The few events in the long life of Izaak Walton have
been carefully investigated by Sir Harris Nicolas.
All that can be extricated from documents by the
alchemy of research has been selected, and I am unaware
of any important acquisitions since Sir Harris Nicolas’s
second edition of 1860. Izaak was of an old
family of Staffordshire yeomen, probably descendants
of George Walton of Yoxhall, who died in 1571.
Izaak’s father was Jarvis Walton, who died
in February 1595-6; of Izaak’s mother nothing
is known. Izaak himself was born at Stafford,
on August 9, 1593, and was baptized on September 21.
He died on December 15, 1683, having lived in the
reigns of Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., under the
Commonwealth, and under Charles II. The anxious
and changeful age through which he passed is in contrast
with his very pacific character and tranquil pursuits.
Of Walton’s education nothing is known, except
on the evidence of his writings. He may have
read Latin, but most of the books he cites had English
translations. Did he learn his religion from
’his mother or his nurse’? It will
be seen that the free speculation of his age left him
untouched: perhaps his piety was awakened, from
childhood, under the instruction of a pious mother.
Had he been orphaned of both parents (as has been
suggested) he might have been less amenable to authority,
and a less notable example of the virtues which Anglicanism
so vainly opposed to Puritanismism. His literary
beginnings are obscure. There exists a copy
of a work, The Loves of Amos and Laura, written
by S. P., published in 1613, and again in 1619.
The edition of 1619 is dedicated to ’Iz.
Wa.’:—
‘Thou being cause it is
as now it is’;
the Dedication does not occur in the one imperfect
known copy of 1613. Conceivably the words, ‘as
now it is’ refer to the edition of 1619, which
might have been emended by Walton’s advice.
But there are no emendations, hence it is more probable
that Walton revised the poem in 1613, when he was
a man of twenty, or that he merely advised the author
to publish:—
’For, hadst thou held thy
tongue, by silence might
These have been buried in oblivion’s
night.’
S. P. also remarks:—
‘No ill thing can be clothed
in thy verse’;
hence Izaak was already a rhymer, and a harmless one,
under the Royal Prentice, gentle King Jamie.
By this time Walton was probably settled in London.
A deed in the possession of his biographer, Dr. Johnson’s
friend, Sir John Hawkins, shows that, in 1614, Walton
held half of a shop on the north side of Fleet Street,
two doors west of Chancery Lane: the other occupant
was a hosier. Mr. Nicholl has discovered that
Walton was made free of the Ironmongers’ Company
on Nov. 12, 1618. He is styled an Ironmonger
in his marriage licence. The facts are given
