Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters".Template:Wikidata image

File:Walpole arms.svg
Arms of Walpole: Or, on a fesse between two chevrons sable three crosses crosslet of the field[1]
File:HeantonSatchvilleVitruviusDetail.jpg
Heanton Satchville depicted in 1739, the inheritance of Margaret Rolle who had by then been estranged for three years from Walpole; detail from engraving in Vitruvius Britannicus with caption:"Heanton Hall and Park in Devonshire, the Seat of the Right Hon.ble Robert Lord Walpole Ld. Lieutenant of the County of Devon and Knight of the Most Hon.ble Order of the Bath"

Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford, KB (1701 – 31 March 1751), was a British peer and politician, styled Lord Walpole from 1723 to 1745.

Origins

File:Houghton Hall 20080720-1.jpg
Houghton Hall, Norfolk

He was the eldest son of Sir Robert Walpole (1676–1745), the King's First Minister, now regarded as the first British Prime Minister, by his first wife Catherine Shorter. In 1723 his father declined a peerage for himself but did accept the offer on behalf of his 22-year-old son Robert who was thus raised to the peerage as Baron Walpole, of Walpole in the County of Norfolk.

Marriage

Circa 26 March 1724 Lord Walpole married the 15-year-old heiress Margaret Rolle (1709–1781), the only surviving daughter of Colonel Samuel Rolle (1646–1719), of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe. Margaret was the heiress to a junior branch of the great Rolle family of Stevenstone in Devon and to her paternal grandmother, born Lady Arabella Clinton, an aunt and co-heiress of her nephew Edward Clinton, 5th Earl of Lincoln and 13th Baron Clinton (d. 1692).

The marriage was not a success and Lady Walpole quarrelled violently with his whole family. After one son was born they lived apart and later obtained a legal separation.

In 1736 Hannah Norsa, a leading singer and actress at Covent Garden, moved to Houghton Hall in Norfolk and remained there as Walpole's mistress until his death in March 1751. Her financial support may have saved him from dying bankrupt. In Walpole's many absences Hannah Norsa was escorted in her landau and six horses by his chaplain, Rev William Paxton,[2] who received the position as a small part of the Walpole family compensation for his father's defence of Walpole's father, the Prime Minister.

His estranged widow became the 15th Baroness Clinton succeeding in her own right after the death of her cousin Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Clinton. She had remarried on Walpole's death but soon separated from her second husband, Hon Sewallis Shirley, a son of the 1st Earl Ferrers and Comptroller of Queen Charlotte's Household. Lady Clinton died at Pisa, in Tuscany, in 1781, and was buried at Leghorn, "a woman of very singular character and considered half mad" (according to her friend, Selina, Countess of Huntingdon). Walpole himself is buried in the Church of St Martin at Tours on the Houghton Hall estate.[3]

Progeny

Both the Earl of Orford and his wife Baroness Clinton were succeeded in all their titles by their son George Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford and 16th Baron Clinton (1730–1791), a celebrated falconer, who left no legitimate children and died insane.

Career

Robert Walpole held the following posts at some time between 1701 and 1751:

References

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ Template:NHLE

Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

Notes

  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  • Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
  • thepeerage.com
Honorary titles
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Clerk of the Pells
1721–1739 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Lord Lieutenant of Devon
1733–1751 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Auditor of the Exchequer
1739–1751 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Earl of Orford
2nd creation
1745–1751 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
Viscount Walpole
1745–1751 Template:S-ttl/check

Template:S-brk}

Baron Walpole
of Houghton
1745–1751 Template:S-ttl/check
New creation Baron Walpole
of Walpole
1723–1751 Template:S-ttl/check
Retrieved from "http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?title=Robert_Walpole,_2nd_Earl_of_Orford&oldid=4605760"