Sir Hardress Waller (c. 1604 - 1666), cousin of Sir William Waller, was also a parliamentarian of note. Born in Groombridge, Kent, Waller was knighted by Charles I in 1629. That same year he married Elizabeth Dowdall, the daughter of an English landowner in Ireland and acquired a large estate in Castletown, County Limerick. He gained military experience in serving against the rebels in Ireland, where in 1644 he was made Governor of Cork. From 1645 to the conclusion of the Civil War he was in England commanding a regiment in the New Model Army. Waller was Colonel Pride's chief assistant when the latter purged the House of Commons in 1648, and he was one of the king's judges and one of those who signed the death warrant. During the next few years Waller served in Ireland as part of Oliver Cromwell’s Irish campaign where he captured Carlow Castle in July, 1650, after a short siege. Waller played a significant role in the siege of Limerick, leading the attack from the east while Cromwell's son-in-law Henry Ireton attempted an attack from the west. Winter weather delayed Ireton's outflanking manoeuvre, and it was not until 1651 that the city fell. Waller returned to England in 1660. After the Restoration he fled to France, but soon surrendered himself to the authorities as a regicide. Samuel Pepys' diary records how his friend Henry Moore visited "... to tell me how Sir Hards. Waller (who only pleads guilty), Scott, Peters, Harrison, &c. were this day arraigned at the bar at the Sessions House", having been indicted before a grand jury of Middlesex on the previous day at Hick's Hall. Waller was condemned to death but his life was spared owing to the efforts of his friends. He was, however, kept in prison and was still a captive in Mont Orgueil, Jersey, when he died. Named as Sir Hardresse Waller in the Proclamation for apprehending the late King's Judges (4 June 1660)
Sources
- M Noble, Lives of the Regicides (1798).
- The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Wednesday 10 October 1660
- Note - Pepys was misinformed, as both Waller and George Fleetwood pleaded guilty.
- House of Lords Journal, Volume 11, 4 June 1660
- David Plant, British Civil Wars and Commonwealth website
- (Capture of Carlow) CARLOW TOWN 1836, Old Towns of Ireland
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
