WALLOP, Sir Henry (1568-1642), of Farleigh Wallop, Hants; Poynton, Salop and Little St. Bartholomew, London

Wallop’s ancestors were seated at Farleigh under Henry III, and first represented the county in 1328. Warner, iv. 103-5. His father, a strong Protestant, made a career for himself in Ireland, and took little interest in Westminster or county politics. Wallop himself married a Shropshire heiress, a cousin of Dudley Carleton*, a match which brought him into the well-informed circle best known through the correspondence of John Chamberlain, and characterized by concern for international Protestantism and hostility to Spain. A.E. Corbet, Corbet Fam. 297; Chamberlain Letters, i. 32, 82, 95. In addition to his substantial estates in Hampshire and Shropshire, by 1614 Wallop also maintained a town house in Little St. Bartholomew’s, London. HMC 7th Rep. 543.

Wallop sat in every Parliament between 1597 and his death in 1642, apart from that summoned in 1604 when, as sheriff of Hampshire, he was precluded from membership of the Commons. Despite appealing to the 1st earl of Salisbury (Robert Cecil†), Wallop was obliged to serve a second shrievalty in 1606 in respect of his wife’s property in Shropshire, from where he was able to supervise his iron-works in the forest of Bringwood, Herefordshire. HMC Hatfield, xii. 456; xv. 17; xvi. 313, 335; xvii. 542; xviii. 65, 204, 276; SP14/15/34. In 1612 he financed the publication of the works of the eminent puritan divine Nicholas Fuller, his Oxford mentor, but he was sufficiently broad-minded also to receive a dedication from the rather more conformist Thomas Fuller. T. Fuller, Worthies, ii. 19; DNB sub Fuller, Nicholas; Oxford DNB sub Fuller, Nicholas; N. Fuller, Miscellaneorum Theologicorum (1612), STC 11461.

Wallop had served as knight of the shire for Hampshire in 1601, and was determined to regain the county seat at the first opportunity. He began canvassing energetically early in 1614, and was initially confident of victory, ‘notwithstanding many threats used by the other’. Whithed Letter Bk. 113-16. However he left it too late to gain the endorsement of Hampshire’s lord lieutenant, the 3rd earl of Southampton, and was defeated by two courtiers, Sir Richard Tichborne and Sir William Uvedale, on a poll. Hants RO, 44M69/G2/45. He must have anticipated this outcome, since he also arranged with his brother-in-law Sir Richard Gifford* to get a seat at Stockbridge, a duchy of Lancaster borough. Gifford was initially had been elected for Stockbridge, but now proposed to stand down so that Wallop could take his place. In doing so he probably sought the approval of the chancellor of the duchy, Sir Thomas Parry*, who nominated Sir Walter Cope*, another member of John Chamberlain’s circle, as Stockbridge’s junior burgess. Both Cope and Wallop were returned, though Cope was initially defeated at the poll by a local candidate, Henry St. John*, and was only returned after Parry’s agents forced the bailiff to hold the election again. Many of the voters protested at this outcome, Hants RO, 44M69/G2/44, 154. and Wallop took his seat only after some hesitation. Hants RO, 44M69/F2/5/7. His two committee appointments in the Addled Parliament were to consider the partial repeal of the 1543 Act of Union for Wales (18 Apr.) and to prepare for a conference on impositions (5 May). Procs. 1614 (Commons), 98, 151. On 11 May the Commons declared the Stockbridge election void. Ibid. 175, 178, 182, 183, 192, 204; CSP Dom. 1611-18, p. 233. The next day Wallop wrote via his brother-in-law Sir Richard Paulet* to the Speaker, Sir Ranulphe Crewe, asking for permission to be excused, ‘being loth to be accounted an intruding Member without being settled with the good allowance of the House’. He also pointed out that he had not himself been accused of malpractice and claimed that he was not aware that there had been any ‘sinister dealing’. He protested that

I shall ever be ambitious to behold the gravity and serve the wisdom of so honourable an assembly, but I utterly abhor to come thither unduly. The Parliament [began] a fortnight before I came into the House, which I hope will clear me of being over-greedy of the place. Procs. 1614 (Commons), 480; Hants RO, 44M69/G2/43.

He may have accepted the House’s decision on the Stockbridge election with equanimity, but not so his defeat for the county. While still a Member he had begun Star Chamber proceedings against his successful rivals, but eventually decided to bring charges only against the sheriff, Sir Richard Norton*. STAC 8/293/11; Hants RO, 44M69/G2/42, 45; Chamberlain Letters, i. 521. On 31 May William Beecher unsuccessfully moved that Wallop should be ordered to suspend all legal action until he had petitioned the House. Procs. 1614 (Commons), 390, 397. In the meantime, a by-election was held at Stockbridge at which, bizarrely, Wallop was again victorious. However, he did not re-enter the House, and a new petition concerning the election was still pending at the dissolution. Hants RO, 44M69/G2/42; Procs. 1614 (Commons), 323, 390. The case against Norton dragged on until 1615, but the outcome is unknown, although Wallop may have recovered damages. CD 1621, vi. 345. His dismissal in 1617 from the commission of oyer and terminer, probably for his harassment of Tichborne and Uvedale, must have been a severe blow to his prestige in the county.

Wallop actively exploited the Bringwood iron works in Herefordshire on a Crown lease originally granted to his in-laws the Corbets, though this brought him into conflict with the lord president of Wales, who attempted to reduce his consumption of timber. Two days after his own nomination to the Council in the Marches in December 1617, he petitioned Prince Charles against the restrictions. DCO, Letters and Warrants, 1615-19, ff. 103v-104v; Harl. 781, f. 2. He twice refused a peerage, to Carleton’s dismay, and in 1619 it was said that he would be more acceptable to the king in the House of Lords than John Poulett*. Letters of Philip Gawdy ed. I. Jeayes, 181; CSP Dom. 1619-23, p. 58. In the third Jacobean Parliament he was again elected as a knight of the shire for Hampshire, but his only committee appointment was to help draft the subsidy bill on 16 Feb. 1621. CJ, i. 523b. Though not officially named to the open committee on Irish grievances (26 Apr.), he attended the hearings as an interested party. Ibid. 593a; CD 1621, vi. 102. In 1624 he was elected for Whitchurch, where his cousin Sir Thomas Jervoise* had a controlling interest. His five appointments included the committee for privileges (23 Feb.); a tillage bill (24 Mar.), in which he doubtless upheld the interests of landlords who, like himself, had been accused of ‘depopulation’; and a bill to ensure the continuance of free schools and hospitals (19 May), a subject in which, as trustee of Basingstoke free school, he probably had considerable expertise. In 1625 he sat for another Hampshire borough, Andover, and later that year the corporation spent 5s. on music to celebrate his birthday. R.A. Jones, Andover Members, 7. His only contribution to the first Caroline Parliament was to inform the House on 22 June that Dr. Westfield, the vicar of his London parish, wished to be excused from preaching on the fast day. Procs. 1625, p. 218. He was one of the sureties for the wardship of the 4th earl of Southampton, and in September 1625 was assessed at £100 for a Privy Seal loan, the highest rate in the county, eventually paying half that amount under protest. Rymer, viii. pt. 1, p. 142; Add. 21922, f. 16.

Wallop’s local prestige reached its apogee in 1626, when he and his son Robert were returned for Hampshire together. In the second Caroline Parliament he was named to six committees, including those for bills to prevent clandestine inquisitions (14 Feb.), to prohibit the export of wool (16 Feb.), and to expedite the passing of sheriffs’ accounts (14 March). Procs. 1626, ii. 32, 53, 281. On 22 Mar. he was ordered to help examine the inefficient victualling of the Mansfeld expedition. Ibid. 341. In the supply debate of 27 Mar. he opposed the grant of fifteenths, alleging that even Queen Mary had disliked levying them, and moved for an additional subsidy instead. Ibid. 378. He was ordered to help draft the preamble to the subsidy bill (5 May), and added to the committee to give reasons at the proposed conference for desiring a public fast (9 June). Ibid. iii. 168, 405. After the dissolution Secretary Conway (Sir Edward Conway I*) warned Wallop that he would be held responsible for any opposition to the Loan in his division, and offered him a deputy lieutenancy on the mistaken assumption that he would co-operate with the commission. However, Wallop refused to subscribe, and withheld his payment for as long as possible; the region produced among the lowest yields in the country. HMC Portland, iii. 22; SP16/41/25, 16/52/69; R. Cust, Forced Loan, 241.

In 1628 Wallop was again returned for Hampshire. He was appointed to the committee for privileges (20 Mar.) and spoke four times. On 2 Apr. he pointed out that the Crown’s finances would be considerably helped by disbanding the army, and two days later he reiterated his dislike of fifteenths, moving instead for a grant of four subsidies. CD 1628, ii. 253, 308. On 8 Apr. he produced a copy of the Hampshire martial law commission, and gave a lurid account of the soldiers’ behaviour:

They have committed many outrages that are insupportable ... The Isle of Wight is now pestered with 1,500 Scots and redshanks, a barbarous people ... They leave bastards in every parish to be a perpetual charge. Murder is ordinary with them ... I do not see we have anything safe as long as they are amongst us. Neither do I see how we shall pay anything to the king without redress. Ibid. 361, 365, 416.

He was named to the committee for a bill to exempt the four Marcher shires from the jurisdiction of the lord president of Wales (19 May), and was among those sent on 21 June to find out whether the king intended an adjournment or a prorogation. Ibid. iii. 464, iv. 404. A commentator noted in 1628 that he was one of the three richest Members of the Commons, which makes his donation of £5 towards the repair of St. Bartholomew the Great in that year seem not over-generous. HMC Cowper, i. 351; E.A. Webb, Recs. St. Bartholomew Smithfield, ii. 535. Wallop left no mark on the records of the second session.

Wallop’s appointment as sheriff in 1629 was doubtless intended as a reprimand for his resistance of the loan, and he was further punished in February 1631 by a fine of £200 for failing to produce enough Hampshire freeholders to compound for knighthood. T. Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, ii. 96; APC, 1629-30, p. 256. He only narrowly escaped being made sheriff of Shropshire again in the following year. CSP Dom. Addenda, 1625-49, p. 417. In 1633 he was summoned before Star Chamber to answer charges of staying in London over Christmas contrary to the proclamation, eating meat on Fridays, and depopulation. Strafforde Letters (1739) ed. W. Knowler, i. 337; STAC 8/293/21, 2; 8/298/11. Returned for Hampshire to both the Short and Long Parliaments, Wallop went on to support the parliamentarian cause, offering to provide eight horses. N and Q (ser. 1), xii. 360. He died intestate on 15 Nov. 1642 and was buried at Farleigh Wallop. Historical Collections ed. J. Rushworth, iii. 914; Keeler, Long Parl. 377; Warner, iv. 130. He was succeeded by his only son Robert*, to whom administration of his estates was granted in 1654. PROB 6/29, f. 174v.