Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole

Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole, (8 December 16785 February 1757) was a British diplomat and politician who served as the British ambassador to France from 1724 to 1730. He was the son of Robert Walpole and the younger brother of Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Family The Walpoles owned land in Norfolk in the 12th century and took their name from Walpole, a village in the county. An early member of the family was Ralph de Walpole, bishop of Norwich from 1288 to 1299, and bishop of Ely from 1299 until his death on 20 March 1302. Among its later members were three brothers, Edward (1560–1637), Richard (1564–1607) and Michael (1570–1624), all members of the Society of Jesus. Another Jesuit in the family was Henry Walpole (1558–1595), who wrote An Epitaph of the life and death of the most famous clerk and virtuous priest Edmund Campion and was tortured and put to death on 17 April 1595. He entered Parliament in 1702, remaining a member for fifty-four years. In 1715, when his brother, Sir Robert, became first lord of the treasury, he was made Secretary to the Treasury, and in 1716, having already had some experience of the kind, he went on a diplomatic mission to The Hague. He left office with his brother in 1717, but he was soon in harness again, becoming secretary to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1720 and Secretary to the Treasury a second time in 1721.

Personal life He married Mary Magdalen Lombard on 21 July 1720. They had nine children: Horatio Walpole, 2nd Baron Walpole (1723–1809), created Earl of Orford in 1806