Thomas Wallop, MP

Family and Education

• son of John Wallop of Over Wallop.
• m. Margaret, daughter and heir of Nicholas Valoignes of Farleigh Wallop and Cliddesden, Hampshire, 1 son John Valoignes†.

Offices Held

Biography

It is uncertain when Thomas’s father died and whether he himself ever occupied the family estates. (These, besides the manors of Over Wallop and Soberton in Hampshire, included Lee Bretton in the same county and property at West Lavant in Sussex, which John Wallop recovered at law in 1410.) Certainly, the latter was still alive in 1419, for he attended the elections at Winchester which resulted in Thomas’s return to Parliament for the second time. The shire knight’s wife was heir to the manors of Cliddesden and Farleigh, although, again, it is not known if she inherited them before her husband’s death or if he ever had possession.[1]

Wallop’s career was short and uneventful. He was never appointed to serve on even an occasional royal commission, and it seems likely that he owed his elections to Parliament rather to the reputation of his kinsman, Richard Wallop* one of the Hampshire j.p.s, than to his own standing in the shire. He stood surety in Chancery in 1409 for two local people prosecuted for the detinue of a muniment chest, in 1411 for the executors of John Hurst, and in 1412 for Henry Popham*, esquire, at the suit of the administrators of the will of Bishop Wykeham of Winchester. That he was a lawyer by profession is further indicated by his appearance at the assizes held at Salisbury in February 1414, as an attorney briefed by the former Speaker, Sir John Tiptoft*. In the following year he put in an appearance at the parliamentary elections held at Winchester.[2]

Wallop died before 1428, by which date his widow had married William Vachell, and had taken possession not only of her own inheritance at Cliddesden but also of the Wallop estate at Soberton. His son, John, was his heir.[3]

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. Peds. Plea Rolls, ed. Wrottesley, 269; VCH Hants, iii. 261, 364; iv. 146; J. Stevens, Parochial Hist. St. Mary Bourne, 157; C219/12/3.
• 2. CCR, 1405-9, p. 490; 1409-13, pp. 203, 398-9; C219/11/7; JUST 1/1527 m. 25.
• 3. Feudal Aids, ii. 350, 358