# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Waller, Charles Henry

​WALLER, CHARLES HENRY (1840–1910), theologian, born at Ettingshall on 23 Nov. 1840, was eldest son of Stephen R. Waller, vicar of Ettingshall, Staffordshire. His grandfather, the Rev. Harry Waller of Hall Bam, Beaconsfield, was descended from Edmund Waller the poet. His mother was eldest daughter of the Rev. Charles Richard Cameron by his wife Lucy Lyttelton Cameron [q. v.], writer of religious tales for children, whose elder sister was Mary Martha Sherwood [q. v.], the authoress.
Educated at Bromsgrove School, he ​matriculated on 4 June 1859 at University College, Oxford, and held a scholarship there (1859-64). He took a first class in classical and a second in mathematical moderations in 1861, and a second in lit. hum., and a third in mathematical finals in 1863, graduating B.A. in 1863; M.A. in 1867; B.D. and D.D. in 1891. He also won the Denyer and Johnson theological scholarship on its first award in 1866. Ordained deacon in 1864, and priest in 1865, he became curate of St. Jude, Mildmay Park, under William Pennefather [q. v.]. In 1865, on the recommendation of Canon A. M. W. Christopher of Oxford, he began his long service to the theological college, St. John's Hall, Highbury, as tutor under Dr. T. P. Boultbee [q. v.]. He served in addition as reader or curate on Sundays at Christ Church, Down Street (1865-9), and at Curzon Chapel, Mayfair, in 1869, under A. W. Thorold [q. v.]; and was minister of St. John's Chapel, Hampstead (1870-4). He became McNeile professor of biblical exegesis at St. John's Hall in 1882, and principal from 1884, on Boultbee's death, till his retirement on a pension in 1898. Of some 700 of his pupils at St. John's Hall, the majority entered the ministry of the Church of England.
A pronounced evangelical, he acted as examining chaplain to Bishop J. C. Ryle [q. v.]. At Oxford he had come under the influence of John William Burgon [q. v. Suppl. I], and through life his main interest lay in the conservative study and interpretation of the Scriptures, on which he wrote much. He died on 9 May 1910 at Little Coxwell, Faringdon, Berkshire, and was buried there. He married, at Heckington, Lincolnshire, on 22 July 1865, Anna Maria, daughter of the Rev. James Stubbs, by whom he left four sons (three in holy orders) and three daughters (one a C.M.S. missionary at Sigra, Benares).
Waller's published works include: 1. 'The Names on the Gates of Pearl, and other Studies,' 1875; 3rd edit. 1904. 2. ’A Grammar and Analytical Vocabulary of the Words in the Greek Testament,' 2 parts, 1877-8. 3. 'Deuteronomy' and 'Joshua' in Ellicott's 'Commentary,' 1882. 4. 'The Authoritative Inspiration of Holy Scripture, as distinct from the Inspiration of its Human Authors,' 1887. 5. 'A Handbook to the Epistles of St. Paul,' 1887. 6. 'Apostolical Succession tested by Holy Scripture,' 1895. 7. 'The Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ,' 1903. 8. 'Moses and the Prophets, a Plea for the Authority of Moses in Holy Scripture,' 1907; a reply to the Rev. Canon Driver.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Crockford, 1910; The Times,11 May 1910; Record,13 May 1910; Johnian (St. John's College, Highbury), Sept. 1910; private information.]
E. H. P.