Newgate, but afterwards released on their promise to abjure the city until the arrival of King Edward in England (Riley, Chronicle, p. 168).
On 1 May a letter to the mayor, sheriffs, and commons from Edward I, who was absent abroad, summoned them to send four of their more discreet citizens to meet the king at Paris to confer with him, probably as to his approaching coronation (ib. p. 172). Waleys was the chief of the four citizens selected. Towards the close of his mayoralty he broke up the vessels employed as public and official standards of corn measure, and new ones strongly bound with brass hoops were made and sealed (ib. p. 173). Waleys had very close connection with France, and probably possessed private property or had great commercial interests in that country. This is evident from the fact that he was elected mayor of Bordeaux in 1275, the year following his London mayoralty (ib. p. 167).
Waleys was high in the royal favour, and this no doubt procured him his appointment as mayor of London for the second time in 1281, his second mayoralty lasting three years. On this occasion he appears to have been knighted by the king (Cal. of Ancient Deeds, ii. 258). His predecessor, Gregory de Rokesley, had held office for six years, and also succeeded him for a few months, when the king took the entire government of the city into his hands, and appointed a warden to fulfil the duties of mayor. In 1281 the king granted for the support of London Bridge three vacant plots of ground within the city; on two of these plots, at the east side of Old Change and in Paternoster Row, Waleys built several houses, the profits of which were assigned to London Bridge (Stow, Survey, pp. 637, 664). Waleys again proved himself a good administrator. He kept a sharp eye on the millers and bakers, being the first to give orders for weighing the grain when going to the mill, and afterwards the flour; he also had a hurdle provided for drawing dishonest bakers (Riley, Chron. p. 240). During this year he assessed for the king certain plots of land and let them to the barons and good men of Winchelsea for building (Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1281–92, p. 3).
In 1282 Waleys and the aldermen drew up an important code of provisions for the safe keeping of the city gates and the river. These ordinances embraced the watching of hostelries, the posting of sergeants ‘fluent of speech’ at the gates to question suspicious passengers, and the simultaneous ringing of curfew in all the parish churches, after which all gates and taverns must be closed (Riley, Memorials of London, p. 21). In the same year he made provision for the butchers and fishmongers whom he had displaced in 1274 from West Cheap by erecting houses and stalls for them on a site near Wool Church Haw, where the stocks formerly stood, now the site of the Mansion House. In the following year he built the Tun prison on Cornhill, so called from its round shape, as a prison for night-walkers. The building also served the purpose of ‘a fair conduit of sweet waters’ which Waleys caused to be brought for the benefit of the city from Tyburn (Stow, Survey, 1633, p. 207).
He also appears as one of the six representatives of the city sent this year to the parliament at Shrewsbury, these being the first known members of parliament for the city of London (Sharpe, London and the Kingdom, i. 18). A significant proof of his vigorous administration as mayor is afforded by the king's mandate to the justices on eyre at the Tower, and to all bailiffs, not to molest Waleys ‘for having during the king's absence in Wales, for the preservation of the peace and castigation of malefactors roaming about the city night and day, introduced certain new punishments and new methods of trial (judicia), and for having caused persons to be punished by imprisonment and otherwise for the quiet of the said city’ (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1281–92, p. 80). In 1284, the last year of his mayoralty, Waleys obtained from the king a renewed grant of customs for extensive repairs to the city wall, and for its extension beside the Blackfriars monastery (ib. p. 111).
His wide dealings as a merchant brought him and Rokesley into conflict with the barons of the Cinque ports as to claims through the jettison of freights during tempests (ib. p. 168). On 17 June 1285 he was one of three justices appointed for the trial concerning concealed goods of condemned Jews, involving a large amount (ib. p. 176). On 18 Sept. Waleys received a grant of land adjoining St. Paul's Churchyard, whereon he built some houses, but these, proving to be to the detriment of the dean and chapter, were ordered to be taken down, an enlarged site being granted to him for their re-erection (ib. pp. 193, 226).
Waleys was much employed in the royal service: in January 1288 he was detained beyond seas on the king's special affairs (ib. p. 291), and in June 1291 he was again abroad with a special protection from the king for one year. On 5 Oct. following he was engaged for the king in Gascony with John de Havering, seneschal of Gascony (ib. p. 446). In April 1294 he had to return to England,
