Editing Izaak Walton (section)

==Biography==
Walton was born at [[Stafford]] in {{circa}} 1593. The register of his [[baptism]] on 21 September 1593 gives his father's name as ''Jervis'', or Gervase. His father, who was an [[inn]]keeper as well as a landlord of a [[tavern]], died before Izaak was three, being buried in February 1596/7{{efn|See [[dual dating]].}} as ''Jarvicus Walton''. His mother then married another innkeeper by the name of Bourne, who later ran the Swan in Stafford.<ref name=EB/> 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.<ref name=StMarys>{{cite web | url=http://www.stmarysstafford.org.uk/Izaak%20Walton/Izaak_Walton.htm | title=Izaak Walton: The Compleat Anglican | publisher=The Collegiate Church of St Mary, Stafford | access-date=24 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140530105444/http://stmarysstafford.org.uk/Izaak%20Walton/Izaak_Walton.htm |archive-date=30 May 2014}}</ref>

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]].<ref>Jessica Martin, 'Walton, Izaak (1593–1683)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2013 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/28653, accessed 1 Jan 2017]</ref> He had a small shop in the upper storey of [[Thomas Gresham]]'s [[Royal Exchange (London)|Royal Burse or Exchange]] in [[Cornhill, London|Cornhill]]. In 1614 he had a shop in [[Fleet Street]], two doors west of [[Chancery Lane]] in the [[parish]] of [[St Dunstan-in-the-West|St Dunstan's]].<ref>Reynolds, H. ''The Churches of the City of London''. Bodley Head, 1922</ref> He became verger and churchwarden of the church, and a friend of the vicar, [[John Donne]].<ref name=StMarys/> He joined the Ironmongers' Company in November 1618.<ref name=StMarys/>
Walton's first wife was Rachel Floud (married December 1626), a great-great-niece of [[Thomas Cranmer|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]].<ref name=EB/>

After the [[Cavalier|Royalist]] defeat at [[battle of Marston Moor|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, Staffordshire|Stone]], where he had bought some land edged by a small river. His new land at [[Shallowford, Staffordshire|Shallowford]] included a farm, and a parcel of land; however by 1650 he was living in [[Clerkenwell]], London.

He published the first of his several biographies of clergymen, a life of John Donne, in 1640. The first edition of his most famous book,''The Compleat Angler'', was published in 1653. It was expanded and republished in four additional editions.

Following the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 it was disclosed that Izaak was a staunch Royalist supporter who had aided the Royalists when, at great personal risk, he managed to safeguard one of the Crown Jewels, referred to as the Little George, following [[Charles II of England|Charles II]]'s defeat at the [[battle of Worcester]]. Walton was entrusted with returning it to London from where it was smuggled out of the country to Charles II who was then in exile.<ref>Poulton-Smith, A. ''Bloody British History''. History Press, 2013</ref>

His second wife died in 1662, and was buried in [[Worcester Cathedral]], where there is a monument to her memory. One of his daughters married Dr Hawkins, a [[prebendary]] of [[Winchester Cathedral|Winchester]].<ref name=EB/>

After 1662 he found a home at [[Farnham Castle]] with [[George Morley (bishop)|George Morley]], [[Bishop of Winchester]], to whom he dedicated his ''Life of George Herbert'' and his biography of [[Richard Hooker (theologian)|Richard Hooker]]. He sometimes visited [[Charles Cotton]] in his fishing house on the [[River Dove, Central England|River Dove]].<ref name=EB/>

Walton died, aged 90, in his daughter's house at Winchester on 15 December 1683 and was buried in [[Winchester Cathedral]].<ref name=EB/><ref>{{cite web | url=http://winchester-cathedral.org.uk/history-treasures/famous-people/izaak-walton-biographer-and-angler/ | title=Izaak Walton: Biographer and angler | publisher=Winchester Cathedral | access-date=24 June 2013 | archive-date=12 November 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231112214212/https://winchester-cathedral.org.uk/history-treasures/famous-people/izaak-walton-biographer-and-angler/ | url-status=dead }}</ref>