Alfred Wallace was born in the Welsh village of Llanbadoc, near Usk, Monmouthshire. He was the eighth of nine children of Thomas Vere Wallace and Mary Anne Wallace (nee Greenell). Mary Anne was English; Thomas Wallace was probably of Scottish ancestry. His family, like many Wallaces, claimed a connection to William Wallace, a leader of Scottish forces during the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 13th century. Thomas Wallace graduated in law but never practised law. He owned some income-generating property, but bad investments and failed business ventures resulted in a steady deterioration of the family's financial position. His mother was from a middle-class English family from Hertford, north of London. When Wallace was five years old, his family moved to Hertford. There he attended Hertford Grammar School until financial difficulties forced his family to withdraw him in 1836 when he was aged 14.