Waller, John Francis (1809–94), writer, was born 21 July 1809 in Limerick, third son of Thomas Maunsell Waller (1781–1843) of Finoe House, Co. Tipperary, and his wife Margaret (née Vereker). The Waller family came to Ireland with Cromwell (qv) and settled in Tipperary. John was educated at TCD, graduating BA (1831), after which he attended the King's Inns and was called to the bar (1833). He went briefly on the Leinster circuit, but soon embarked on his forty-year career with the Dublin University Magazine (DUM) and ceased to work as a barrister, though in 1867 he became registrar of the rolls court. He first contributed verse to the DUM’s third issue in 1834 and thereafter (under the pseudonyms ‘Iota’ and ‘Jonathan Freke Slingsby’) was a prolific contributor of prose, poetry, and translations from the French, Italian, German and Spanish. As ‘Slingsby’ he wrote a series of columns, ‘sentimental, pathetic, humorous, classicist’ (DUM, no. 83, 313) which were published in 1852 as The Slingsby papers. After ten years contributing he took over from Charles Lever (qv) as editor in 1845 and in this capacity also edited the massive Imperial dictionary of universal biography (1857–63). Under his management, the DUM became more nationalistic, featuring work by ‘Speranza’ (Jane Francesca Wilde (qv) (née Elgee)), and initiating (1847) the ‘Anthologia Hibernia’ series by James Clarence Mangan (qv). However, a recent study criticises Waller for his lack of commitment and for the uncertain focus of the magazine under his editorship, noting that ‘his own writing contains an element of almost aggressive triviality . . . his style combining middle-class values, mid-Victorian smugness and late collegiate wit in a depressingly consistent fashion’ (Hall, 139).
Waller was an inveterate committee man and in 1864 was vice-president of the RIA. He was secretary (1855–61) and vice-president (1874–87) of the RDS, helping to arrange the transfer of some of the society's lands and collections to the state in 1877, for the purpose of creating a science and art museum. He was founder of the Goldsmith Club in 1872, having edited that writer's works in 1865. The influence of Oliver Goldsmith (qv) is notable on Waller's poetry, the best of which was humorous; his ‘Song of the glass’, termed one of the best drinking songs of the age by Richard Monckton Milnes, could have come from the mouth of Goldsmith's character Toby Lumpkin. Charles A. Read (qv) rated him highly as a poet, but Robert Hogan (1930–99), in the twentieth century, saw no reason to resurrect his now forgotten writings. However ‘The spinning wheel’ a short, romantic, narrative poem with an evocative refrain, is still found in anthologies. His prose works include Festival tales (1873) and The adventures of a protestant in search of a religion (1873), which had particular success in America, running into three editions.
Waller retired to London some time after 1887 and contributed to Cassell's biographical dictionary. He died 19 January 1894 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, and was followed two months later by his wife, the former Anna Hopkins, whom he married in 1835. They had two sons and five daughters.