View source for Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford

{{Short description|British peer and politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{infobox person
| honorific_prefix   = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name               = The Earl of Orford
| honorific_suffix   = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KB}}
| image              = RobertWalpole2ndEarlOrfordByJohnTheodoreHeins.jpg
| caption            = Portrait by [[John Theodore Heins]]
| birth_date         = 1701
| death_date         = 31 March 1751 (age 49–50)
| spouse             = {{marriage|[[Margaret Rolle, 15th Baroness Clinton|Margaret Rolle]]|1727|1730|end=div}}
| partner            = [[Hannah Norsa]] (1736–1751)
| children           = [[George Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford|George Walpole]]
| mother             = [[Catherine Shorter]]
| father             = Sir [[Robert Walpole]]
| relatives          = [[Walpole family]]<br >[[George Townshend (Royal Navy officer)|George Townshend]]
}}
[[File:Walpole arms.svg|thumb|200px|Arms of Walpole: ''Or, on a fesse between two chevrons sable three crosses crosslet of the field''<ref>{{cite book| title= [[Debrett's Peerage]]| year= 1968| chapter= Baron Walpole| page= 1128}}</ref>]]
[[File:HeantonSatchvilleVitruviusDetail.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe|Heanton Satchville]] depicted in 1739, the inheritance of Margaret Rolle who had by then been estranged for three years from Walpole; detail from engraving in [[Vitruvius Britannicus]] with caption:"Heanton Hall and Park in Devonshire, the Seat of the Right Hon.ble Robert Lord Walpole Ld. Lieutenant of the County of Devon and Knight of the Most Hon.ble Order of the Bath"]]
'''Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford''', [[Knight of the Bath|KB]] (1701 – 31 March 1751), was a British [[Peerage|peer]] and politician, styled '''Lord Walpole''' from 1723 to 1745.
==Origins==
[[File:Houghton Hall 20080720-1.jpg|thumb|right|Houghton Hall, Norfolk]]
He was the eldest son of [[Sir Robert Walpole]] (1676–1745), the King's First Minister, now regarded as the first [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|British Prime Minister]], by his first wife [[Catherine Walpole|Catherine Shorter]]. In 1723 his father declined a peerage for himself but did accept the offer on behalf of his 22-year-old son Robert who was thus raised to the peerage as [[Baron Walpole]], of [[Walpole, Norfolk|Walpole in the County of Norfolk]].
==Marriage==
Circa 26 March 1724 Lord Walpole married the 15-year-old heiress [[Margaret Rolle, 15th Baroness Clinton|Margaret Rolle]] (1709–1781), the only surviving daughter of Colonel Samuel Rolle (1646–1719), of [[Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe]]. Margaret was the heiress to a junior branch of the great Rolle family of [[Stevenstone]] in Devon and to her paternal grandmother, born Lady Arabella Clinton, an aunt and co-heiress of her nephew [[Earl of Lincoln|Edward Clinton, 5th Earl of Lincoln and 13th Baron Clinton]] (d. 1692).
The marriage was not a success and Lady Walpole quarrelled violently with his whole family. After one son was born they lived apart and later obtained a legal separation.
In 1736 [[Hannah Norsa]], a leading singer and actress at [[Royal Opera House|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,<ref name=norsa>{{cite encyclopedia| first1= Olive |last1= Baldwin | first2=Thelma |last2= Wilson| title= Norsa, Hannah (d. 1784)| encyclopedia= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography| publisher= Oxford University Press| year= 2004}}</ref> who received the position as a small part of the Walpole family compensation for [[John Scrope (MP)#Secretary to the Treasury|his father's defence]] of Walpole's father, the Prime Minister.
His estranged widow became the [[Baron Clinton|15th Baroness Clinton]] succeeding in her own right after the death of her cousin [[Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Clinton]]. She had remarried on Walpole's death but soon separated from her second husband, [[Sewallis Shirley (1709–1765)|Hon Sewallis Shirley]], a son of the [[Robert Shirley, 1st Earl Ferrers|1st Earl Ferrers]] and Comptroller of [[Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz|Queen Charlotte]]'s Household. Lady Clinton died at Pisa, in Tuscany, in 1781, and was buried at Leghorn, "a woman of very singular character and considered half mad" (according to her friend, [[Selina, Countess of Huntingdon]]). Walpole himself is buried in the [[St Martin at Tours' Church, Houghton|Church of St Martin at Tours]] on the [[Houghton Hall]] estate.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1077787|desc=St Martin's Church|grade=I|access-date=31 July 2022}}</ref>
==Progeny==
Both the Earl of Orford and his wife Baroness Clinton were succeeded in all their titles by their son [[George Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford|George Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford and 16th Baron Clinton]] (1730–1791), a celebrated falconer, who left no legitimate children and died insane.
==Career==
Robert Walpole held the following posts at some time between 1701 and 1751:
* [[Pell Office|Clerk of the Pells]] (1721–1739)
* [[Auditor of the Receipt of the Exchequer]] (1739–1751)
* [[List of keepers and rangers of Richmond Park|Ranger of Richmond Park]]
* High Steward of Yarmouth
* [[Lord Lieutenant of Devon]] (1733–1751)
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==Notes==
* {{cite book| editor-last1= Kidd| editor-first1= Charles| editor-last2= Williamson| editor-first2= David |title= Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage| year= 1990 | place= New York| publisher= St Martin's Press}}
* {{Rayment|date=February 2012}}
* [http://www.thepeerage.com/ thepeerage.com]
{{s-start}}
{{s-hon}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Henry Pelham (Clerk of the Pells)|Henry Pelham]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Clerk of the Pells]]|years=1721–1739}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Edward Walpole|Sir Edward Walpole]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Clinton|The Lord Clinton]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Lord Lieutenant of Devon]]|years=1733–1751}}
{{s-aft|after=[[John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford|The Duke of Bedford]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[George Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax|The Earl of Halifax]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Auditor of the Exchequer]]|years=1739–1751}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Henry Pelham-Clinton, 2nd Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne|The Earl of Lincoln]]}}
{{s-reg|gb}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Robert Walpole]]|rows=3}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Earl of Orford]]|years=1745–1751|creation=2nd creation}}
{{s-aft|after=[[George Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford|George Walpole]]|rows=4}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Earl of Orford|Viscount Walpole]]|years=1745–1751}}
{{s-brk}}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Baron Walpole]]|years=1745–1751|creation=of Houghton}}
{{s-new|creation}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Baron Walpole]]|years=1723–1751|creation=of Walpole}}
{{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orford, Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of}}
[[Category:1701 births]]
[[Category:1751 deaths]]
[[Category:Earls in the Peerage of Great Britain]]
[[Category:Lord-lieutenants of Devon]]
[[Category:Children of prime ministers of Great Britain|Orford, Robert Walpole, Earl of]]
[[Category:Robert Walpole|Walpole, Robert, Orford]]
[[Category:Walpole family|Robert]]
[[Category:18th-century British politicians]]
[[Category:Knights of the Bath]]
[[Category:People from Walpole, Norfolk]]
[[Category:Earls of Orford]]