Colonel
Robert Walpole
MP
Member of Parliament
for Castle Rising
In office
January 1689 – 18 November 1700
Personal details
Born18 November 1650
Norfolk, England
Died18 November 1700(1700-11-18) (aged 50)
Political partyWhig
SpouseMary Burwell
Children19, including Robert, Horatio, Elizabeth, Galfridus, and Dorothy
ResidenceHoughton Hall
OccupationPolitician and soldier

Colonel Robert Walpole (18 November 1650 – 18 November 1700) was an English Whig politician and militia officer who served as a member of parliament for the borough of Castle Rising from 1689 to 1700.[1][2] He is best known for being the father of Robert Walpole, the first British Prime Minister.[3] Walpole is the ancestor of all the Barons Walpole and Earls of Orford, of all creations, and of the present Marquess of Cholmondeley, owner of Houghton Hall. He is also the Guinness World Records holder for having the world's longest overdue public library book.[4]

Origins

Ledger stone of Robert Walpole (1650–1700), Church of St Martin of Tours, Houghton, Norfolk. Showing arms of Walpole impaling Burwell

He was born at Houghton Hall in 1650, the son and heir of Edward Walpole (d.1668) of Houghton (the family seat for over four decades[5]), by his wife Susan Crane.[3] His father ardently supported the Restoration of the Monarchy to King Charles II and was subsequently created a Knight of the Bath.[6]

Political career

In January 1689, he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Castle Rising in Norfolk,[7] and was considered the most influential Whig in Norfolk and one of the most influential Whigs in Parliament.[7] He served as a Deputy Lieutenant for Norfolk when Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk was Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk.

Marriage and issue

Arms of Burwell: Or, a chevron ermine between three bur (oak) leaves erect vert[8] (Quercus macrocarpa, the bur oak, commonly spelled burr oak, is a species of oak tree native to eastern North America)

In 1671 he married Mary Burwell, daughter and heiress of Sir Geoffrey Burwell of Rougham in Suffolk,[9][10] by whom he had nineteen children, of whom only nine survived, two being stillborn and eight dying in infancy:[11]

Sons

Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole

Daughters

Susan Walpole, wife of Anthony Hamond (d. 1743). Detail from portrait attributed to Thomas Bardwell

Overdue library book

In 1668 Walpole borrowed a German biography book about the Archbishop of Bremen from the library of Sidney Sussex College.[18] It was finally found in 1956 when his descendant the 5th Marquess of Cholmondeley together with Professor John H. Plumb discovered the book in the library at Houghton. The book was quickly returned, 288 years after it was checked out.[18]

Notes

  1. ^ Pearce, p. 24.
  2. ^ Plumb, p. 82.
  3. ^ a b Burke, pp. 665–667.
  4. ^ Oswald, p. 130.
  5. ^ a b c Chisholm, p. 290.
  6. ^ a b Hillen, p. 465.
  7. ^ a b Lee, p. 636.
  8. ^ Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p. 151, "Burwell of Woodbridge, Suffolk".
  9. ^ Cokayne, G. E.; H. A. Doubleday & Lord Howard de Walden, eds. (1945). The Complete Peerage, or a history of the House of Lords and all its members from the earliest times (Oakham to Richmond). 10 (2nd ed.). London: The St. Catherine Press, p. 81.
  10. ^ Englefield, p. 2.
  11. ^ Cherry, p. 183.
  12. ^ a b Stephen
  13. ^ Coxe, p. 320.
  14. ^ Ewald, p. 390.
  15. ^ England, Select Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991.
  16. ^ Cracroft's Peerage.
  17. ^ Coxe, p. 3.
  18. ^ a b Folkard, p. 302.

References

Parliament of England Preceded bySir Nicholas L'Estrange Thomas Howard Member of Parliament for Castle Rising 1689–1700with Sir Robert Howard 1689–1698 Thomas Howard 1698–1700 Succeeded byRobert WalpoleThomas Howard
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