Sir Edward Walpole KB (1621 – 18 March 1668) was an English politician and

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1660 to 1668. Walpole was the son of Robert Walpole of Houghton and his wife Susan Barkham, daughter of Sir Edward Barkham of

South Acre South Acre is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village has almost disappeared, but the remnants are located about south-west of Castle Acre, north of the town of Swaffham, east of the town of King's Lynn and ...

who had been

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powe ...

. He was baptised on 9 November 1621. He was a student of

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

in 1640. In 1657 he was commissioner for assessment for

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

and was commissioner for sewers in 1658 and 1659. He was commissioner for militia in March 1660 and lieutenant colonel of foot militia from April 1660 to his death.History of Parliament Online – Walpole, Edward
/ref> In 1660, Walpole was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...

in the Convention Parliament. He was a JP from June 1660 and Deputy Lieutenant and commissioner for assessment for Norfolk from August 1660 until his death. He was commissioner for sewers again in September 1660. In 1661 he was re-elected MP for King's Lynn in the

Cavalier Parliament The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of C ...

. He was created

Knight of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one ...

on 19 April 1661. From 1662 to 1663 he was commissioner for corporations. He succeeded his father in 1663. In 1668 he was commissioner for trade with Scotland. Walpole died at the age of about 46 and was buried at

Houghton, Norfolk Houghton is a small village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of and had a population of 69 in 36 households at the 2001 census. At the 2011 census the population of the parish was again below 100, and was ...

. Walpole married Susan Crane, daughter of

Sir Robert Crane, 1st Baronet Sir Robert Crane, 1st Baronet (1586 – February 1643) of Chilton, Suffolk and of Buckenham Tofts, Norfolk, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1614 and 1643. Crane was the son of Henry Crane of Chilton ...

Chilton, Suffolk Chilton is a civil parish on the eastern outskirts of Sudbury in Suffolk, England. Once a normal village, Chilton today consists of scattered clusters of housing and an isolated Church of St Mary, and is a prime example of a deserted medieval ...

in around 1649. They had five sons and eight daughters. She died on 7 July 1667. One of his sons was

Robert Walpole Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, (26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745; known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole) was a British statesman and Whig politician who, as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leader ...

, whose son was

, Britain's longest-serving Prime Minister. Another son was Horatio Walpole.

References

External links

Engraved portrait by Andrew Birrell (engraver and publisher circa 1770–circa 1820); Silvester Harding (1745–1809)
held by

University of Leicester , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_labe ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walpole, Edward 1621 births 1668 deaths 17th-century English people Commissioners for sewers Deputy Lieutenants of Norfolk English MPs 1660 English MPs 1661–1679 Knights of the Bath People from Houghton, Norfolk Robert Walpole

Edward Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...

English justices of the peace