WALLOP, Sir Henry (1568-1642), of Farleigh Wallop, Hants.

Wallop was brought up partly in Ireland, where his father Sir Henry Wallop† (d. 1599) was lord justice and treasurer at war.3Chamberlain Letters ed. McClure, i. 32, 82; ‘Sir Henry Wallop (c.1531-1599)’, Oxford DNB. Married to an heiress and with interests also in Wales and the Marches, in adulthood he was one of the wealthiest and most prominent members of the Hampshire gentry, and was reckoned in 1628 to be one of the three richest members of the House of Commons.4Add. 21922, f. 16; SP16/521, f. 308; Hants RO, 44M69/G4/1/29, 31; HMC Cowper, i. 351. He sat in every Parliament from 1597 until his death, with the exception of that of 1604, when he was sheriff.5HP Commons 1558-1603; HP Commons 1604-1629. He was consistently associated with godly causes, and on a number of occasions these convictions led him to oppose the government.6T. F. Heavenly Meditations (1606), sig. A3; N. Fuller, Miscellaneorum (1617), sig. ⁋2; M. Brookes, The House of God (1627), sig. A2; Hants RO, 19M61/1317; SP14/156, f. 14. Although he was named as a commissioner for the Forced Loan in 1627, he appeared on a list of those who ‘desired to be excused for subscribing but voluntarily tendered the monies required of them’.7Hants RO, 44M49/G4/1/45, 44M69/G4/1/42. Later, during his second spell as sheriff of Hampshire, he was reported to have been somewhat lax in fining for knighthoods, while he was also recorded as having refused to contribute to the first bishops’ war in 1639, and to lend money to the crown again in May 1640.8T. Birch, Ct. and Times of Charles I, ii. 96; Rushworth, Hist. Collns. iii. 914; Add. 11045, f. 116.

As a leading gentleman with misgivings about Caroline policies, Wallop was almost assured of a seat in both the Short and Long Parliaments of 1640, to both of which he was returned as a knight of the shire. However, the fact that he was already 72 probably curbed his activity in the chamber. He made no recorded impression on the Short Parliament, although he was named to the committee of privileges.9CJ ii. 4a.

Wallop was more noticeable in the Long Parliament. There he displayed some zeal for religious reform and, as someone with strong roots in Ireland, showed enthusiasm for dismantling the regime of the 1st earl of Strafford (Sir Thomas Wentworth†). He offered £1,000 to help secure a loan from the City of London (21 Nov.), and five days later presented a petition against Strafford, which John Pym* subsequently moved should be referred to the committee dealing with the lord deputy (12 Jan. 1641).10Procs. LP i. 228, 232, 235, 308, 325. On 7 May 1641 Wallop was recorded as having joined with other prominent members of the Anglo-Irish community (like Richard Boyle, 1st earl of Cork, and Roger Jones, 1st Viscount Ranelagh) to help secure loans to disband the Irish army.11CSP Ire. 1633-47, p. 281.

Wallop’s first committee appointment was to the body to consider petitions relating to preaching ministers, which had formerly been a sub-committee of the committee for religion (19 Dec. 1640).12CJ ii. 54b. In April 1641 he was appointed to a committee to consider the bill for punishing and fining members of Convocation who had sat in the absence of Parliament.13CJ ii. 129a. As a veteran of local administration, Wallop was inevitably employed on matters such as the assessments for subsidy payments (30 Apr.).14CJ ii. 130b.

On 10 June 1642, with civil war looming, the king had Wallop and his son Robert* removed from the Hampshire bench.15C231/5, p. 528. Three days later, on 13 June, Sir Henry and Robert offered to provide eight horses for parliamentary service.16PJ iii. 476. Wallop senior was named as one of the Hampshire gentry to take control of military stores which might be used in a war against Parliament (22 July).17CJ ii. 686b. On 6 August he was among those who received instructions ‘of a very high and strong nature’ for raising the trained bands to seize Portsmouth, orders which Sir Simonds D’Ewes* thought ‘tended to no other end but to the kindling and promoting of a desperate and dangerous civil war’.18CJ ii. 686b; PJ iii. 284.

Wallop’s contribution to the war effort was ended by his death on 15 November 1642. He left no will, and it was not until 1654 that administration of the estate was granted to his son.19PROB6/29/352. Meanwhile, Robert Wallop became a prominent parliamentarian in Hampshire, and a leading figure in the Rump after the execution of Charles I.