Benjamin Valentine

Benjamin Valentine (died 1652?), was an English parliamentarian.

Valentine was probably a native of Cheshire. He was elected on 3 March 1627 – 1628 to represent the borough of St. Germans in the Parliament of 1628–9. He was in the House of Commons on 2 March 1628–9 when the Speaker, John Finch, would have obeyed King Charles I's direction for adjournment. Valentine, with Denzil Holles, held the Speaker down in his seat while Sir John Eliot read out resolutions questioning the king's proceedings respecting religion and taxation. On 5 March, with John Selden and William Coryton, he was under examination at the Privy Council, and was committed to the Tower of London.

On 17 March he was examined before a committee of the Council, when he refused to answer any questions respecting acts done in Parliament. On 6 May he, with Selden, Holles, William Strode, Miles Hobart, and Walter Long, considering themselves legally entitled to bail, applied to the Court of King's Bench for a writ of habeas corpus. Such stringent conditions were, however, imposed that Valentine absolutely declined to comply with them, and refused to accept bail (3 October 1629). On 7 May an information was filed against him and others in the Star Chamber by the Attorney-General Robert Heath, but the prisoners were proceeded against in the Court of King's Bench. Valentine's ‘plea and demurrer’ to the information of the Attorney-General, prepared by his counsel, Robert Mason and Henry Calthorpe, was issued on 22 May, and was followed by a further plea on 1 June in answer to the altered information of 29 May.

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