Robert Walpole 1650-1700
From Book Owners Online
Robert WALPOLE 1650-1700
Biographical Note
Born at Houghton, Norfolk; son of Sir Edward Walpole (1621-1668). Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. JP and deputy lieutenant for Norfolk in 1673 and MP for Castle Rising in 1689. He married Mary Burwell (1654/5-1711) and with her had seven daughters and ten sons, including Robert Walpole (1676-1745), and Horatio Walpole, first Baron Walpole of Wolterton.
Books
He founded the library at Houghton Hall and ‘stocked it with good editions of the Latin classics, history, law, and theology’ (ODNB). Many of his books survive at Houghton; family accounts show that he actively purchased books in London and at East Anglian fairs. A catalogue of the house collection made in 1717 lists ca.850 titles.
Sources
- Dunn, Richard Minta. "Walpole, Robert (1650–1700), agricultural improver and politician." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- West, Susie, The development of libraries in Norfolk country houses (UEA Ph.D thesis, 2000).
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