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Izaak Walton
Izaak Walton (baptised 21 September 1593 – 15 December 1683) was an English writer. Best known as the author of The Compleat Angler (1653), he also wrote a number of short biographies including one of his friend John Donne. They have been collected under the title of Walton's Lives.
Born at Stafford around 1593, Walton moved to London in his teens, where he worked as a linen draper. In the capital, he befriended the poet and clergyman John Donne. A Royalist during the English Civil War, Walton returned to his home county of Staffordshire, settling at Shallowford, following the Royalist defeat at Marston Moor in 1644. Though Walton had returned to London by 1650, his experiences at Shallowford provided material for The Compleat Angler: a celebration of the art and spirit of fishing, first published in 1653. Throughout his life, Walton published biographies of subjects including Donne and Henry Wotton. These were later collected as Walton's Lives.
Walton's literary admirers have included Charles Lamb and he gives his name to places and organisations in his native country, the United States, and Kenya. Walton left his residence at Shallowford to the local poor. It is now maintained as a museum to his legacy.
Walton was born at Stafford in c. 1593. The register of his baptism on 21 September 1593 gives his father's name as Jervis, or Gervase. His father, who was an innkeeper as well as a landlord of a tavern, died before Izaak was three, being buried in February 1596/7 as Jarvicus Walton. His mother then married another innkeeper by the name of Bourne, who later ran the Swan in Stafford. Izaak also had a brother named Ambrose, as indicated by an entry in the parish register recording the burial in March 1595/6 of an Ambrosius filius Jervis Walton.
His date of birth is traditionally given as 9 August 1593. However, this date is based on a misinterpretation of his will, which he began on 9 August 1683.
He is believed to have been educated in Stafford before moving to London in his teens. He is often described as an ironmonger, but he trained as a linen draper, a trade which came under the Ironmongers' Company. He had a small shop in the upper storey of Thomas Gresham's Royal Burse or Exchange in Cornhill. In 1614 he had a shop in Fleet Street, two doors west of Chancery Lane in the parish of St Dunstan's. He became verger and churchwarden of the church, and a friend of the vicar, John Donne. He joined the Ironmongers' Company in November 1618. Walton's first wife was Rachel Floud (married December 1626), a great-great-niece of Archbishop Cranmer. She died in 1640. He soon remarried, to Anne Ken (m. 1641?-1662), who appears as the pastoral Kenna of The Angler's Wish; she was a stepsister of Thomas Ken, afterwards bishop of Bath and Wells.
After the Royalist defeat at Marston Moor in 1644, Walton retired from his trade. The last forty years of his life were spent visiting eminent clergymen and others who enjoyed fishing, compiling the biographies of people he liked, and collecting information for the Compleat Angler.
He went to live just north of his birthplace, at a spot between the towns of Stafford and Stone, where he had bought some land edged by a small river. His new land at Shallowford included a farm, and a parcel of land; however by 1650 he was living in Clerkenwell, London.
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Izaak Walton
Izaak Walton (baptised 21 September 1593 – 15 December 1683) was an English writer. Best known as the author of The Compleat Angler (1653), he also wrote a number of short biographies including one of his friend John Donne. They have been collected under the title of Walton's Lives.
Born at Stafford around 1593, Walton moved to London in his teens, where he worked as a linen draper. In the capital, he befriended the poet and clergyman John Donne. A Royalist during the English Civil War, Walton returned to his home county of Staffordshire, settling at Shallowford, following the Royalist defeat at Marston Moor in 1644. Though Walton had returned to London by 1650, his experiences at Shallowford provided material for The Compleat Angler: a celebration of the art and spirit of fishing, first published in 1653. Throughout his life, Walton published biographies of subjects including Donne and Henry Wotton. These were later collected as Walton's Lives.
Walton's literary admirers have included Charles Lamb and he gives his name to places and organisations in his native country, the United States, and Kenya. Walton left his residence at Shallowford to the local poor. It is now maintained as a museum to his legacy.
Walton was born at Stafford in c. 1593. The register of his baptism on 21 September 1593 gives his father's name as Jervis, or Gervase. His father, who was an innkeeper as well as a landlord of a tavern, died before Izaak was three, being buried in February 1596/7 as Jarvicus Walton. His mother then married another innkeeper by the name of Bourne, who later ran the Swan in Stafford. Izaak also had a brother named Ambrose, as indicated by an entry in the parish register recording the burial in March 1595/6 of an Ambrosius filius Jervis Walton.
His date of birth is traditionally given as 9 August 1593. However, this date is based on a misinterpretation of his will, which he began on 9 August 1683.
He is believed to have been educated in Stafford before moving to London in his teens. He is often described as an ironmonger, but he trained as a linen draper, a trade which came under the Ironmongers' Company. He had a small shop in the upper storey of Thomas Gresham's Royal Burse or Exchange in Cornhill. In 1614 he had a shop in Fleet Street, two doors west of Chancery Lane in the parish of St Dunstan's. He became verger and churchwarden of the church, and a friend of the vicar, John Donne. He joined the Ironmongers' Company in November 1618. Walton's first wife was Rachel Floud (married December 1626), a great-great-niece of Archbishop Cranmer. She died in 1640. He soon remarried, to Anne Ken (m. 1641?-1662), who appears as the pastoral Kenna of The Angler's Wish; she was a stepsister of Thomas Ken, afterwards bishop of Bath and Wells.
After the Royalist defeat at Marston Moor in 1644, Walton retired from his trade. The last forty years of his life were spent visiting eminent clergymen and others who enjoyed fishing, compiling the biographies of people he liked, and collecting information for the Compleat Angler.
He went to live just north of his birthplace, at a spot between the towns of Stafford and Stone, where he had bought some land edged by a small river. His new land at Shallowford included a farm, and a parcel of land; however by 1650 he was living in Clerkenwell, London.