POLITICAL HISTORY 



Paston and Sir Nevill Catlyn ; for Yarmouth, Sir William Cook, bart., and 

 John Friend, and so on, all elected being men of high standing. 



The duke of Norfolk had married Mary, the daughter of Mordaunt, 

 earl of Peterborough, a woman whose gallantries were notorious, among her 

 reputed lovers being King James II. Possibly the private wrong may have 

 made the duke so active a participator in bringing over William of Orange. 

 He was the first to declare the prince in the county, riding into Norwich 

 market-place at the head of 300 knights and gentlemen and declaring for a 

 free Parliament.^ He raised a regiment in the county, which was presently 

 sent to Ireland to assist in the reduction of that kingdom, and which was in 

 all probability engaged in the celebrated battle of the Boyne.^ To Norwich 

 he was a good friend, for he brought back its charter which had been so 

 disgracefully surrendered to Charles II. 



From the accession of William III the history of the county is really 

 the history of the elections and the growth of farming, for none of the 

 various attempts made by the Stuarts came to anything in Norfolk, though, 

 as will be seen, one man suffered for his participation in them. The duke of 

 Norfolk for the good service done by him was at once made lord-lieutenant 

 of the county,^ and was taken into favour by William. He died, however, in 

 1 70 1 without issue, and the title devolved successively on his nephews 

 Thomas and Edward. But the connexion of the Howards with the county 

 was practically over when in 1708 Thomas, eighth duke of Norfolk, in a fit 

 of petulance pulled down the new palace (commenced by Henry the duke in 

 1602) in St. John Maddermarket, because Thomas Havers, then mayor of 

 Norwich, declined to allow his private company of comedians to enter the 

 city in state with trumpets blowing. Of late years, however, the present 

 duke has taken considerable interest in the city, and has practically built the 

 new Roman Catholic church on St. Giles' Hill. 



About the time the Howards ceased to be dominant in Norfolk the 

 Walpoles began to come to the front. They were descended from a knightly 

 family of no great estate long settled at Houghton. One of them, Edward 

 Walpole, married the daughter of Sir Terry Robsart and heiress to her 

 grandfather Sir John Robsart, the noted free lance of the reigns of Henry 

 IV, V, and VI. A later Walpole married one of the Bacons of Hesset, of the 

 Lord Chancellor's family. One of the next generation married the daughter 

 of a lord mayor of London, the issue of which match. Sir Edward Walpole, 

 was practically the first of the family to enter public life, becoming M.P. for 

 Lynn in 1660, and voting for the return of Charles II. His eldest son, 

 Robert Walpole, member for the pocket borough of Castle Rising until 1700, 

 was a prominent local Whig, but will be chiefly known to posterity as the 

 father of the great Sir Robert Walpole, afterwards earl of Orford. The latter 

 when only twenty-four married the daughter of Sir John Shorter, another 

 lord mayor of London, and became M.P. for Lynn in 1702. 



When he succeeded to his father's estate soon after his marriage it is said 

 to have been worth over >r2,ooo a year, and no doubt he had a substantial 

 fortune with his wife. It is impossible to enter here into the story of his 

 career and the accusations made against him, but it must be admitted that he 



' Blomefield, op. cit. iii, 424. ' Mason, op. cit. 429. 



• Cnl. S.P. Dom. 1689-90, p. 20. 



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