WALTER
,
HENRY
(
1611
-
1678
),
Puritan preacher, Independent
;
of the house of
Piercefield
,
S. Arvans, Mon.
He matriculated from
Jesus College
,
Oxford
, in
1633
, 22 years old, and graduated
B.C.L.
His father was a
squire
, and the family were pronounced
Anglicans
; when his mother made her last will in
1623
, the tithes of
Howick
, after the death of his brother, were to go to
Henry
. But he came very soon under the influence of the personality and ideas of
William
Wroth
of
Llanfaches
(q.v.)
; indeed, he was
Wroth
's prime favourite, and his name appears in
Wroth
's will (
Sept. 1638
) as
chief executor
; for all that, early in
1639
, through the help of his brother
John
as
patron
, he was made
curate
of
Mounton
, a small parish near his home.
Curate
or not,
Puritan
he was, and in
1646
he was named by
Parliament
, with two others, to
go on an evangelical crusade in South Wales
, and to
preach
in
Welsh
; and when the
Rump
, at the beginning of
1650
, resolved to put the
Propagation Act
into force and named twenty-five prominent
Puritans
as
‘approvers’ of preachers
,
Walter
was one of them, and stood at the head of the list. There is plenty of evidence from the account-books that he was exceptionally busy in those days as the outstanding exponent of the
Llanfaches
tradition,
preaching
himself in
Glamorganshire
and
Monmouthshire
, and
sending approved missionaries up the valleys
to the hilly hinterland. As that Act was not renewed in
1653
,
Walter
became settled
minister
at
Newport
, acting as
Puritan vicar
of
S. Woollos
; the
Lambeth
manuscripts give full details about the component sources of his salary of £100 p.a. A
Dissenter
of his standing could not expect much peace at the
Restoration
; in fact, a troop of unruly soldiers is said to have attacked him at
Llantarnam
in
July, 1660
. That story suggests that
Llantarnam
was his home; the spies of
1669
, who report him as
giving harbour to Nonconformist hearers
, roundly say he lived at
Parc y Pil
, only they made the mistake of placing it in
Caerleon
and not in
Llantarnam
; when his licence under the Declaration of
1672
arrived, that stated quite definitely that his house was at
Llantarnam
(that being so, he was almost certainly a tenant of a
Roman Catholic
, one of the
Morgans
(qq.v.) of
Llantarnam
, and near neighbour also to
Percy
Enderbie
(q.v.)
,
author
of
Cambria Triumphans
, who was married to one of the
Morgans
). In
1675
Maurice
looks upon him as the
pioneer and guardian of the numerous Puritans
of
Mynydd Islwyn
, and the report of
Maurice
, together with the figures of the census of
1676
, agree to show that
Walter
was not only the main inheritor of the
Llanfaches
tradition but also the
chief succourer of about 200 Nonconformists who worshipped in secret
on the flat lands between
Marshfield
on the one side of
Newport
and
Redwick
on the other. The words of
Maurice
in
1675
are about the last we have of him; it is not known for certain whether he was counted in
1676
with the thirty-eight sectaries of
Mynydd Islwyn
or was one of three
obstinate Dissenters
reported by the
parson
of
Llantarnam
. However, the date of his last will is
13 Jan. 1674-5
; he was dead in the
summer of 1678
, for his goods and furniture were inventoried on
8 Aug.
, and his will proved at
Llandaff
on
4 Feb. 1678-9
. In that will were several provisions for the more needy members of the ‘gathered church’ of
Mynydd Islwyn
.
Bibliography:
-
Bradney
,
A History of Monmouthshire
, III, ii, 228-9; IV. i, 37, 49, ii, 173;
-
The Journals of the House of
Commons
, iv, 242, 622, 707;
-
The Journals of the House of Lords
, viii, 463, 568-9;
-
Lambeth Manuscripts
639 (186b), 968 (3), 972 (119), 992 (23), 992 (173);
-
Bodl. J. Walker
c. 13 (17, 45b, 52);
-
The Lord's Loud Call to England; being a
true relation of some late various and wonderful Judgments,
or handyworks of God, … in several places. … Also of the
strange changes and late alterations made in these three
nations. As also of the odious sin of drinking healths,
with a brief of Mr Pryns solid arguments against it
,
London, 1660
, 26 (
The Thomason Tract in the British
Museum
);
-
Calamy
,
An account of the ministers…ejected
,
1660–2
, ii, 473;
-
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic
Series
, Record Publication
,
Charles II, E.B.
, 38A (166, 169);
-
Religious
Developments in WalesSalt MS. 2112 in the William Salt Library,
Stafford. For a short account of the contents and its interest
to Wales, see Thomas Richards , pp. 521-2
(Stafford), 418-20;
-
The Transactions of the Honourable Society
of Cymmrodorion
,
1941
, 163, 166, 175;
-
Cardiff Naturalists' Society. Report and
Transactions
, 1867–1937
, XXV, ii, 6-7;
-
Reference is made to two editions, by E. B.
Underhill, 1847, and Nathaniel Haycroft, 1865. Reference is
also made to Addenda B (pp. 511–9 in 1847 ed)
, Add. B. 516;
-
will copied at N.L.W. by
E. D. Jones
.
Author:
Thomas Richards, D.Litt., (1878-1962), Bangor
