cons. 2 Dec. 1660 bp. of CHESTER
First sat 20 Nov. 1661; last sat 22 Nov. 1661
b. 1600, parents unknown. educ. Magdalene, Camb. matric. 1616; Peterhouse, Camb. BA 1620, ord. 1623, MA, 1623; DD, 1639; incorp. Oxf. 1645. m. (1) Anne Claxton (d.1640), of Suff.; (2) bef. 1657, Jane, da. of William Fuller, dean of Ely, 1s. d. 29 Nov. 1661; will 2 Aug. 1658, pr. 17 Dec. 1661.1
Chap. to duke of York until 1646;2 chap. ord. to Charles I, 1660.
Rect. St Martin Orgars, London 1628-43, Sandon, Essex 1636-40, St Giles-in-the-Fields, Mdx. 1636; preb. St Paul’s, London Aug.-Dec. 1660; commr. Savoy conference 1661.3
Also associated with: Seamer, N. Riding, Yorks.; and Aldersgate St., London.
Likenesses: line engraving by P. Lombart, NPG D28806; oil on canvas, Peterhouse, Camb.
A parish minister in London and Essex before the civil wars, Walton’s support for the policies of William Laud†, archbishop of Canterbury, opposition to Puritanism and determination to collect his tithes led to a protracted feud with a significant sector of his parishioners and accusations of ‘popish innovations’. He was summoned before the Commons as a delinquent, compounded and fined.4 He subsequently attended both Charles I and James Stuart, duke of York until the royalist surrender of Oxford. Retreating into academic life he embarked on the project for which he is generally remembered, the publication of the Polyglot Bible.5
Walton’s name had been included on the ecclesiastical planning lists drawn up before the Restoration.6 The Chester chapter was instructed to elect him as their bishop on 5 Oct. 1660.7 Walton embarked on his episcopate with energy, assessing the damage to church property and petitioning the king for a warrant to start building repairs. He also began acquiring additional advowsons since the bishopric was valued at less than its outgoings.8 He was impatient to re-establish discipline, and although the ecclesiastical courts were not formally reconstituted until July 1661, those in Chester exercised their ‘corrective powers’ from the previous April.9
Walton remained in London for the early part of 1661. He was one of 12 Church representatives nominated to attend the Savoy Conference but was there only ‘once or twice’. His lengthy journey from London to Chester began on 3 Sept. and soon turned into a powerful and theatrical affirmation of the role of the newly restored episcopate. On 7 Sept. when he reached the outskirts of Lichfield he was joined by ‘some persons of very good worth’ who had travelled from Chester to greet him; as he drew nearer to Chester, the entourage swelled to include the majority of the county gentry, together with the county and city militias and five troops of horse. ‘Thousands’ cheered as Walton was conducted to his palace and was saluted with ‘several volleys of shot’.10
Walton returned to London and took his seat in the Lords at the readmission of the bishops on 20 Nov. 1661. He attended for just three days before succumbing to his final illness. His will, composed in August 1658, contained a strident condemnation of ‘all schismatics, heretics and sacrilegious persons’ with whom ‘no fellowship in worship or discipline’ was possible. He left generous bequests to members of his extended family, his servants and the poor as well as £100 to be divided between 20 clergymen who had ‘suffered … for their loyalty and constancy in the truth’. The residue of his estate went to his son, also named Brian Walton. He was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral after a lavish funeral procession in which his body was accompanied by John Egerton, 2nd earl of Bridgwater, Charles Stanley, 8th earl of Derby, many of the nobility and the ‘greater part’ of the bishops.
B.A.- 1 TNA, PROB 11/306.
- 2 CCC, 1544.
- 3 Bodl. Tanner 282, f. 35.
- 4 The Articles and Charge Proved in Parliament against Doctor Walton, (1641), 1-4; B. Walton, ‘A Treatise Concerning the Payment of Tithes in London’, in S. Brewster, Collectanea Ecclesiastica (1752); Tanner 142, f. 22; CJ, ii. 394, 396, 872; CCC, 1544; Walker Revised, 61.
- 5 Add. 32093, f. 333.
- 6 Eg. 2542, f. 267.
- 7 CSP Dom. Addenda, 1660-85, p. 15.
- 8 CSP Dom. 1661-2, pp. 49, 69.
- 9 R. Hutton, Restoration, 173.
- 10 Tanner 282, f. 35; Kennet, Register and Chronicle, 508, 537.