WALLOP, Robert (1601-1667), of Farleigh Wallop, Hants and Covent Garden, Westminster

The son of the richest commoner in Hampshire, Wallop was first returned at a by-election for Andover in 1621 while still under age, and was re-elected to every subsequent Parliament until the Restoration, either for the borough or the county. Nevertheless, so far as is known, he was totally inactive in Parliament throughout the period before 1640.

Although his father was prepared to give him a free choice, Wallop made a very advantageous marriage to the daughter of Hampshire’s lord lieutenant. HMC Portland, iii. 15. He refused to compound for knighthood in 1630, claiming that he had not received an individual summons to the Coronation and had not held lands worth £40 p.a. at the time. He was subsequently ordered to appear before the Privy Council, but his excuse seems to have been accepted. Add. 21922, ff. 178, 183. He was a staunch supporter of Parliament during the Civil War, and was a member of the republican Council of State. M. Keeler, Long Parl. 378; Warner, iv. 130. Although he did not sign Charles I’s death warrant, at the Restoration he was condemned as a regicide and imprisoned for life. He died intestate in the Tower on 16 Nov. 1667, and was buried at Farley. J. Stevens, St. Mary Bourne, 175. He was succeeded by his only son Henry Wallop, MP for Whitchurch 1660-74.