Edward Walpole

Sir Edward Walpole KB PC (Ire) (1706 – 12 January 1784) was a British politician, and a younger son of Sir Robert Walpole, Prime Minister from 1721 to 1742. Early life The second son of Sir Robert Walpole, he was educated at Eton (1718) and King's College, Cambridge (1725) and studied law at Lincoln's Inn (1723), where he was called to the bar in 1727. He undertook a Grand Tour in Italy in 1730. Political career Walpole first entered Parliament as Member for Lostwithiel in a by-election on 29 April 1730, following the death of Sir Edward Knatchbull earlier that month. He was appointed junior Secretary to the Treasury the same year. On 2 May 1734, in the next general election, he succeeded his uncle Horatio Walpole as Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, retaining the seat for nearly 34 years until the 1768 election, when his first cousin the Hon. Richard Walpole (son of Lord Walpole of Wolterton) replaced him.