Sir Edward Walpole

Sir Edward Walpole of Houghton and Herpley was baptized 16 Nov 1621. He was married in 1649 to Susan Crane, 2nd daughter and coheir of a Suffolk Gentleman, Sir Robert Crane, knight and baronet of Chilton, Suffolk. She was baptized 10 June 1630 and died 7th and buried 8th July 1667 at Houghton. Sir Edward Walpole resided at Houghton and was a very different man from the rough boor and sot whom Coxe strangely represents him to have been. Dean Prideaux, who had very few good words to say of any one, speaks of him as a likely person to succeed the Duke of Norfolk as Lord Lieutenant of the county, "and beside him," he adds, "there is not a man of any parts of interest in all that party, to pitch on him, I reckon, will be a certain expedient to remove all manner of divisions out of this county." Edward Walpole, member of Parliament for King's Lynn, had sufficient social standing and political influence to obtain a knighthood of Bath, 19 April 1661, by King Charles II. Sir Edward's prospects were very bright for he quickly made his mark in Parliament, but death struck first his wife, then himself. His obituary dated 18th, and he was buried 19th march 1667-8. His Will was dated 16 March 1667. His children were: Robert Walpole Esq. of Houghton; Edward Walpole, 2nd son, died at 5 months; John Walpole, 3rd son, died in infancy; Edward Walpole, 4th son, buried at Cambridge at 25 years of age; Horatio Walpole of Beckham Hall, 5th son, a colonel in the army, married Anne Osborn, he was buried at Houghton; daughters, Jane, Susan, Elizabeth, Susan II, buried at Houghton; Anne married Mundeford Spelman, Esq. Narboro', monument in Narboro Church; Mary married John Wilson of Loughborough in Leicester: Elizabeth II married James Hoste, Esq. of Sandringham; and Dorothy died unmarried.