English diplomat, politician and peer
Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole
,
PC
(8 December 1678 – 5 February 1757) was an English diplomat, politician and peer who served as the
British ambassador to France
from 1724 to 1730. He was the son of
Robert Walpole
and the younger brother of
Robert Walpole
, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain.
[1]
Family
[
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]
The Walpoles owned land in Norfolk in the 12th century and took their name from
Walpole
, a village in the county. An early member of the family was
Ralph de Walpole
,
bishop of Norwich
from 1288 to 1299, and
bishop of Ely
from 1299 until his death on 20 March 1302. Among its later members were three brothers,
Edward
(1560?1637), Richard (1564?1607) and Michael (1570?1624), all members of the
Society of Jesus
. Another Jesuit in the family was
Henry Walpole
(1558?1595), who wrote
An Epitaph of the life and death of the most famous clerk and virtuous priest
Edmund Campion
and was tortured and put to death on 17 April 1595.
[2]
Political career
[
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]
Born at Houghton and educated at
Eton
and
King's College, Cambridge
, Horatio Walpole became a fellow of King's.
[3]
He entered
Parliament
in 1702, remaining a member for fifty-four years. In 1715, when his brother, Sir Robert, became first
lord of the treasury
, he was made
Secretary to the Treasury
, and in 1716, having already had some experience of the kind, he went on a diplomatic mission to
The Hague
. He left office with his brother in 1717, but he was soon in harness again, becoming secretary to the
lord-lieutenant of Ireland
in 1720 and Secretary to the Treasury a second time in 1721.
[2]
In 1722 he was again at
The Hague
, and in 1723 he went to Paris, where in the following year he was appointed
envoy extraordinary
and
minister plenipotentiary
. He got on intimate terms with
Fleury
and seconded his brother in his efforts to maintain friendly relations with France; he represented Great Britain at the
congress of Soissons
and helped to conclude the
treaty of Seville
(November 1729). He left Paris in 1730 and in 1734 went to represent his country at The Hague, where he remained until 1740, using all his influence in the cause of European peace.
[2]
He was nonetheless able to stay involved in the affairs of the capital. He served, for example, in 1739, as a founding governor for London's most fashionable charity of the time, the
Foundling Hospital
.
After the fall of Sir Robert Walpole in 1742, Horatio defended his conduct in the
House of Commons of Great Britain
and also in a pamphlet, "The Interest of Great Britain steadily pursued". Later he wrote an "Apology", dealing with his own conduct from 1715 to 1739, and an "Answer to the latter part of
Lord Bolingbroke
's letters on the study of history" (printed 1763).
[2]
In 1724 he engaged
Thomas Ripley
to design him a new house at Wolterton in Norfolk to replace one that had burnt down. The house called
Wolterton Hall
was completed in 1742.
In 1756 he was created
Baron Walpole
, of Wolterton and he died 5
February 1757
[2]
at his house in
Whitehall
.
[4]
Personal life
[
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]
By his wife,
Mary Magdalen Lombard
, whom he married on 21 July 1720, he had nine children:
- Horatio Walpole, 2nd Baron Walpole
(1723?1809), created
Earl of Orford
in 1806
[2]
- The Hon. Mary Walpole (born 25 February 1726), who married
Maurice Suckling
.
- The Hon.
Thomas Walpole
(6 October 1727 ? March 1803), who married Elizabeth Vanneck (died 9 June 1760) on 14 November 1753, and had issue.
- The Hon.
Richard Walpole
(5 December 1728 ? 18 August 1798), who married Margaret Vanneck (before 1742 ? 9 May 1818) on 22 November 1758, and had issue.
- Susan Walpole (3 May 1730 ? 29 April 1732)
- The Hon. Henrietta Louisa Walpole (28 November 1731 ? June 1824)
- The Hon. Anne Walpole (12 July 1733 ? 25 November 1797)
- Caroline Walpole (22 November 1734 ? 11 January 1737)
- The Hon.
Robert Walpole
(1736?1810)
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"WALPOLE, Horatio (1678?1757), of Wolterton, Norf. | History of Parliament Online"
.
www.historyofparliamentonline.org
. Retrieved
10 September
2018
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain
:
Chisholm, Hugh
, ed. (1911). "
Walpole of Wolterton, Horatio, 1st Baron
".
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 290.
This cites:
- W. Coxe
,
Memoirs of Horatio, Lord Walpole
(2nd ed., 1808)
- the same writer,
Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole
(1816)
- Charles, comte de Baillon,
Lord Walpole a la cour de France
(1867).
- ^
"Walpole, Horace (Horatio) (WLPL698HH)"
.
A Cambridge Alumni Database
. University of Cambridge.
- ^
"Thursday's Post"
.
Derby Mercury
. 11 February 1757
. Retrieved
23 January
2016
– via
British Newspaper Archive
.
External links
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