Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/154

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the Dish, and drank up all; not regarding the Children, who cryed, “Take a Poon, Pig, take a Poon”’ (p. 39; cf. Simple Susan). Wallis's anecdotes, often brutally coarse, are not always without foundation (see Urwick, Nonconformity in Hertfordshire, 1884, p. 538). He died in 1668–9; the burial register of St. Mary de Crypt, Gloucester, has the entry ‘Randulphus Wallis fanaticæ memoriæ sepult. Feby 9.’ In 1670 appeared a tract entitled ‘The Life and Death of Ralph Wallis, the Cobler of Gloucester, together with some inquiry into the Mystery of Conventicleism;’ it gives, however, no biographical particulars. A later tract, ‘The Cobler of Gloucester Revived’ (1704), 4to, contains nothing about Wallis.

[Wallis's pamphlets above noted; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1664, 1665, and 1668; Gloucestershire Notes and Queries, 1887, iii. 433; Extracts from Gloucester Corporation records and parish register, per the Rev. W. Lloyd.]

A. G.

WALLIS, ROBERT (1794–1878), line-engraver, born in London on 7 Nov. 1794, was son of Thomas Wallis, who was an assistant of Charles Heath (1785–1848) [q. v.] and died in 1839. He was taught by his father, and became one of the ablest of the group of supremely skilful landscape-engravers who flourished during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, particularly excelling in the interpretation of the work of Joseph Mallord William Turner [q. v.] He was employed upon the illustrations to Cooke's ‘Southern Coast of England,’ Turner's ‘England and Wales’ and ‘Rivers of France,’ Heath's ‘Picturesque Annual,’ Jennings's ‘Landscape Annual,’ the fine editions of the works of Scott, Campbell, and Rogers, the ‘Keepsake,’ the ‘Amulet,’ the ‘Literary Souvenir,’ and many other beautiful publications. On a larger scale he engraved various plates for the ‘Art Journal’ from pictures by Turner, Callcott, Stanfield, Fripp, and others, and many for the ‘Turner Gallery.’ Wallis's finest productions are the large plates after Turner, ‘Lake of Nemi’ and ‘Approach to Venice;’ a proof of the latter was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1859, and on its completion he retired from the profession. The remainder of his life was passed at Brighton, where he died on 23 Nov. 1878.

Henry Wallis (1805?–1890), brother of Robert, practised for some years as an engraver of small book-illustrations, but early in life was compelled by attacks of paralysis to seek another occupation. He then turned to picture-dealing, and eventually became the proprietor of the French Gallery in Pall Mall, which he conducted successfully until shortly before his death, which occurred on 15 Oct. 1890.

Another brother, William Wallis, born in 1796, is known by a few choice plates executed for Jennings's ‘Landscape Annual,’ Heath's ‘Picturesque Annual,’ the ‘Keepsake,’ &c.

[Athenæum, 1878, ii. 695; Art Journal, 1879; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Times, 24 Oct. 1890; list of members of the Artists' Annuity Fund.]

F. M. O'D.

WALLIS, SAMUEL (1728–1795), captain in the navy, born at Fentonwoon, near Camelford, Cornwall, and baptised at Lanteglos on 23 April 1728, was the third son of John Wallis of Fentonwoon (1680–1768) by Sarah (d. 1731), daughter of John Barrett. After serving through the war in a subordinate grade, Wallis was promoted to be lieutenant in the navy on 19 Oct. 1748. In January 1753 he was appointed to the Anson, with Captain Charles Holmes [q. v.], and in April 1755 to the Torbay, the flagship of Vice-admiral Edward Boscawen [q. v.] In February 1756 he joined the Invincible, and on 30 June was promoted to command the Swan sloop. On 8 April 1757 he was posted to the Port Mahon, a 20-gun frigate attached to the fleet which went out to North America with Admiral Francis Holburne [q. v.] In September 1758 he was appointed by Boscawen to the Prince of Orange of 60 guns, one of the fleet, in the following year, with Sir Charles Saunders [q. v.] in the St. Lawrence. On the North American station in 1760 and in the Channel fleet in 1761–2 he commanded the Prince of Orange till the peace. In June 1766 he was appointed to the Dolphin, then refitting for another voyage similar to that which she had just made under the command of Commodore John Byron (1723–1786) [q. v.] In the Dolphin, and having in company the Swallow sloop, commanded by Philip Carteret [q. v.], Wallis sailed from Plymouth on 22 Aug. After touching at Madeira, Porto Praya in the Cape Verd Islands, and Port Famine, where they cleared out and dismissed their victualler, the two ships passed through the Straits of Magellan and came into the Pacific on 12 April 1767. Then they separated, nor did they again meet. Wallis, in the Dolphin, at once kept away to the north-west, taking a course totally different from that followed by all his predecessors, none of whom, in fact, except Magellan and Byron, had primarily aimed at discovery. The others, whether Spaniards or Englishmen looking out for Spaniards, had stuck close to the track of the Spanish trade. The result was that Wallis opened out a part of the ocean