LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. 



" Walton, crime it were to leave unsung 

 Thy gentle mind, thy breast unblanch'd by wrong ; 

 And, vivid glowing on the graphic page, 

 Thy guileless manners, and thy hallowed age." 



IzAAK Walton was born at Stafford on the 9th of August 1593, 

 and was baptized there on the 21st of September following. ^ He 

 was the son of Jervis Walton of that town, who is presumed to 

 have been the second son of George Walton, sometime bailiff of 

 Yoxhall,^ a small village about fifteen miles from Stafford ; beyond 

 whom the pedigree cannot be traced with certainty.^ 



The name of Walton existed in Staffordshire at an early 

 period, and was general in that county about the middle of the 

 sixteenth century, at which time the family were substantial 

 yeomen. Of Izaak Walton's father, Jervis Walton, nothing has 

 been discovered, except what occurs in the register of St Mary's 

 Church at Stafford, from which it may be inferred that he had a 

 second son named Ambrose, who was buried on the 3d March 

 1595-6, and who probably died young. Jervis Walton died early 

 in February 1596-7, and was buried at St Mary's on the nth of 

 that month. Of his wife, not even the name has been discovered ; 

 and it is doubtful whether she survived her husband. 



At the tender age of four years, Izaak Walton seems, there- 

 fore, to have been thrown upon the world an orphan. Of his 

 childhood, his guardians, or the means by which he was supported, 

 nothing whatever is known. He received a good, though not, 

 strictly speaking, a classical education, and it is likely that he was 

 sent to the grammar-school of his native town ; but not a single 



' " '593, Septem. Baptiz. fuit Isaac filius Jervis Walton xxj die mensis et anni 

 prsedict. — Register of St Mary's, Stafford, The date of his birth is shown by the 

 preamble to his will. 



* See Pedigree, No. I. in the Appendix. To the signature to his will he added *' late 

 b^he of Yoxhall." 



3 Some remarks on the pedigree of the Walton family will be found in note K in the 

 Appendix. 



h 



