(Sir Robert), earl of Orford, was born at Houghton in Norfolk, September 6th, 1674, and educated on the foundation at Eton school. Thence he was elected to King's College in Cambridge; but, succeeding to the family estate by the death of his elder brother, he resigned his fellowship. In 1700, he was chosen member of parliament for King's Lynn, and represented that borough in several succeeding parliaments. In 1705, he was nominated one of the council to prince George of Denmark, lord high admiral of England; in 1707, appointed secretary at war; and, in 1709, treasurer of the navy. In 1710, upon the change of the ministry, he was removed from all his posts, and held no place afterwards during the queen's reign. In 1711 he was expelled from the house of commons for what they called notorious corruption in his office as secretary at war. The borough of Lynn, however, re-elected him; and, though the house declared the election void, yet they persisted in the choice. In the well-known debate relating to Steele for publishing the Crisis, he greatly distinguished himself in behalf of liberty, and added to the popularity he had before acquired.

On the death of the queen, a revolution of politics took place, and the Whig party prevailed both at court and in the senate. Walpole had before recommended himself to the house of Hanover by his zeal for its cause, when the commons considered the state of the nation with regard to the Protestant succession: and he had now the honour to procure the assurance of the house to the new king (which attended the address of condolence and congratulation), "That the commons would make good all parliamentary funds." It is therefore not to be wondered at, that his promotion soon took place after the king's arrival; and that in a few days he was appointed receiver and paymaster general of all the guards and garrisons, and of all other the land forces in Great Britain, paymaster of the royal hospital at Chelsea, and likewise a privy counsellor. On the opening of a new parliament, a committee of secrecy was chosen to inquire into the conduct of the late ministry, of which Walpole was appointed chairman; and, by his management, articles of impeachment were read against the earl of Oxford, lord Bolingbroke, the duke of Ormond, and the earl of Strafford. The eminent service he was thought to have done the crown, by the vigorous prosecution of those ministers who were deemed the chief instruments of the peace, was soon rewarded by the extraordinary promotions to the offices of first commissioner of the treasury, and chancellor and under treasurer of the exchequer.

In two years time he resigned all his offices on account of a misunderstanding which took place between him and the rest of the ministry about certain supplies demanded for the support of his majesty's German dominions. On the day of his resignation he brought in the famous sinking fund-bill, which he presented as a country-gentleman, saying, that he hoped it would not fare the worse for having two fathers; and that his successor Mr Stanhope would bring it to perfection. His calling himself the father of a project, which hath since been so often employed to other purposes than were at first declared, gave his enemies frequent opportunity for satire and ridicule; and it hath been sarcastically observed, that the father of this fund appeared in a very bad light when viewed in the capacity of a nurse. In the next session of parliament, Walpole opposed the ministry in every thing; and even Wyndham or Shippen did not exceed him in patriotism. Upon a motion in the house for continuing the army, he made a speech of above an hour long, and displayed the danger of a standing army in a free country, with all the powers of eloquence. Early in 1720 the rigour of the patriot began to soften, and the complaisance of the courtier to appear; and he was again appointed paymaster of the forces, and several of his friends were found soon after in the list of promotions. No doubt now remained of his entire conversion to court measures; for, before the end of the year, we find him pleading strongly for the forces required by the war-office as he had before declared against them, even though at this time the same pretences for keeping them on foot did not exist.

It was not long before he acquired full ministerial power, being appointed first lord commissioner of the treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer; and, when the king went abroad in 1723, he was nominated one of the lords justices for the administration of government, and was sworn sole secretary of state. About this time he received another distinguished mark of the royal favour; his eldest son then on his travels being created a peer, by the title of baron Walpole of Walpole. In 1725 he was made knight of the Bath, and the year after knight of the Garter. The measures of his administration, during the long time he remained prime or rather sole minister, have been often canvassed with all the severity of critical inquiry. It is difficult to discern the truth through the exaggerations and misrepresentations of party. He has indeed been accused of employing the sinking fund for the purposes of corruption, of which it was long the fashion to call him the father; but the man who reflects on the transactions of Charles II. and his infamous cabal, will acquit him of the latter part of this charge. He was an enemy to war, and the friend of commerce; and because he did not resent some petty insults of the court of Spain so suddenly as the fiery part of the nation thought he should have done, a formidable opposition was formed against him in the house, which had influence enough to employ in its cause almost all the wit of the nation. Pulteney and Pitt were the great leaders of the party in the house of commons; while Bolingbroke and Pope and Johnston, and almost every man of genius, exerted themselves without doors to enlighten, by pamphlets in prose and verse, the minds of the people, and show the necessity of a Spanish war. This he strenuously opposed, because he knew that the foreign settlements of that power are very remote, and in a climate destructive to Englishmen; and that such of them as we might be able to take, we could not possibly retain. The opposition however prevailed. The nation was indulged in a war, of which it surely had no cause to boast of the success; and it is now universally known, that the greater part of those who with honest intentions had, either in parliament or out of it, been engaged... engaged to run down the minister, lived to repent of their conduct, and do justice to the man whom they had so persistently vilified.

In order to encourage commerce and improve the revenue, Sir Robert projected a scheme for an extension of the excise, as the only means of putting a stop to the frauds of merchants and illicit traders. This was another ground of clamour to the orators within, and the wits without, doors; and while the opposition represented it as a measure big with public mischief, Swift and Pope occasionally alluded to it as an oppression calculated to deprive private life of all its comforts. The minister was therefore obliged to abandon the scheme; but in a succeeding administration it was partly carried into execution, at the express solicitation of the principal persons concerned in that article of trade which it was suggested would be most affected by it; and afterwards the most popular minister that ever directed the councils of this country declared in full senate, that if a time should ever arrive which was likely to render the project feasible, he would himself recommend an extension of the excise laws as a measure of the greatest advantage to commerce, to the revenue, and to the general interests of the kingdom.

In 1742 the opposition prevailed; and Sir Robert being no longer able to carry a majority in the house of commons, resigned all his places, and fled for shelter behind the throne. He was soon afterwards created earl of Orford; and the king, in consideration of his long and faithful services, granted him a pension of £4000 per annum. The remainder of his life he spent in tranquillity and retirement, and died, 1745, in the 71st year of his age.

He has been severely, and not unjustly, censured for that system of corruption by which he almost avowed that he governed the nation; but the objects which he had in view are now acknowledged to have been in a high degree praiseworthy. Johnson, who in the earlier part of his life had joined the other wits in writing against his measures, afterwards honoured his memory for the placability of his temper, and for keeping this country in peace for so many years; and Mr Burke has lately declared, that his only defect as a minister was the want of sufficient firmness to treat with contempt that popular clamour, which, by his yielding to it, hurried the nation into an expensive and unjust war. But his rancorous prosecution of Atterbury bishop of Rochester (see ATTERBURY), by a bill of pains and penalties, may be considered as something worse than a defect: it was a fault for which no apology can be made; because, whether that prelate was innocent or guilty, of his guilt no legal proof ever appeared. In that instance the conduct of the minister was the more extraordinary, that on other occasions he chose to gain over the disaffected by mildness and beneficence, even when he had sufficient proofs of their guilt. Of this the following anecdote, communicated by lord North to Dr Johnson, is a sufficient proof. Sir Robert having got into his hands some treasonable papers of his inveterate enemy Shippen, sent for him, and burnt them before his eyes. Some time afterwards, while Shippen was taking the oaths to the government in the house of commons, Sir Robert, who stood next to him, and knew his principles to be the same as ever, smiled; upon which Shippen, who had observed him, said "Egad, Robin, that's hardly fair."

To whatever objections his ministerial conduct may be liable, in his private character he is universally allowed to have had amiable and benevolent qualities. That he was a tender parent, a kind master, a benevolent patron, a firm friend, an agreeable companion, are points that have been seldom disputed; and so calm and equal was his temper, that Pultney, his great rival and opponent, said, he was sure that Sir Robert Walpole never felt the bitterest invectives against him for half an hour.

About the end of Queen Anne's reign, and the beginning of George I's, he wrote the following pamphlets:

1. The Sovereign's Answer to the Gloucestershire Address. 2. The Sovereign meant Charles duke of Somerset, so nicknamed by the Whigs. 3. An answer to the Representation of the House of Lords on the State of the Navy, 1709. 4. The Debts of the Nation stated and considered, in four Papers, 1710. 5. The Thirty-five Millions accounted for, 1710. 6. A Letter from a foreign Minister in England to Monsieur Petetacum, 1710. 7. Four Letters to a Friend in Scotland upon Sacheverell's Trial; falsely attributed in the General Dictionary to Mr Maynwaring. 8. A short History of the Parliament. It is an account of the last Session of the queen. 9. The South-Sea Scheme considered. 10. A Pamphlet against the Peage Bill, 1719. 11. The Report of the Secret Committee, June 9th, 1715.