Waller, Edmund

An indenture between Waller and his wife on the one part, and George Gosnold of Beaconsfield on the other part, witnessing the sale by Waller to Gosnold of various lands around Beaconsfield, listed in detail in the deed, for £450, signed by Edmund Waller and Mary Waller at the foot, witnessed on the dorse by George Etherege and five others, endorsed, two seal tags, one parchment membrane (455 x 700 mm), 8 June 1655; fold tears, some soiling. Brown cloth folding-box.

Rev. F.B. Woodward (Puttick and Simpson, 13 May 1867, lot 1346) — Sotheby's, 8 May 1868, lot 545, to "Waller" — Maggs Brothers (Catalogue 536 [1930], item 2401). acquisition: Hoffman and Freeman

CELM WaE 846

Edmund Waller inherited extensive lands in and around Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire. This sale of land came when Waller was accommodating himself to the Cromwellian regime. He had been imprisoned then banished for his leading role in "Waller's Plot" against Parliament but returned to England in 1652 and in 1655 was appointed a commissioner of trade and began writing panegyrics to the Protector. Waller's rehabilitation was eased by the fact that Cromwell was his kinsman. The signature of the future playwright George Etherege appears here as he was apprenticed to the successful Beaconsfield attorney George Gosnold.