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Stephen Vallenger (1541–1591)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Anthony Petti
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Extract

Of the many topicalities which fill the writings of the Elizabethan pamphleteers, Gabriel Harvey and Thomas Nashe, two concern the now almost unknown recusant poet and Cambridge tutor, Stephen Vallenger. In each allusion, as the subject of a long standing esoteric joke, he is referred to with obvious irony as “noble.” In Catholic eyes, at least, he merited the title, for he risked life imprisonment, if not worse, in an attempt to vindicate the cause for which Edmund Campion died, and when arrested, shielded his associates, taking full punishment upon himself.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 6 , Issue 6 , October 1962 , pp. 248 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1962

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References

1. The only biographical information of any substance is to be found in a brief innaccurate article by Plomer, H. R., The Library, New Series II, 1901, 108–12;Google Scholar in Venn, J., Biographical History of Gonville and Coins College, 1, 1349–1713, 49 Google Scholar; and in Southern, A.C., Elizabethan Recusant Prose, 1952, 279–82, 377-9.Google Scholar

2. vid. Three Proper and Wittie familiar letters lately passed betweene two universitie men (1580), Works of Gabriel Harvey, edited A.B. Grosart, 1884, 1, 100; Strange Newes of the Intercepting Certain Letters (1593), Works of Thomas Nashe, edited R. B. McKerrow, revised F. P. Wilson, 1958, 1, 297. In his commentary on the references, McKerrow states he could learn nothing of Vallenger, and failed to see the point of the epithet applied to him.

3. The registers of Caius College give his age as 21 on his admission in 1562 (Venn, J., Alumni Cantabrigienses, I, iv, 1927, 293).Google Scholar

4. Warengerus, one of the earliest forms of the name, being derived from the Old German “Warengar,” is mentioned in the Domesday Book for Norfolk (Munford, G. Annals of the Domesday Book of the County of Norfolk, 1858, 141)Google Scholar. Among other forms of the name are Wallenger, Wallinger, Wallaker and Walliker (vid. P. Reaney, A Dictionary of British Surnames, 1958, which does not, however, mention the form, Vallenger). Various references to the Norfolk Vallengers are contained in the publications of the Norfolk Record Society; Harleian Society, XXXII, 20, 177-8, 186; J. L'estrange and W. Rye, Calendar of Freemen of Norwich 1317-1603; F. Blomefield, History of Norfolk, vii, 481, 490, ix, 11. There were also Wallengers in Suffolk, Oxfordshire and Essex (see, for example, Notes and Queries, 8th ser., i, 321, ii, 472, iii, 235; Harleian Society, XIII, 516; The Genealogist, vii, 253).

5. Details of the family and the bequests are taken from the wills of Robert and Ele Vallenger (128 Lyncolne and 95 Marten), proved in the Norwich Consistory Court, and now housed in the City Library, Norwich.

6. vid. Humphrey's will (30 Bate), proved 1583. Thomas is mentioned in Le Strange, H., Norfolk Official Lists, 1890, 202.Google Scholar Henry's name occurs from time to time in State Papers Domestic (PRO) and in Chancery Proceedings, series II, Bundle 185, no. 50.

7. Henry married Anne Bastard. For details of her brother's recusancy vid. Catholic Record Society, XXII, 62 Google Scholar; LIII, 113.

8. For example Stephen's nephew, Thomas (d. 1595) went to school at Lynn before going up to Caius, his uncle's college.

9. This information is provided by the Caius registers (see note 3). Aylsham was a free-school founded by Robert Jannys, Mayor of Norwich, in 1517 (General History of the County of Norfolk, I, 1829, 175). See also Blomefield, op. cit., vi, 282.

10. vid. note 3.

11. Although Venn, in Alumni Cantabrigienses, 1922, I, ii, 37, rejects his earlier account of Dethicke in Biographical History of Gonville and Caius, I, 38-9, it is corroborated by information contained in Foley, Records S.J., vi, 565; C.R.S., II, 207, LIII, 194.

12. vid. Wood, N., The Reformation and English Education, 1931, 278.Google Scholar

13. Venn, Alumni, loc. cit. In Biographical History he gives the year of Vallenger's M.A. as 1563.

14. James, M. R., A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Gonville and Caius College, i, 103.Google Scholar

15. See further Adams, E. N., Old English Scholarship in England from 1566–1800,Google Scholar Yale Studies in English, 1916; Kendrick, T. D., British Antiquity, 1930.Google Scholar

16. The Harvey and Nashe references are given in note 2.

17. P.R.O., Special Commissions of the Exchequer, E. 178/2978.

18. B.M., Sloane 326, f.54i>. The passage is given in full later in the article.

19. vid. note 37

20. February is given as the date of the book at Vallenger's trial (Sloane 326, f.54). Fleetwood in his letter to the Lord Treasurer, 14 April, 1582 (Lansdowne 35, f.87), states it was published in “the first wike of lent.” Ash Wednesday fell on 28th February in 1582.

21. In the document mentioned in note 17, Vailenger is described as having dwelt “nuper de Southwarke,” He must therefore have been living fairly close to East Smithiield, where the book was printed.

22. The details are given in Fleetwood's letter mentioned in note 20.

23. This information is provided by Mildmay's speech at Vallenger's trial.

24. This speech, grouped with others by Mildmay, including the one against Vaux, Tresham and Catesby, survives in various ms. copies: B.M., Sloane 326, Har-leian 6265; Bodleian, Rawlinson C. 838 (kindly made known to me by Dr. David Rogers); Folger Shakespeare Library, X.d. 338; Henry Huntington Library, Ellesmere MSS., H.M. 2665. The Rawlinson ms., which comprises a large set of Mildmay's speeches, is the only one to give an indication of the speaker's identity (though a cataloguer of the Ellesmere MSS has ventured the guess that it was Sir Thomas Bromley). One wonders why Mildmay rather than Popham, the Attorney General appears to have made the main speech for the prosecution—unless Popham was absent.

25. The only specific criticism of Campion's trial is in the first of the poems. The writer of the preface states that a full account of the trial would be published in the near future.

26. vid. G. R. Elton's section on the Star Chamber in The Tudor Constitution, 1960, especially p. 169.

27. vid. C.R.S., XXI, 33, 65n., 142n., 184, 241, 256n., 267, 278n., 337.

28. B.M., Yelverton MSS. xxxiii, f.112v. The passage is very inaccurately transcribed in C.R.S. XXI.

29. C.R.S., XXI, 33.

30. id., 184.

31. A search through the indexes of Star Chamber Proceedings (P.R.O.) has proved fruitless.

32. vid. P.R.O., S.P. Dom., Eliz., vol, 153, no. 78, dated May (?) 1582 quoted by Southern, op. cit., 377-9.

33. For a fuller discussion of the authorship of the book vid. Southern, op. cit., 377-9; Recusant History, vol. 5, no. 2, April 1959, 67–9.Google Scholar

34. That he was still in debt to the crown at the time of his death appears from the document mentioned in note 17.

35. See, for example, Mc Kerrow-Wilson, Works of Thomas Nashe, iv, 178.

36. P. A. Boyan in Francis Tregian, 1955, gives an account of Tregian's imprisonment and of conditions in general in the Fleet.

37. In the work cited in note 2, Nashe, repeating Grene's accusation in Quip for an Upstart Courtier, states that because of the libellous content of Three Proper Letters Gabriel Harvey was imprisoned, being “referd ouer to the Fleet, to beare his old verse-fellow noble M. Valanger company.” Harvey denied the charge.

38. vid. C.R.S.., II, 250, 253, 283.

39. vid. Jayne, S., Library Catalogues of the English Renaissance, 1956, 9.Google Scholar

40. Reference given in note 17.

41. The sum total of all his goods is given in the schedule as £41 0s. 10d., but for some unknown reason, this does not take into account the value of all his books.

42. This is noted briefly and inaccurately in S. Jayne, op. cit., 130.

43. For example, at least 7 of the English books were acquired during his imprisonment.

44. This is included among the Latin works, and therefore does not appear in the list of English books reproduced in this article.

45. The printer was apparently Hieronymus Froben, though the book is not included in the list of his works in C. W. Heckethorn, The Printers of Basle, 1897.

46. This seems to be the same book as described in A. Maunsell, 1st part of the Catalogue of English Bookes, 1595, 116, as “Triall of a mans owne selfe, wherin eueñe Christian may behold his spirituall deformitie, by nature described &c, written in Latine by Andreas Hyperius, tr. Thomas Newton, printed by John Windet, 1587 in 12°.”

47. vid. Devlin, C., Robert Southwell, 1956, 202–3,Google Scholar Another Richard Southwell, father of the one mentioned here, also spent some time in the Fleet where he died in 1600. In fact all the male members of the family seem to have been in and out of prison for religion or debt during the last decade of the 16th century.

48. A search through the index of wills housed at the London Guildhall, London County Hall, Somerset House (Prerogative Court of Canterbury) and the Norwich City Library (Norwich Consistory Court) has been unavailing. However, by remarkable coincidence, there is in the Bullock register of wills and administrations by the Vicar General of the Bishop of London (1590-97), housed in the London County Hall, one made by a certain Stephen Wallinger of Essex. But he is certainly not the same Stephen Vallenger, since he died in 1589, his will being proved in September of that year, whereas the Special Commission clearly states that the Vallenger in the Fleet died in November 1591. Various other divergences include different places of residence, different relatives, different goods and chattels and differences in executors.

49. Also contained in P.R.O. E.178/2978.

50. op. cit., 225, 408.

51. vid. C.R.S., IV, 38, 39.