Robert Walpole - Early Life and Family

Early Life and Family

Walpole was born in Houghton Hall, Norfolk in 1676. His father, Robert Walpole, was a Whig politician who represented the borough of Castle Rising in the House of Commons. His mother was Mary Walpole (née Burwell) and he was the third of seventeen children, eight of whom died during infancy. Walpole holds the record amongst Prime Ministers for the greatest number of siblings.

Walpole entered Eton College as a scholar in 1690 and matriculated at King's College, Cambridge in 1696. In 1698 he left the University of Cambridge after the death of his only remaining elder brother, Edward, so that he could help his father administer the family estate. Walpole had planned to become a clergyman but abandoned the idea when, as the eldest surviving son in the family, he became the heir to his father's estate.

On 30 July 1700, Walpole married Catherine Shorter (died 20 August 1737), with whom he later had two daughters and four sons:

• Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford (1701 – 31 March 1751), who married Margaret Rolle (17 January 1709 – 13 January 1781), later the 15th Baroness Clinton, on 26 March 1724 and had one son.
• Katherine Walpole, (13 May 1703 – 22 October 1722), who died unmarried at Bath, Somerset.
• Horatio Walpole (1704 – 24 July 1704)
• Mary Walpole (c. 1705 – 2 January 1732), who married the 3rd Earl of Cholmondeley on 14 September 1723 and had two sons.
• The Hon. Sir Edward Walpole (c. 1706–1784); he had an illegitimate daughter, Maria Walpole, who later married into the British Royal Family, becoming the wife of Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, King George III's brother. Ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales.
• Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (1717–1797)

After Lady Walpole died, Walpole married his mistress, Maria Skerritt, before 3 March 1738. They had been living openly together in Richmond, Houghton Hall and London society since about 1724, and she had borne him an illegitimate daughter whom he eventually had ennobled as Lady Maria Walpole. This daughter married Colonel Charles Churchill of Chalfont (1720–1812), a great-nephew of the 1st Duke of Marlborough, with whom she had two daughters. One of these daughters, Sophia Churchill, married Horatio Walpole, a great grandson of Robert Walpole and Mary Burwell who was also descended from the 1st Baron Burghley. The second Lady Walpole died of a miscarriage three months after the couple's marriage. As a couple they were commemorated as Polly and Macheath in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera which he wrote in 1728.