Note 44 — Chapter III · BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY YEARS OF WALLACE.

A family of the name of Waleis also existed in England, some of whom appear to have attained the highest civic honours in the city of London. We are informed by Stowe, that, in 1299, when part of the palace of Westminster, and the public buildings of the adjoining monastery, were destroyed by fire, a Parliament was held by Edward in the house of Henry Waleis, Mayor of London, at Stehenheth, “when crokards, pollards, and rosaries, coyned in foreign parts beyond seas, and uttered for sterlings, were cried down.” Henry Waleis was also Mayor in 1300; and a person of the same name is mentioned as having contributed largely to the building of “St Martyn’s Church, in the vintry of London;” he is also said to have filled the office of Mayor, during which time he built a prison, called the Tun, in Cornhill, for night-walkers. In 1296, when Edward granted the citizens of London the right of electing their chief magistrate, one William Waleis was called by the public voice to the civic chair.