Patrick Comerford
I was in Maids Moreton, on the edges of Buckingham, twice in the past ten days, looking at the Old Rectory designed by the architect Edward Swinfen Harris (1841-1924) from Stony Stratford, visiting Saint Edmund’s Church, enjoying the timber-framed houses and thatched cottages, and researching the stories and legends of the ‘Maids of Moreton’, the sisters said in local lore to have given Maids Moreton its name.
In Saint Edmund’s Church in Maids Moreton, I noticed a brass tablet on the south wall with a very elaborate and decorated Celtic cross and the inscription below: ‘To the Glory of God and in loving memory of Bolton Waller Johnstone, MA, Rector of this Parish for 26 years who died Nov 8th 1903 Also of Charlotte Lydia his wife who died April 6th 1892. This Tablet is erected by their children RIP’.
At the time Swinfen Harris was working on the Old Rectory and the Victorian monument commemorating the ‘Maids of Moreton’ was being placed in the nave floor, the Revd Bolton Waller Johnstone (1823-1903) was the Rector of Maids Moreton.
He was an Irish-born priest, and I was interested in his connections with my former diocese and parishes: his parents, the Revd John Beresford Johnstone and Elizabeth Waller of Castletown Park, Co Limerick, were married in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, where I was once the canon precentor.
His mother was a member of the Waller family whose monuments and memorials line the walls of Castletown Church, Kilcornan, where I was the priest-in-charge for five years. His siblings were born in Co Limerick and were baptised in Saint Michael’s Church, Limerick, while he was born in Kilkenny and educated at Trinity College Dublin.
The Revd Bolton Waller Johnstone, who died at the Rectory in Maids Moreton on 8 November 1892 at the age of 80, was the second son of the Revd John Beresford Johnstone, a former Rector of Tullow, Co Carlow, and Elizabeth Waller, a daughter of Thomas Waller of Castletown Park, Co Limerick. Bolton Waller Johnstone was named after his grandfather, Bolton Waller (1769-1854) of Castletown and Shannon Grove, an MP, High Sheriff, who owned large estates in the Castletown and Kilcornan areas near Pallaskenry, Co Limerick. The Waller family eventually sold off the Castletown estates in 1936.
Bolton Waller Johnstone was born in Kilkenny in 1823 and was named after his maternal grandfather, Bolton Waller (1769-1854) of Castletown. He was educated at Sherborne School and Trinity College Dublin. He was ordained deacon by the Archbishop of York in 1846 and priest by the Bishop of Durham in 1847. He was a curate in many parishes before becoming the perpetual curate (vicar) of Smithill (1850), curate of Holy Trinity, Marylebone (1851), and the Vicar of Farndon near Chester (1854). A year later, in 1855, Johnstone married Charlotte Lydia Coker (1823-1892), the eldest daughter of Captain Thomas Lewis Coker of Bicester House, Oxfordshire.
Johnstone became the Rector of Maids Moreton in 1877, and he remained there until he died 26 years later in 1903. During his time in Maids Moreton, Saint Edmund’s Church underwent a complete restoration, he installed the East Window and also oversaw the building of a new rectory, designed by Edward Swinfen Harris, and the expansion of the village school.
Bolton and Charlotte Johnstone were the parents of one son, the Revd Edward Aubrey Johnstone (1857-1928) and four daughters. During his final illness, his son, Revd Edward Aubrey Johnstone, carried out his duties, in the parish.
Two of his Irish-born sisters, Elizabeth Johnstone (1819-1895) and Sidney Janes Johnston (1820-1900), also came to live in the Rectory in Maids Moreton, and they too are buried there in the churchyard.
Bolton Johnstone’s father, the Revd John Beresford Johnstone (1793-1860), was the Rector of Tullow, Co Carlow, and married Elizabeth Waller in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, on 12 June 1806; he died in Dublin on 17 June 1860. She was a daughter of Bolton Waller (1769-1854) of Castletown and Shannon Grove, Co Limerick.
The Waller family of Castletown was descended from the regicide, Sir Hardress Waller (1604-1666), who was MP for Askeaton in 1634 and 1640 and one of the judges who passed the sentence of death on King Charles I in 1649. At the restoration of Charles II in 1660, all his friends deserted him, and he fled to France. When he returned to England, he pleaded guilty to regicide. His death sentence was reduced to exile, and he died in Jersey in 1666.
John Thomas Waller, MP for Limerick and High Sheriff, and his wife Elizabeth Maunsell were the parents of John Waller (1763-1836) of Castletown Manor and estate, who initiated the building of Castletown Church.
John Waller was succeeded by his brother, Bolton Waller, High Sheriff of Limerick, whose large estates in Co Limerick included lands in the parishes of Ardcanny and Kilcornan.
Bolton Waller’s son, the Revd William Waller (1794-1863), who was Elizabeth’s brother and Bolton Johnstone’s uncle, was the Rector of Kilcornan from 1842. He married Maria O’Grady, and inherited Castletown from his father in 1854, so that he was both lord of the manor and rector of the parish. He increased the Waller estates by buying up the neighbouring Bury estate.
William Waller’s son, the Revd John Thomas Waller (1827-1911), who was Bolton Johnstone’s first cousin, was also the Rector of Kilcornan, and was appointed to the parish by his father and predecessor.
John Waller was the secretary of the Irish Church Missions, and in that role he was an ardent and zealous evangelical who did much damage to community relations in West Limerick. He used vile language in his tirades, thrived on creating sectarian tensions and stirred up a riot in Pallaskenry in 1861. His land ownings extended to over 6,600 acres.
John Waller’s three sons were also clergymen. The Very Revd Edward Hardress Waller (1859-1938), who was born in Castletown, was the Rector of Athy, Co Kildare (1891-1913), a canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (1908-1913), before becoming the Dean of Kildare (1913-1928). During the Irish Civil War, when Erskine Childers was about to face the firing squad in Beggar’s Bush Barracks on 24 November 1922, he asked for Dean Waller to be present and to pray with him. He died in Delgany, Co Wicklow, in 1938.
Another son, the Revd John Thomas Waller, was the Rector of Saint Lawrence and Trinity Church, Limerick.
A third son, the Revd Bolton Waller, who was also born at Castletown Manor, was the Rector of Saint Munchin’s in Limerick (1892-1895), and died in Switzerland in 1897. His son, the Revd Bolton Charles Waller (1890-1936), was one of the early forerunners of the modern international peace movement.
Bolton Charles Waller was born in Cork and spent much of his childhood and teenage years on Meath Road and then Carlton Terrace in Bray, Co Wicklow. While he was a student at TCD, Bolton Waller wrote a prizewinning essay, ‘Paths to Peace.’ In the immediate aftermath of World War I, an American had created a prize fund for essays on better ways than war to deal with international conflict. The prize fund totalled £3,000, with a first prize of £1,000 and another £2,000 shared among the writers of rest of the ten best essays.
Bolton Waller’s essay, ‘Paths to Peace’ not only won first prize in the competition, but was also adopted by the League of Nations and subsequently by the United Nations.
Waller was an early advocate of the Irish Free State being admitted to the League of Nations, and was the secretary of the League of Nations Society Ireland. He went on to publish four titles on world peace: Towards the Brotherhood of Nations (1921), Ireland and the League of Nations (1925), Paths to World Peace (1926), and Hibernia, or the Future of Ireland (1928), as well as a 20-page pamphlet on Saint Patrick to mark the Patrician anniversary, Patrick – the Man (Dublin: APCK, 1932).
Bolton Waller was ordained deacon in 1931 and priest in 1932. He was the curate of Holy Trinity, Rathmines (1931-1936), Dublin, and then Rector of Saint John’s Parish, Clondalkin, Co Dublin (1936). But within six months of his appointment to Clondalkin he died in Kilpeacon, Co Limerick, in July 1936 at rhe age of 46. He is buried in Saint John’s Churchyard, Clondalkin.
A year earlier, his first cousin, John Thomas (‘Jack’) Waller (1889-1965), had demolished Castletown Manor, and in 1936 he sold the Castletown estate on behalf of his dying father, William Waller (1857-1937).
There are still traces of Castletown Manor and the Castletown estates in Kilcornan Parish, and memorials to members of the Waller family line the walls of Castletown Church. There is still a need for priests like Bolton Charles Waller who have a vision of finding alternatives to international conflict and a vision of working for world peace.
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