Benjamin Waller

Benjamin Waller (1 October 1716 – 1 May 1786) was an American planter, lawyer, politician, military officer and judge[1].

The Honorable
Benjamin Waller
Judge of the General Court of Virginia
In office
1779–1786
Member of the House of Burgesses
In office
1744–1761
Preceded byLewis Burwell
Succeeded byPhilip Johnson
ConstituencyJames City County
Personal details
BornOctober 1, 1716
Hanover County, Virginia, British America
DiedMay 1, 1786(1786-05-01) (aged 40)
, Virginia, U.S.
SpouseMartha Hall
Children6
OccupationPlanter, lawyer, politician, judge
ProfessionLaw

Early life and education

Waller was born on October 1, 1716 at his father's Enfield plantation in King William County in what was then the Colony of Virginia. His mother was Dorothy King, and his father, Col. John Waller had emigrated from Britain, trained as a lawyer utilizing the legal library of Sir John Randolph and become a major landowner in the colony, as well as served in the House of Burgesses as would this boy. Thus he was descended from what would later be called the Virginia.[2] His paternal ancestors had emigrated from Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, England, the branch of a family long seated at Beaconsfield and previously at Groombridge Place, Kent, England.[3] John Waller Esquire was one of the signatories to the Second Charter of Virginia in 1609.[4]. This man, Benjamin Waller, received a private education appropriate to his class.

Career

By 1738, Benjamin Waller had been admitted to the Virginia bar, and began serving as King's Attorney (prosecutor) in Gloucester County. The following year (1739), Waller began serving as clerk of the James City County court, whose jurisdiction included part of Williamsburg, the colony's capital city. Waller would serve as clerk of the general court (which handled the most severe criminal cases, such as murder, as well as appeals of cases from the county courts) for a number of years. In 1777, he was named presiding judge of the court of admiralty in Williamsburg, Virginia. Subsequently, he served as a judge on the first Court of Appeals where he remained until 1785 when the court moved to Richmond, Virginia.

He was an eminent lawyer of Colonial times and held many important offices under the crown.[5] His name is on the list of the Committee of Safety for the city of Williamsburg Dec. 1774 (Forces Archives.) He was Judge of the Court of Admiralty and in a list of the Judges of the Supreme court of Virginia 1778 (WMQ July 1898). Also: King's attorney of Gloucester (1738); Clerk of James City county (1739; 1742); clerk of "The Court of Oyer and Terminer" (1739); Clerk of the "Committees of Propositions and Grievances, and Privileges, and Elections" (1743); all under George II of Great Britain. He served on the Supreme Court of Virginia 1779–1785.

As clerk of courts, it fell to Benjamin Waller to read the United States Declaration of Independence from the Williamsburg courthouse steps on July 25, 1776.[6] Waller also served as mentor and teacher of law to George Wythe.[7]

James City County voters elected him to replace Lewis Burwell upon the latter's death in 1742, and continued to re-elect him so he served alonside Carter Burwell, then Joseph Morton, then Lewis Burwell Jr..[8]

Personal life

He married Martha Hall (1728-1780) in 1746 and they had 10 children.[9] Martha "tended to the household overseeing the children and directing the work of their several slaves. One of his grandsons, William Waller, married the daughter of U.S. President John Tyler and lived in Benjamin Waller's house in Williamsburg".[5][10]

Death and legacy

Most descendants believe Waller died on May 1, 1786 in Williamsburg,[11] although some sources list his death date as May 2, 1796 on an otlying plantation. Williamsburg's Waller Street is named for Benjamin Waller and his familyHis grandson, Littleton Waller Tazewell, continued the family's planter and politician traditions, serving in the Virginia legislature and as Governor of Virginia, as well as in both houses of the U.S. Congress (representing part (or all Virginia in the U.S. Senate) Virginia.

Author Alex Haley sketched out the family's English origins in his book Roots: The Saga of an American Family, since his kidnapped African ancestor had become property of a John Waller, probably related to this man (since he had a brother Rev. John Waller, who would move to and die in South Carolina.

References
  1. Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Under the Editorial Supervision of Lyon Gardiner Tyler, New York, 1915
  2. Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Under the Editorial Supervision of Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Vol. 4, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York, 1915
  3. Virginia Heraldica, William Armstrong Crozier, Published by the Genealogical Association, New York, 1908
  4. Second Virginia Charter, May23, 1609, The Avalon Project, Yale Law School Library, avalon.law.yale.edu
  5. "Benjamin Waller". The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
  6. "Courthouse, Colonial Williamsburg, colonialwilliamsburg.com". Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
  7. Benjamin Waller, Colonial Williamsburg Archived July 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  8. Leonard, Cynthia Miller (1978). The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978. Richmond: Virginia State Library. pp. 79n.12, 81, 84, 89.
  9. Waller, Robert Page (1905). "Records of the Waller Family". The William and Mary Quarterly. 13 (3): 175–177. doi:10.2307/1916086. JSTOR 1916086.
  10. Sons of the American Revolution application of Walter Duval Brown examined on October 12, 1937, abailable on ancestry.com
  11. Sons of the American Revolution application of James Dearing Fauntleroy approved in 1928; p. 443 of 459 on ancestry.com
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