VALENTINE, Benjamin (?1584-1652), of London.

The Valentines may have originated in Suffolk, but Benjamin was born in London in 1584, when his father, described as a ‘gentleman’, was resident in the parish of St Giles Cripplegate. In 1610 Valentine married the daughter of a London merchant, and soon afterwards he was moving in court circles, as a servant of the royal favourite, Robert Carr, 1st earl of Somerset. Somerset’s fall in 1615 may have left Valentine in financial difficulties, and he was imprisoned for debt in 1619. In the mid-1620s he was a client of William Herbert, 3rd earl of Pembroke, and as a result came into contact with Cornish critics of George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, like William Coryton* and Sir John Eliot†. The latter secured a seat for Valentine at St Germans in 1628, and the new MP went on to become one of the most outspoken critics of the crown in the Commons. In March 1629 he joined Denzil Holles* in holding the Speaker in his chair – thus preventing the dissolution of Parliament before Eliot’s final condemnation of the government could be heard. As a result, Valentine joined Eliot and others in the Tower of London, and, unlike Coryton, he refused any reconciliation with the government even after Eliot’s death in 1632. He remained in prison until released by Charles I, as a conciliatory gesture, immediately before the Short Parliament convened in April 1640.8HP Commons 1604-1629.

Valentine was not returned to this Parliament, but the Commons passed an order on 18 April to begin an investigation of the star chamber and king’s bench prosecutions of Valentine and his fellow MPs imprisoned after the previous Parliament.9CJ ii. 6a. He was re-elected for St Germans in October 1640, and although the election was disputed, he was supported by the majority of MPs, who considered that ‘Mr Valentine’s election was clear without controversy, and that he had sitten divers days in the House, and so it was agreed he should sit still, before the matter of the said election were determined’.10D’Ewes (N), 107. When the election was scrutinised, the Commons voted that his return was ‘good … and that his election shall not be questioned during this Parliament’.11CJ ii. 63b; D’Ewes (N), 222. Valentine’s presence in the House was important, as the case of the 1629 MPs was a useful stick with which to beat the Caroline government. On 18 December 1640 a committee was appointed to consider the breaches of privilege against Valentine and others, and the matter recurred at intervals over the next year.12CJ ii. 53b. On 6 July 1641 John Glynne reported the results of an investigation into the arrests, and two days’ later it was voted that the judgement against them was to be overturned and that Valentine and his fellows ‘ought to have reparation for their respective damages and sufferings’.13CJ ii. 200b, 203a; Procs. LP v. 521-2, 555-6. The case was eventually transmitted to the Lords in October.14CJ ii. 298a.

In the meantime, Valentine had become a reasonably active member of Parliament. He was named to the committee of privileges on 6 November 1640, and thereafter was appointed to various committees that reflected his status as a famous critic of the crown.15CJ ii. 21a. On 4 December he was added to the committee on the notorious case of St Gregory’s church, next to St Paul’s Cathedral; on 30 December he was named to the committee on the bill for annual Parliaments.16CJ ii. 44b, 60a. Even at this early stage his religious views were apparent. On 5 February 1641 he was sent to the lord keeper to ask that clergymen should not in future be named to local commissions, and on 1 March he was also appointed to attend a conference with the House of Lords on the same matter.17CJ ii. 79a, 95a. In August 1641 he revealed his suspicion of Catholicism – especially Irish Catholicism – when he told the Commons the story of a ‘suitor to her majesty for covering churches in Ireland with lead’, rather than straw, intending ‘to turn it into bullets for a rebellion’.18Procs. LP vi. 420. Economic matters were also within Valentine’s remit. He was named to the customs’ committee in February 1641, and in May was sent to advise the lord keeper of the Commons’ vote to change the charges on wine imports.19CJ ii. 92a, 157a. In July 1641 Valentine was twice sent to the lord keeper to ensure the speedy collection of assessments, and with John Carew he was instructed to discover why the poll money commissions had been delayed.20CJ ii. 199a, 206b, 221a; Procs. LP vi. 63, 69. After the summer of 1641 Valentine’s involvement in the Commons declined, but there is no sign that his political views had changed. On 9 November 1641, soon after news broke of the Catholic rebellion in Ireland, he was sent to the lord keeper to demand that Irish students at the inns of court must take the oaths of supremacy and allegiance; and in the spring of 1642 he was again sent as messenger to ensure that Parliament’s enemies should be put out of the commissions for the peace.21CJ ii. 308b, 458b, 546b.

During the first civil war, Valentine changed from celebrity to mendicant. He was evidently very short of money at this time. Although he offered to ‘bring in and maintain two horses’ in June 1642, in the list of those who offered money in December his name was followed by a blank.22PJ iii. 466; Add. 18777, f. 109v. He appears to have sat in the Commons very infrequently, although he did attend meetings of the Committee for Irish Affairs during 1643 and was present in the House in June to take the oath and covenant.23SP16/539/127, ff. 23, 28, 37v, 38; CJ iii. 118a. In November 1643 he was invited to attend the commissioners of the great seal for their deliberations over Eliot’s case, and by an order of 8 October 1644 Valentine was allowed £100 as interim compensation for his ‘long imprisonment for his affection to the public’ – a grant made because he was ‘hindered by the enemy from receiving any profit of his estate in the county of Chester, whereby he is deprived of all livelihood’.24CJ iii. 323b, 656b; HMC 6th Rep. 31. Holles took Valentine’s order to the Lords on the next day.25CJ iii. 657a-b; LJ vii. 18b. This was the last financial assistance offered to Valentine until March 1645 when he was granted an allowance of £3 per week.26CJ iv. 82b. This was less than the £4 allowed to other MPs whose estates were occupied by the enemy, possibly because it was a special award, outside the general scheme, rather than being ‘a reflection of his modest circumstances’.27Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 242n. That Valentine was a special case is certainly suggested by the Commons’ decision, in October 1646, to continued his allowance even though the payments to other MPs had come to an end.28CJ iv. 685b. In fact, this pension was paid regularly at least until May 1648.29Add. 33924, ff. 38-9; Add. 20778, f. 11; E404/235-6; SC6/ChasI/1663, m. 9d; SC6/ChasI/1664, m. 13d; SC6/ChasI/1665, m. 17d; SC6/ChasI/1666, m. 14. In January 1647 the notion of more substantial compensation for Valentine’s sufferings was revived, and on 18th of that month the Commons resolved that he should receive a lump sum of £5,000 ‘for the damages, losses, sufferings and imprisonments sustained and undergone by him for his service done to the commonwealth’.30CJ v. 54b, 56a. In May it was ordered that half the award should be paid immediately from composition money, and the Lords agreed to this on 25 May.31CJ v. 166b, 168b; LJ ix. 187a, 205b-206a. On 8 June the Committee for Compounding duly issued a warrant to pay Valentine £2,500.32CCC 805.

The payment of compensation seems to have encouraged Valentine to return to the Commons. He was in the House on 8 July 1647, and on 11 August was named to the committee to repeal the acts passed during the Presbyterian ‘forcing’ of the Houses.33CJ v. 237b, 271b. Any renewed enthusiasm soon subsided, however, and he was not named to another committee until May 1648.34CJ v. 562b. Valentine was not secluded from the Commons at Pride’s Purge, and he continued to sit in the House. On 17 January 1649 he was added to the committee for the sale of bishops’ lands, and in July he was named to the committee for the relief of poor debtors – a subject that must have had personal resonance.35CJ vi. 120b, 262a. On 25 September 1649 he signed a warrant of the Committee of Navy and Customs (to which he had been added by late November 1648), and on 14 March 1650 he was named to the committee to establish a court martial.36SP16/518, f. 173; Add. 5497, ff. 167-8; CJ vi. 382a. This seems to have been his last appearance in the Commons. The new commonwealth regime made some moves to fulfil earlier promises of compensation for Valentine. On 21 April 1649 Parliament ordered that the remaining £2,500 would now be paid from the dean and chapter lands, rather than the composition money, and this was incorporated into the act passed on 30 April.37CJ vi. 192a; A. and O. There is no evidence that the money was handed over, however, and Valentine continued to be in receipt of his pension, which was paid between May 1649 and March 1650, if not later.38E404/237, unfol.

The matter remained unsolved when Valentine died in the summer of 1652. He was buried at St Margaret’s Westminster on 9 June – a fact that eluded many MPs, who went on to appoint him as a member of the high court of justice in November 1653.39Mems. St Margaret, Westminster, 630; A. and O.; CJ vii. 353b. His only son, Matthias, had been appointed to the new Committee of Accounts in 1649, and as a commissioner for the sale of crown lands and a trustee for delinquent lands in 1652.40A. and O. In August 1652 Parliament was reminded that the £2,500 owed to Benjamin Valentine was still unpaid, and the Army Committee recommended that the sum should now be paid to Matthias.41CJ vii. 172a. He was still waiting for the payment of this award when he wrote his will in November 1653. In early December the trustees for the sale of crown forests were instructed to grant him lands worth £100 a year, but the matter remained unresolved when he died (by January 1654), leaving no children.42A. and O.; PROB11/239/180. It was presumably this matter that prompted the petition of Matthias’s widow, which was personally recommended to the protectoral council by another veteran of the 1628-9 Parliament, Oliver Cromwell*, in June 1654.43CSP Dom. 1654, p. 227.