Sir Edward Walpole (1706-1784) was the fourth child and second son born to Robert Walpole (1676-1745), chancellor of the Exchequer and first prime minister of Great Britain, and his wife Catherine Shorter (1782-1737). His younger brother was the author and antiquarian collector Horace Walpole (1717-1797). Edward Walpole graduated from Eton (1718) and King’s College, Cambridge (1725) before becoming master of pleas in the Office of the Exchequer in 1727 and clerk of the pells, a lifetime appointment, when his older brother Robert resigned from that position in 1739. Walpole also served in Parliament from 1730 until 1768 representing in succession Lostwithiel and Great Yarmouth and became a Knight of the Bath in 1753. With his common-law wife Dorothy Clement (1715?-1739) he was the father of one son and three daughters. Sir Edward Walpole died on January 12, 1784; he was buried at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor., Unknown artist., Miniature set in bracelet clasp decorated with brightwork, with a fixed flange on the left and a removable slide on the right., and For further provenance information, see the custodial history note in the Guide to the Sir Edward Walpole and Dorothy Clement Family Papers (LWL MSS 37).
