Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/303

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WALLOP, SIR H.—WALMER
287

WALLOP, SIR HENRY (c. 1540-1599), English statesman, was the eldest son of Sir Oliver Wallop (d. 1566), of Farleigh Wallop, Hampshire. Having inherited the estates of his father and of his uncle, Sir John Wallop (q.v.), he was knighted in 1569 and was chosen member of parliament for Southampton in 1572. His connexion with Ireland, where the quarter part of his public life was passed, began in 1579, when he was appointed vice treasurer of that country; this position was a very thankless and difficult one, and Wallop appears to have undertaken it very unwillingly. However, he reached Dublin and was soon immersed in the troubles caused by the rebellion of Gerald Fitzgerald, earl of Desmond, finding, in his own words, it was “easier to talk at home of Irish wars than to be in them.” In July 1582 he and Adam Loftus, archbishop of Dublin, were appointed lords justices, and they were responsible for the government of Ireland for just two years, after which they were succeeded by Sir John Perrot. Sir Henry continued to fill the office of vice-treasurer, and at Enniscorthy, where he had secured a lease of lands, he set up a colony of Englishmen and opened up a trade with Madeira. As a member of the Irish council he quarrelled with Perrot, and then from 1589 to 1595 he was in England, entertaining the queen at Farleigh Wallop in 1591. Having returned to Ireland he was sent to Dundalk to attempt to make peace with Hugh O'Neill, earl of Tyrone, but this proved a vain errand. At length, after many entreaties, he was allowed to resign the treasurership, but before he could arrange to leave Ireland he died on the 14th of April 1599.

Wallop's eldest son, Sir Henry Wallop (1568-1642), who acted as his father's deputy in Ireland, left an only son, Robert Wallop (1601-1667). A member of parliament for nearly forty years, and a supporter of the parliamentary party, Robert was one of the judges of Charles I., although he did not sign the death warrant. He was active under the Commonwealth, being a member of nearly all the councils of state. At the restoration he was deprived of his estates and was imprisoned, and he died in the Tower of London on the 19th of November 1667. Robert's son Henry (d. 1673) was the grandfather of John Wallop, 1st earl of Portsmouth.

WALLOP, SIR JOHN (c. 1490-1551), English soldier and diplomatist, belonged to an old Hampshire family. Adopting the profession of arms, he commanded ships which took part in the war between England and France in 1513 and 1514; later he served the king of Portugal against the Moors, and then he fought for his own sovereign in Ireland and in France. In 1526 Wallop began his diplomatic career, being sent on an errand to Germany by Henry VIII., and from 1532 to 1541 he passed much of his time in Paris and elsewhere in France as the representative of the English king. He filled several other public positions, including that of lieutenant of Calais, before January 1541, when he was suddenly arrested on a charge of treason; his offence, however, was not serious and in the same year he was made captain of Guines. In 1543 he led a small force to help the emperor Charles V. in his invasion of France, and he remained at his post at Guines until his death there on the 13th of July 1551.

WALLQVIST, OLAF (1755-1800), Swedish statesman and ecclesiastic, was ordained in 1776, became doctor of philosophy in 1779, court preacher to Queen Louisa Ulrica in 1780, and bishop of Vexio in 1787. He attracted the attention of Gustavus III. by his eloquent preaching at the fashionable St Clara church at Stockholm. Gustavus at once took the young priest by the hand, appointed him, at twenty-five, one of his chaplains; made him a canon before he was thirty and a bishop at thirty-two, and finally placed him at the head of the newly appointed commission for reforming the ecclesiastical administration of the country. Thus at thirty-four Wallqvist had nothing more to hope for but the primacy, which would infallibly have been his also had the archbishop died during the king's lifetime. Wallqvist was, however, much more of a politician than a churchman. His knowledge of human nature, inexhaustible energy, dauntless self-confidence and diplomatic finesse made him indispensable to Gustavus III. His seductive manners too often won over those whom his commanding eloquence failed to convince. His political career began during the mutinous riksdag of 1786, when he came boldly forward as one of the royalist leaders. But it was at the stormy riksdag of 1789 that Wallqvist put forth all his powers. The retirement of the timid primate left him without an equal in the Estate of Clergy, and it was very largely due to his co-operation that the king was able to carry through the famous “Act of Unity and Security” which converted Sweden from a constitutional into a semi-absolute monarchy. Nevertheless, even the combative Wallqvist was appalled when on the 16th of February 1789 the king privately informed him that he meant on the following day soundly to trounce the Estate of Nobles in the presence of the three other estates and bend them to his royal will. A friend of compromise, like most of the men of his cloth, Wallqvist dissuaded all revolutionary expedients at the outset, though when the king proved immovable the bishop materially smoothed the way before him. At this memorable riksdag Wallqvist exhibited, moreover, financial ability of the highest order, and, as president of the ecclesiastical commission, assisted to equilibrate the budget and find the funds necessary for resuming the war with Russia. During the brief riksdag of 1792, as a member of the secret committee, Wallqvist was at the very centre of affairs and rendered the king essential services. Indeed it may be safely said that Gustavus III., during the last six years of his reign, mainly depended upon Wallqvist and his clerical colleague, Carl Gustaf Nordin (q.v.), who were patriotic enough to subordinate even their private enmity to the royal service. During the Reuterholm (q.v.) administration, Wallqvist, like the rest of the Gustavians, was kept remote from court. In 1800 he was recalled to the political arena. But his old rivalry with Nordin was resumed at the same time, and when the latter defeated a motion of the bishop's in the Estate of Clergy, at the diet of Norrköping, Wallqvist from sheer vexation had a stroke of apoplexy and died the same day (30th of April 1800).

As bishop of Vexio, Wallqvist was remarkable for his extraordinary administrative ability. He did much for education and for the poorer clergy, and endowed the library of the gymnasium with 6000 volumes. As an author also he was more than distinguished. His Ecclesiastica Samlingar testify to his skill and diligence as a collector of MSS., while his Minnen och Bref, ed. E. V. Montan (Stockholm, 1878), is one of the most trustworthy and circumstantial documents relating to the Gustavian era of Swedish history.

See R. N. Bain, Gustavus III. and his Contemporaries (London, 1895, vol. ii.); O. Wallqvists Sjalfiografiska anteckningar (Upsala, 1850); and J. Rosengren, Om O. Wallqvist såsom Biskop och Eforus (Vexio, 1901).(R. N. B.)

WALLSEND, a municipal borough in the Tyneside parliamentary division of Northumberland, England, on the north bank of the Tyne, 3¾ m. E.N.E. of Newcastle by a branch of the North-Eastern railway. Pop. (1891) 11,257; (1901) 20,918. The church of St Peter dates from 1809. There are remains of the church of the Holy Cross in transitional Norman style. At an early period Wallsend was famous for its coal, but the name has now a general application to coal that does not go through a sieve with meshes five eighths of an inch in size. The colliery, which was opened in 1807, has frequently been the scene of dreadful accidents, notably on the 23rd of October 1821, when 52 lives were lost. There are ship and boat building yards, engineering works, lead and copper smelting works, cement works and brick and tile works. In the river are two pontoon docks and an immense dry dock. Wallsend was incorporated in 1901, and the corporation consists of a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 1202 acres.

Wallsend derives its modern name from its position at the eastern extremity of the Roman Hadrian's Wall; and there was a Roman fort here. It had a quay, of which remains have been discovered, and possessed a magazine of corn and other provisions for the supply of the stations in the interior.

WALMER, a watering-place, and member of the Cinque Port of Sandwich, in the St Augustine's parliamentary division of