Family and Education

b. by 1502. m. Margaret, wid., 1s. 1da.2

Offices Held

?Member, household of Cardinal Wolsey; jt. customer, Ipswich by 1530-d., portman by 1558.3

Biography

John Valentine was presumably the man of that name who succeeded Thomas Rush as customer of Ipswich and was connected with the local family of Sone. Francis Sone, who was later to sit for Orford, and whom Valentine in his will called ‘cousin’, was the son of the John Sone from whom Valentine acquired a moiety of the manor of Campsea, Suffolk, in September 1545. It is likely, too, that Valentine was the man who figures in an undated list of members of Wolsey’s household. That one of the Members for Orford in 1523 bore his name is known from evidence given in an exchequer suit of 1554 relating to rights in the town. A merchant from Dunwich recalled that ‘one Valentine’ and a Lincolnshire man whose name he did not remember had been returned for Orford in 1523. As the Lincolnshire man was the nominee of the 11th Lord Willoughby, Valentine may have been of the town’s own choosing, but if he was one of Wolsey’s servants his election was doubtless at the cardinal’s prompting, with Rush acting as intermediary.4

The surname was an uncommon one at the time, and Valentine’s early career remains obscure. Whatever his connexion with Orford, it was at Ipswich that he was to spend the greater part of his life. In 1545 his subsidy assessment in the east ward of that town was on lands worth £30. When making his will on 22 Sept. 1558 he described himself as portman of Ipswich but he apparently held no other municipal office. He also claimed gentility but whether by birth or advancement is not known. He provided for his wife and children, remembered several kinsmen and named his wife and Francis Sone executors and his parish priest supervisor. The will was proved on 4 May 1559.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: M. K. Dale

Notes

• 1. E11/48.
• 2. Presumed to be of age at election. Suff. archeaconry ct. bk. 18, f. 207.
• 3. E122/53/19, 54/3; 179/69/9; Select Cases in Star Chamber (Selden Soc. xxv), 280; Stowe, 571, f. 8; Suff. archdeaconry ct. bk, 18, f. 207.
• 4. LP Hen. VIII, vi, xx, xxi; E111/48.
• 5. E179/181/270; Suff. archdeaconry ct. bk. 18, f. 207.