Walton
Walton names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Walton IZAAK, an English author
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
IZAAK, an English author, known as the father of angling; born in Stafford, England, Aug. 9, 1593. About 1623 he was carrying on business on his own account as a sempster or man milliner in London, and having by 1643 acquired a competency, he retired to the quiet enjoyment of country life. His first wife, Rachel Floud, great grandniece of Archbishop Cranmer, having died in 1640, he married about seven years later Ann Ken, whose brother, at that time a mere boy, afterward became the famous bishop. In London Walton had became intimate with Dr. Donne, Dr. Wharton, and Sir Henry Wotton, and in his later years he enjoyed the hospitality of many eminent clergymen of the Church of England. Walton's fame is mainly based on his "Compleat Angler; or the Contemplative Man's Companion," which was first published in 1653 and appeared in a considerably modified form in 1655. Few more popular books exist, and the editions are consequently numerous. Walton's natural history is frequently of the crudest and most credulous kind; his practical precepts are open to correction at the hands of the modern proficient; he possesses only a partial mastery over the difficult literary form (that of the dialogue) in which his work is cast; his style is remarkable neither for rug rugged strength nor polished precision; but he succeeded in catching the spirit both of the gentle craft and the pleasant English scenery in which he had learned its delights. On the publication of Dr. Donne's "Sermons" Walton supplied a "Life" of the author, and he afterward wrote similar lives of Wotton, Hooker (1665), Herbert (1670), and Sanderson (1678). A monument to Walton was placed in St. Mary's Church, Stafford (the church of his baptism), in 1878. He died in Winchester, England, Dec. 15, 1683.
Walton BRIAN, an English Biblical scholar
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
BRIAN, an English Biblical scholar; born in Seymour, Yorkshire, England, in 1600. He was made chaplain to Charles II. and Bishop of Chester at the Restoration. His great- His gre est work is "Biblia Sacra Polyglotta" (6 vols., folio 1657), including the Hebrew original of the Old Testament, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, and Latin Vulgate, with various readings, notes, etc.; still thought to be "the most complete Biblical apparatus in any language." He wrote in 1658 his "Dissertation on the Antiquity and Authority of His Texts," in later editions called the "Prolegomena," under which name it was published in the original Latin (2 vols. 1827-1828). "The Considerator Considered," etc. (1659), was written in answer to Dr. John Owen's "Vindication of the Purity and Integrity of the Hebrew and Greek Texts," etc., which was a criticism on his great Biblical work. He died in London, Nov. 29, 1661.
Walton GEORGE, an American patriot
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
GEORGE, an American patriot; born in Frederick co., Va., in 1740; studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1774; began practice the same year in Augusta, Ga. On July 27, 1774, with three others he called a public meeting in Savannah to consider certain pub public grievances, and was made a member of the committee to urge the various parishes to join the other provinces in resisting the arbitrary claims of Great Britain; was also on the committee which drew up a petition to the king. In 1776 he was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and was a delegate to the Continental Congress from that year till October, 1781; was elected governor of Georgia in 1779 and 1789; was chief-justice of the State in 1783, 1787, and 1793; and United States Senator in 1795-1796. He died in Augusta, Ga., Feb. 2, 1804.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The biographies stand, but one claim does not. Collier's said in 1921 that Brian Walton's "Biblia Sacra Polyglotta" of 1657 was "still thought to be the most complete Biblical apparatus in any language"; no textual scholar would say that today, after the great critical editions of the Hebrew and Greek texts and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls from 1947 onward, which pushed the manuscript evidence for the Old Testament back by roughly a thousand years. Izaak Walton's "Compleat Angler" has meanwhile gone on doing what Collier's credited it with, remaining one of the most frequently reprinted books in English and still in print in scholarly and popular editions; his grave is in Winchester Cathedral. George Walton is remembered chiefly as a signer of the Declaration of Independence, with Walton County, Georgia, named for him.
Written for this edition, 2026.