WALLIS, William (c.1657-1737), of Wormleybury, Herts.

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1705 - 1708
1710 - 17 Feb. 1711
1713 - 1715
12 Apr. 1717 - 1722

Family and Education

b. c.1657, parentage unknown, s.p.

Offices Held

Groom of the privy chamber to William III bef. 1700 and gent. of the privy chamber at his d. 1702.


According to an obituary William Wallis was

a great favourite of the late King William, and was in all the wars in Flanders with him; and being advanced to a high station upon his coming to England, was possessed of an estate in Hertfordshire of £30,000, but being unfortunately engaged for the receiver-general of excise in the beginning of the reign of Queen Anne, his estate was seized upon for the revenues of excise. He was present in the chamber when the late King William died, and has since been supported by the nobility and gentry of the kingdom.1

He bought lands in Datchworth, Hertfordshire, in 1693 and Wormleybury in 1697, being then of Holborn, Middlesex.2He also owned houses in Steyning, for which he was returned as a Whig under Anne. Defeated in 1715, but awarded the seat on petition, he was granted a lease of the forest of Arkengarthdale, Yorkshire, valued at £300,3 voted with the Government, and was again defeated in 1722. Shortly afterwards he sold his houses in the borough to the Duke of Chandos. In 1733 he wrote a begging letter to Chandos, whose secretary replied that the Duke was sorry for his misfortunes, but that Wallis

must be sensible how shameful a price you extorted from him when he made an agreement with you for the few houses you had at Steyning, and for which he has not to this day any of the most material writings necessary to make out his title,

and that therefore he could only send him £5.4

He died 4 Feb. 1737, aged 80, in the rules of the Fleet.5

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: J. B. Lawson


  • 1. Hist. Reg. 1737, p. 127.
  • 2. VCH Herts. iii. 79, 488.
  • 3. Cal. Treas. Pprs. 1714-19, p. 306; PCC 71 Lake.
  • 4. 6 Dec. 1733, Chandos letter bks.
  • 5. Hist. Reg. loc. cit.