Edmund Waller (c.1699–1771), of Hall Barn, Beaconsfield, was a British landowner and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons for 32 years from 1722 to 1754.
Waller was the eldest son of Stephen Waller and his wife Judith Vernon, daughter of Sir Thomas Vernon of Farnham, Surrey. In about 1700 he succeeded to the Gloucestershire estates of his uncle Edmund Waller and in 1707 to the estates of his father. He was educated at Eton College in 1707. He married, before 1724, Jane Aislabie, who was daughter of his mother's former husband, John Aislabie. [1]
Waller owned estates near both Marlow and Wycombe, which gave him political influence in both boroughs. At the 1722 general election, he was returned as a Whig Member of Parliament for Great Marlow on the family interest. He supported William Pulteney and in 1725 went into opposition with him. In 1726, he supported his younger brother, Harry, at a by-election at Wycombe, although his successful return was bought at a high cost. He was himself returned again as MP for Marlow in 1727, and was one of the anti-ministerial tellers on the petition after the election at Petersfield. He became a prolific speaker against Walpole's Administration. At the 1734 general election he was returned at Marlow and Wycombe, and chose to sit at Marlow. [1]
At the 1741 general election Waller was returned as MP for Wycombe. When Walpole fell in 1742, Waller was offered a seat on the Treasury board but refused, He was elected to the secret committee of inquiry into Walpole's Administration and moved the opposition address against the Hanoverians on 10 December 1742. He served on a committee set up to co-ordinate opposition activity in the House of Commons during the next session. In 1744 he was one of the ‘junto’ of nine opposition leaders who achieved their aim of getting government places on the formation of the Broad Bottom ministry in December 1744. He was appointed Cofferer of the Household in December 1744. By December 1746, he had stopped attending the House because of deafness, and gave up his post in return for the appointment of his younger son, Edmund, to a life sinecure as Master of St. Katharine's Hospital. [1]
Waller was returned to Parliament for Wycombe at the 1747 general election and was classed as Opposition and as one of the supporters of the Prince of Wales. In spite of this, he applied to the Duke of Newcastle for a company in the army for his eldest son. He gave up his seat at the 1754 general election. [1] ,.
Waller spent the rest of his life in retirement and died in April 1771. He had four sons and two daughters. Horace Walpole described him as a ‘dull obscure person, of great application to figures and the revenue’. His speeches were often unintelligible. [1]
Richard Edgcumbe, 1st Baron Edgcumbe, of Mount Edgcumbe in Cornwall, was an English Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1701 until 1742 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Edgcumbe. He is memorialised by Edgecombe County, North Carolina.
Thomas Gage, 1st Viscount Gage of High Meadow, Gloucestershire and later Firle Place, Sussex, was a British landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons as a Whig for 33 years between 1717 and 1754.
Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 3rd Baronet was a Welsh politician and landowner who sat in the British House of Commons from 1716 to 1749, when he died in office. A member of the Tory party, he was also a prominent Jacobite sympathiser. He helped engineer the downfall of Prime Minister Robert Walpole in 1742 and engaged in negotiations with the exiled Stuarts prior to the Jacobite rising of 1745 but did not participate in the rebellion himself. Watkin died in a hunting accident in 1749.
Henry Vane, 1st Earl of Darlington, PC, known as Lord Barnard between 1753 and 1754, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1726 to 1753 when he succeeded to a peerage as Baron Barnard.
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Lord Archibald Hamilton of Riccarton and Pardovan was a British officer of the Royal Navy, and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1708 and 1747. In the 1690s, he was active in the English Channel pursuing French privateers, including Tyger out of St Malo. He commanded the third-rate HMS Boyne at the Battle of Vigo Bay in October 1702 and then commanded the third-rate HMS Eagle at the Battle of Málaga in August 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession. He was a controversial Governor of Jamaica. He then joined the Board of Admiralty, ultimately serving as Senior Naval Lord.
Sir John Rushout, 4th Baronet, of Northwick Park, Worcestershire was a British Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons for 55 years from 1713 to 1768. He was a supporter of Pulteney in opposition to Walpole, and was briefly part of an Administration. He was Father of the House from 1762.
Phillips Gybbon, of Hole Park, Rolvenden, in Kent, was an English Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1707 and 1762.
Grey Neville of Billingbear, Berkshire was an English landowner and politician who sat in the English House of Commons from 1705 to 1708 and in the British House of Commons between 1708 and 1723.
Sir John Crosse, 2nd Baronet, of Millbank, Westminster, and Rainham, Essex, was a British Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1727 and 1754.
The Waller family was a Kentish family, of Groombridge Place, that migrated to Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire in the 14th or 16th century, and then to Gloucestershire, and, for a generation, North Yorkshire.
Robert Waller, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons for 29 years from 1761 to 1790.
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Sir John Ramsden, 3rd Baronet (1699–1769) of Byram and Longley Hall, Yorkshire, was a British landowner and Independent Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1727 to 1754.
Harry Waller was a British lawyer and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1726 to 1747.
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Sir Charles Vernon, of Farnham, Surrey, was a British merchant and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1731 and 1761.
James Cocks, of Reigate, Surrey, was a British lawyer and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1707 and 1747.
Waller Bacon, of Earlham Hall, near Norwich, was a British lawyer and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons for 24 years between 1705 and 1734. He was active in drafting bills in Parliament, possibly on the strength of his legal background.
Henry Drax of Ellerton Abbey, Yorkshire and Charborough, near Wareham, Dorset was a British Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1718 and 1755.
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