Littleton Waller - Ancestors

Ancestors

Both of Waller's ancestral families enjoyed wealth and political distinction in England and America. The Wallers were high sheriffs of Kent, where the family owned Groombridge Place, and judiciaries in Buckinghamshire. Littleton Waller's ancestor Col. John Waller came to Virginia about 1635. He trained as an attorney at the College of William and Mary and founded a family that included several members of the Virginia House of Burgesses, a justice of the Virginia Supreme Court, and a member of Virginia's delegation to the committee that adopted the Declaration of Independence. Littleton Waller's ancestor Benjamin Waller was a noted colonial attorney of Williamsburg, Virginia.

The Tazewells of Dorset county were churchmen and scholars of the law. William Tazewell, attorney, born in 1691, emigrated to Virginia in 1715. His descendants include members of the House of Burgesses, the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senates of both Virginia and the United States, and the Virginia Supreme Court. Tony Waller's maternal grandfather Littleton Waller Tazewell was, in turn, a U.S. Congressman, a U.S. Senator, and Governor of Virginia. He built the family home, Wishing Oak, on Granby Street in Norfolk in 1802 and died there on May 6, 1860.

The general's mother, Mary Waller Tazewell, was born at Wishing Oak in 1822. In 1848, she married Matthew Page Waller, her third cousin four times removed. Their children included a daughter and two sons older than Tony, and three sons younger. Littleton Waller Tazewell Waller was born on September 26, 1856. His father, who was a doctor, died of typhoid during an epidemic on December 11, 1861. Mary remained a widow until her death on December 20, 1889. She is buried with her husband in Elmwood Cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia.

The family's extensive public service is exclusively civilian. In 1920, when Tony Waller Jr. joined the Sons of the American Revolution, his application was based on his ancestor's participation in the Committee of Independence. The Waller family website says little about the Civil War years, and the associated Tazewell website says even less.

The Wallers and Tazewells seem to have had no military members prior to Tony's commissioning. His decision to become an officer must have surprised his family, but they were supportive of his ambition. In his teens, Tony was a corporal in the Norfolk Light Artillery Blues, a local militia unit. Turned down for a commission in the cavalry (at 5' 4" he was too short), he was accepted into the Marines.