Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford

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

Family

Houghton Hall, Norfolk

He was the eldest son of the King's First Minister, now regarded as the first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole (1676–1745), and his first wife Catherine (née Shorter). In 1723 his father chose not to accept a peerage for himself but did accept the offer on behalf of 22-year-old Robert who was raised to the peerage as Baron Walpole, of Walpole in the County of Norfolk.

On c. 26 March 1724 Lord Walpole married Margaret (1709–1781), daughter of Samuel Rolle. Margaret was an heiress to the great Rolle estates in Devon and to her paternal grandmother, born Lady Arabella Clinton, daughter of the 4th Earl of Lincoln.

The marriage was not a success, Lady Walpole quarreling violently with his whole family. After one son was born they lived apart later obtaining 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, 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, Lady Walpole, became the 15th Baroness Clinton, succeeding in her own right after the death of Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Clinton (1696—1751). She had remarried on Walpole's death but soon separated from her second husband, Sewallis Shirley, a son of the 1st Earl Ferrers and comptroller of Queen Charlotte's household. She died at Pisa, in Italy, in 1781, and was buried at Leghorn, "a woman of very singular character and considered half mad".

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

Career

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

• Clerk of the Pells
• Auditor of the Receipt of the Exchequer
• Ranger of Richmond Park
• High Steward of Yarmouth
• Lord Lieutenant of Devon

Styles from birth to death

• Mr Robert Walpole (1701–1723)
• The Rt Hon. The Lord Walpole (1723–1745)

Viscount Walpole (1742-1745)

• The Rt Hon. The Earl of Orford (1745–1751)

Though he held a barony in his own right, from 1742 to 1745 Lord Walpole ranked higher by precedence as the eldest son of an earl.

References

• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• www.thepeerage.com

Political offices
Preceded by The Earl of Halifax	Auditor of the Exchequer 1739 – 1751	Succeeded by The Earl of Lincoln
Honorary titles
Preceded by The Lord Clinton	Lord Lieutenant of Devon 1733 – 1751	Succeeded by The Duke of Bedford
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by Robert Walpole	Earl of Orford 1745 – 1751	Succeeded by George Walpole
New creation	Baron Walpole 1723 – 1751