Family and Education

b. c.1531, 1st s. of Sir Oliver Wallop of Farleigh by his 1st w. Bridget Pigott of Beachampton; half-bro. of William Wallop. m. Katherine, da. of Richard Gifford of King’s Somborne, 3s. inc. Henry 3da. suc. fa. 1566. Kntd. 1569.

Offices Held

MP [I] 1585.

J.p. Hants from c.1559; freeman, Southampton 1572; commr. musters, Hants by 1573, eccles. commr. 1575, piracy 1577; vice-treasurer [I] 1579-82, ld. justice 1582-9, treasurer at war by 1595-9; steward of manors of Old and New Lymington and Somerford by 1585, jt. steward (with s. Henry) 1594.

Biography

Wallop was one of the wealthiest landowners in Hampshire, much of his property having descended to his father as the brother and nearest male heir of Sir John Wallop, who died in 1551. In 1566, a few months after he succeeded to his estates, Wallop unsuccessfully contested a by-election for Hampshire, receiving support from Bishop Horne, who had earlier reported favourably to the Council on his religious views, and the protestant party, led by Richard Norton I and his relatives the Kingsmills.

In 1572 Wallop was returned at Southampton, where his family was known and where he sometimes resided. The court leet cited him several times, fining him at least once for not having refuse cleared from his back doors in Woolhall and Bugle Street. During his first session in Parliament he was appointed to two legal committees (21, 22 May 1572) and to one on weapons (22 May). In 1576 he was appointed to committees on the ports bill (13 Feb.), a cloth bill (16 Feb.), weapons (17 Feb.), wine (21 Feb.), church discipline (29 Feb.) and wharves and quays (8 Mar.). By the time of the 1581 session he was in Ireland, and the borough returned Fulke Greville in his place, who remained the sitting Member until, on the last day of the session, the House decided that a Member’s absence on the Queen’s service did not justify a by-election, and unseated Greville. An efficient administrator in Ireland, Wallop carried out his military duties effectively during the rebellions, and negotiated ably with Tyrone in the truce of 1595. The fact that he quarrelled with Sir John Perrot is not to his discredit: scarcely a leading English official in Ireland did not. As a Member of the Irish Parliament of 1585, Wallop sponsored an Act about conveyances of land by those attainted of treason, a subject of interest to him as treasurer. It was during his Irish service that the surviving Armada ships straggled along the Irish coast, and a letter from him to Burghley gives details of examinations of Spanish prisoners. He complained, as did other English officials in Ireland, that salary and grants did not cover expenses. By the middle of 1598 he was ill. The Privy Council finally granted his request to be recalled in March 1599, but he died on 14 Apr., the day before his successor arrived. He had made his will 31 Mar., appointing Henry sole executor. Two servants, Richard Hooper and Philip Hore, received £200 for their ‘endeavour to pass’ Wallop’s accounts as ‘vice treasurer and treasurer at war before her Majesty’s commission’. Charles Huett received 40, provided that he would ‘effectually prosecute my accounts now in his hands’.

DNB; Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxiv), 26; C142/143/26, 256/5; CSP Ire. 1574-85, p. 546; 1577-99, passim; Lansd. 24, f. 159; 28, f. 146; 56, f. 168 seq.; 146, f. 18; 683, f. 69; Collins, Peerage, iv. 302, 306-17; E316/3/191; Cam. Misc. ix(3), p. 55; VCH Hants, iii. 365; iv. 35, 253; CPR, 1555-7, p. 132; St. Ch. 4/7/18; 5/P30/32, W36/33, 45/38; HMC 11th Rep. III, 20; Ct. Leet Recs. i (Soton Rec. Soc.), 70; ii. 171; CJ, i. 96, 105, 106, 107, 109, 112, 136; D’Ewes, 212, 213, 247, 251, 255, 308; CSP Dom. 1547-80, pp. 371, 375, 413, 524; 1581-90, p. 662; APC, viii. 146; x. 16, 415; xi. 226, 232-3 et passim; xii. 10, 38, 77 seq.; HMC Hatfield, iii. 22; Eliz. Govt. and Soc.46; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 502; PCC 1 Wallop.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes