Richard Wallop 1616-1697

Richard WALLOP 1616-1697

Biographical Note

Born at Bugbrooke, Northamptonshire, son of Richard Wallop, a member of a gentry family originally from Hampshire. BA Pembroke College, Oxford 1635; called to the Bar at the Middle Temple 1646, bencher 1666, treasurer 1673. His career as a barrister brought him to public notice in the 1680s, when he defended a number of high profile people accused of various kinds of offences or sedition against the Crown. In 1696 he was made a baron of the Exchequer.

Books

Wallop's brief will has no mention of books; all his estate was left to his wife Mary. His library, along with that of "another gentleman, lately deceased", was sold by retail sale in London, beginning 22 November 1697. The sale catalogue lists 1869 lots, "also several more bundles of choice tracts etc", subdivided as law in English (263), law in Latin (134), history in English (470), history in Latin (134), English miscellanies (181), divinity in English (161), miscellaneous Latin books (206), Latin theology (107), poems and plays (70), novels etc (100), plays in bundles (22), folio poetry (2), and bundles of tracts/sermons (19); there is no way of knowing which books came from which source though the bulk, or all, of the legal books were presumably Wallop's.

Characteristic Markings

None of Wallop's books have been identified.

Sources

• Will of Richard Wallop, The National Archives PROB 11/439/446.
• Alston, R. C., Inventory of sale catalogues ... 1676-1800, St Philip, 2010.
• A catalogue of a choice collection of books of Richard Wallop, 1697, ESTC r186205.
• Collins, Jeffrey R. "Wallop, Richard (bap. 1616, d. 1697), lawyer." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.