Walter Palk

Walter Palk (1742–1819), of Marley House (later renamed Syon Abbey) in the parish of Rattery, Devon, England, was a Member of Parliament for his family's Pocket Borough of Ashburton in Devon from 1796 to 1811. He served as Sheriff of Devon (1791–92) and in 1798 was a Captain in the Ashburton Volunteer Militia, one of many such units formed across Devon to counter a possible invasion by Napoleon.

Origins He was the eldest son of Walter Palk (d.1801) of Headborough and Yolland Hill, in the parish of Ashburton, a small farmer and clothier, by his first wife Thomasine Withecombe of Priestaford, Ashburton.

Marriage and children On 15 February 1782 he married Elizabeth Lyde, by whom he had two daughters, and sole heiress, who in 1806 married Sir Henry Carew, 7th Baronet (1779–1830) of Haccombe in Devon.