The Waller family was a Kentish family, of Groombridge Place, that migrated to Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire in the fouteenth or sixteenth century, and then to Gloucestershire, and, for a generation, North Yorkshire.
Several members carried the name Edmund Waller. These Edmund Wallers are listed here father to son or grandson, or uncle to nephew:
Edmund, of Coleshill, Buckinghamshire, grandfather of the poet;
Edmund Waller, MP and poet;
Edmund, (1652-dsp Bristol 1699/1700), MP for Amersham 1689-98, educuted Christ Church, Oxford and Middle Temple, bencher 1696. Became a Quaker. Married (1686) Abigail Tylney;
Waller's first wife Anne Banks died in childbirth leaving a surviving daughter Elizabeth or Anne (1634-), wife to William Dormer, Dormer the splendid, (died 1683), son of Sir Robert Dormer, Kt. (d.1649), of Ascot Park, Ascott, Stadhampton, Oxfordshire.
He married secondly in 1644 Mary Bracey (d.1677), (or Bressy, Bresse or Breaux), of Thame or possibly of somewhere in France, and went over to Calais, afterwards taking up his residence at Rouen. By Mary Breux he had several children. His descendant Rachel Waller, daughter of Edmund Waller VI or VII, considering the Breux family's connections with Barbadoes wrote in 1939 that: this probably gave rise to the assumption that she was not of pure European blood. In support of this theory, we may compare the portrait of the poet with those of his descendants. In these latter, the long face and aquiline lineaments of the poet have given way to round blunt features and curly black hair. The children included:
Benjamin, somewhat lacking in his father's wit, he was sent to Jersey, a colony in the West Indies;
Edmund II or III (1652-dsp Bristol1699/1700), MP for Amersham 1689-98, educ. Christ Church, Oxford, Middle Temple bencher 1696. Became a Quaker. Married (1686) Abigail (d. 1689), daughter of Francis Tylney of Rotherwick, Hants, sister of Frederick Tylney (?1653-1725), MP;
William, a merchant of London;
Dr. Stephen Waller (1654-1706), of Hall Barn, a doctor of law, a famous civilian, and Commissioner for the Union. His widow, Judith, daughter of Sir Thomas Vernon, MP, Kt., of Farnham, married, as his second wife, John Aislabie, MP, DL (1670-1742).
Margaret, the eldest, born Rouen;
Mary who married Dr. Peter Birch, Doctor of Divinity, Prebendary and Sub Dean of Westminster Abbey. Died 2 July 1710 aged 65 years;
Dorothy, a dwarf, sent to the North; Dorothy lived in Morley, near Leeds. She died in 1771 and left her house to the Reverend Timothy Alred, of St Mary's In The Wood. She had a romantic attachment to him. She is buried in the churchyard there. She is reputed to have been carried from her home on Banks Hill to St Mary's in a sedan chair. Her former home is said to be the oldest house in Morley, and has a plaque above the door indicating her residency and her date of passing.
Eliza, with her brother Edmund, an executor of her father.
Shield: On a mount, vert, a walnut tree, proper, on a sinister side an escrutcheon, pendant, charged with arms of France, with a label of three points, argent.
Crest: Sable, three walnut leaves, or, between two bendlets, argent.
Motto: Hic fructus virtutis; Azincourt.
