £20 from Walter’s lands at Richard’s Castle, Shropshire, of which £10 was to be distributed among the inmates of Hosyer’s almshouse, and the rest divided between the rector and preacher of Ludlow.

W. R. Williams, Welsh Judges, 128-9; Harl. 1557, f. 29; Augmentations, ed. Lewis and Davies (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. iv) 517—the name has been transcribed as Walker; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 4), iii, 263-8.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: J.C.H.

Notes