- Edward Walpole
The Right Honourable Sir Edward Walpole KB MP PC (I) (1706 –12 January 1784 ) was a British politician, and a younger son of SirRobert Walpole , Prime Minister from 1721 to 1742.Edward Walpole was first entered Parliament as MP for Lostwithiel in a
by-election on 29 April 1730, following the death of Sir Edward Knatchbull earlier in the month. He was appointed juniorSecretary to the Treasury the same year.On 2 May 1734, in the next general election, he succeeded his uncle Horatio Walpole as MP for Great Yarmouth, remaining in the seat for nearly thirty-four years until the 1768 election, when his first cousin the Hon.
Richard Walpole (son of Lord Walpole of Wolterton) replaced him.On 7 September 1737 the Duke of Devonshire was named
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland , and Walpole his Chief Secretary, though he continued also as Secretary to the Treasury. Walpole was also sworn of thePrivy Council of Ireland on 8 October that year.On 9 May 1739 Walpole's elder brother Robert, Lord Walpole, resigned his post of
Clerk of the Pells in order to become anAuditor of the Exchequer , and Edward was appointed to succeed him, holding the office until his death.On 27 August 1753 Walpole was made a Knight Companion of the
Order of the Bath , the order re-founded by his father in 1725.Sir Edward Walpole never married, but left three daughters by his mistress Dorothy Clement:
* Laura, who married 13 September 1758 the Hon. and Rev.
Frederick Keppel (laterBishop of Exeter ) and died 27 July 1813, leaving issue;
* Maria, who married firstly 15 May 1759, the Earl Waldegrave, and secondly 6 September 1766, the Duke of Gloucester and died 22 August 1807, leaving issue by both marriages;
* Charlotte, who married 2 October 1760 Lord Huntingtower (laterEarl of Dysart ) and died 5 September 1789, without issue.References
* John Burke, "A general and heraldic dictionary of the peerages of England, Ireland and Scotland, extinct, dormant and in abeyance", Colburn and Bentley, 1831
* Joseph Haydn and Horace Ockerby (ed.), "The Book of Dignities", 3rd edition, W.H. Allen and Co. Ltd, 1894, reprinted 1969
* [http://www.thepeerage.com/p10279.htm thepeerage.com]
* [http://www.leighrayment.com Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page]
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