Walton's treatise is said to have been entitled a ‘Copy of a Moderate Valuation’ and to have remained in manuscript at Lambeth; but the only work by Walton mentioned by Todd (Cat. MSS. Lambeth, p. 38) is No. 273, which is entitled ‘A Treatise concerning the Payment of Tythes and Oblations in London,’ and was published in 1752 in the ‘Collectanea Ecclesiastica’ of Samuel Brewster. Owing to the fact that some of the documents used by Walton perished in the fire of London, his treatise is still of importance.
Walton's services to the clergy were rewarded by a series of preferments: on 15 Jan. 1635–6 he was presented by the king to the two livings of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, and Sandon, Essex, the former of which he would seem to have resigned at once (Hennessy, p. 173); he was also made, it is said, chaplain to the king, though no record of such an appointment occurs in the state papers at this time. In ecclesiastical matters he was a follower of Laud, and incurred the displeasure of his parishioners at St. Martin's Orgar by moving the communion table from the centre of the church to the east window, as well as by bringing actions for tithe. In connection with this dispute Walton and his wife were on 5 May 1636 summoned as witnesses against some parishioners of St. Martin's Orgar before the court of high commission (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1635–6, p. 502; Laud, Works, iv. 256–7). Hence a petition was presented to parliament in 1641 for his deprivation, containing these and other more odious charges, and in the same year was published ‘The articles and charge prov'd in Parliament against Dr. Walton, Minister of St. Martins Orgars in Cannon Street, wherein his subtile Tricks and popish innovations are discovered … as also his impudence in defaming the … House of Commons,’ London, 4to (cf. Commons' Journals, ii. 394, 396). He was in consequence dispossessed of his London living, and also that of Sandon, whither he had gone for refuge, and where he is said to have been at one time in peril of his life. In 1642 he was sent to prison for a time as a delinquent. When released he went to Oxford, then the headquarters of the royalist party, where he was incorporated D.D. in 1645. His first wife had died on 25 May 1640 (being buried in Sandon church), probably leaving him sufficient property for his maintenance. On 17 Oct. 1646 he petitioned to be allowed to compound on the Oxford articles for ‘the small remainder of his estate, his library and other goods to the value of 1,000l. having been sold and his livings disposed of to others.’ He stated that he had attended the king as one of his chaplains, and was afterwards appointed to wait upon the Duke of York, in whose service he continued at Oxford until its surrender. His petition was granted on 7 Jan. 1646–7, and he was fined 35l. 10s., being a tenth of his estate (Cal. Comm. for Compounding, p. 1544).
At Oxford, where oriental studies were flourishing, Walton would seem to have acquired some knowledge of the languages in which there are ancient versions of the Bible, as well as of the Hebrew text. It is generally assumed that it was during his residence there that he formed the project of the ‘Polyglot Bible,’ with which his name has ever since been associated. No fewer than three polyglot bibles had appeared in Europe prior to Walton's, the Paris polyglot as late as 1645; but the extreme costliness of these works rendered a new edition desirable, and on this fact Walton dwells in the circular published in 1652, as well as on the advanced state of oriental learning, which rendered an improved edition possible. Much thought must have been bestowed on the preparation of the work before this circular was issued, and in the meantime, the parliament having taken possession of Oxford, Walton had migrated to London, where he lived in the house of Dr. William Fuller (1580?–1659) [q. v.], who had been ejected from his living of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, but retained a house in the neighbourhood, and whose daughter Jane was Walton's second wife. The plan of the work conceived by Walton received the approbation of Selden and Ussher, the acknowledged leaders of Eastern learning in the British Isles, and the services of many eminent scholars at both universities were retained for the correction of the sheets. The specimen sheet issued with the prospectus (of which a copy is preserved in the library of Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge) promised indeed little for the success of the work, as the types are bad and the printing incorrect, facts which did not escape the notice of contemporary critics. Walton, however, promised that these defects should be remedied. A committee of persons of known credit was formed to receive the subscriptions which were solicited in the prospectus, with the promise of a complete copy of the work for every 10l. subscribed; and these began to flow in with extraordinary rapidity, no less than 8,000l. being contributed in a few months; considerable sacrifices were made at both the universities to provide these funds. In the dedication to Charles II added to the work after the Restoration, Walton asserts that he had taken the opinion of the king during his exile, and
