Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/43

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and nominated William de Saunford as his attorney in Ireland for one year (ib. 1292–1301, p. 66). On 11 Oct. he rented the manor of Lydel for three years from John Wake (ib. p. 96). In November 1294 he demised rentals of 30l. a year in value from properties in St. Lawrence Lane, Cordwanerstrete, and Dowgate, to Edmund, the king's brother (ib. p. 106). On 16 Sept. 1296 he received letters of protection for one year while in Scotland on the king's service (ib. p. 201). On 12 Jan. 1297 he was appointed at the head of a commission to determine the site and state of Berwick-on-Tweed and assess property there (ib. pp. 226–7). Waleys was commissioned to levy a thousand men in Worcester for the king's service on 23 Oct. 1297 (ib. p. 393).

In 1298 the aldermen and other citizens were summoned before the king at Westminster, when he restored to them their privileges, including that of electing a mayor. They accordingly elected Henry Waleys as mayor for the third time. He was presented to the king at Fulham, but shortly afterwards set out for Lincoln on urgent private business, after appointing deputies to act in his absence (Riley, Liber Albus, p. 16). He was soon afterwards summoned by the king into Scotland, and had to appoint a deputy (ib. p. 528). The safe conduct of the city had been a matter of concern to the king during the previous year, and the warden and aldermen had received a special ordinance on 14 Sept. 1297. This was followed by a further writ from the king addressed to Waleys as mayor on 28 May 1298 requiring him to preserve the peace of the city which had been much disturbed by the night brawls of bakers, brewsters, and millers (Riley, Memorials of London, pp. 36–7).

Waleys through his loyalty to the king incurred much enmity from his fellow-citizens. There appears to have been during his last mayoralty an open feud between him and his sheriffs, Richard de Refham and Thomas Sely. These officials appeared at a court of aldermen on Friday in Pentecost week 1299, and agreed to pay the large sum of 100l. if during the rest of the term of their shrievalty they should be convicted of having committed trespass, either by word or deed, against Waleys while mayor of London (Riley, Memorials, p. 41). About the same time (18 April) Waleys received from the king, as a reward for his long service, a grant of houses with a quay and other appurtenances in Berwick-on-Tweed, forfeited to the king by Ralph, son of Philip, and partly burnt and devastated by the king's foot soldiers, he being required to repair the premises and lay out upon them at least a hundred marks (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1292–1301, p. 408).

On 26 Dec. 1298 Waleys and Ralph de Sandwich [q. v.] were constituted a commission of oyer and terminer relative to a plot to counterfeit the king's great and privy seal, and to poison the king and his son (ib. p. 459). In March 1300, he being absent from England on his own affairs, Stephen de Gravesende was substituted for him on another commission concerning the theft of money, plate, and jewels from the house of Hugh de Jernemuth in ‘the town of Suthwerk’ (ib. p. 547). Waleys possessed much property in the city, including houses near Ivy Lane, Newgate Street (ib. p. 98), a house called ‘Le Hales,’ and St. Botolph's wharf (Riley, Liber Albus, p. 478); but his place of business was probably in the ward of Cordwainer, which he represented as alderman.

Waleys appears to have died in 1302, in which year his executors procured a grant for an exchange of property with the priory of Holy Trinity, under the provisions of his will. This was stated to have been enrolled in the court of husting, but no record of it can be found in the official calendar (Cal. of Ancient Deeds, ii. 47).

[Orridge's Citizens of London and their Rulers; Thomson's Chronicles of London Bridge; Sharpe's Calendar of Wills in the Court of Husting; authorities above cited.]

C. W-h.

WALFORD, CORNELIUS (1827–1885), writer on insurance, born in Curtain Road, London, on 2 April 1827, was the eldest of five sons of Cornelius Walford (d. 1883) of Park House Farm, near Coggeshall, Essex, who married Mary Amelia Osborn of Pentonville. He is said to have been for a short time at Felsted school. At the age of fifteen he became clerk to Mr. Pattisson, solicitor at Witham, where he acquired much experience in the tenure and rating of land. He was appointed assistant secretary of the Witham building society, and, having in early life acquired a knowledge of shorthand, he acted as local correspondent of the ‘Essex Standard.’ About 1848 he settled at Witham as insurance inspector and agent.

Walford was in 1857 elected an associate, and on a later date a fellow, of the Institute of Actuaries. About 1857 he joined the Statistical Society, and was for some time on its council. He published in parts, and anonymously, in 1857 his ‘Insurance Guide and Handbook,’ which was pirated and had a large sale in America (2nd edit. 1867, with his name on the title-page). In 1858 he was