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 was thus prematurely terminated, he never forgot the associations of his early life. His ‘consistent patronage of King's men and Etonians was a source of annoyance to many persons’ (Cole MS. xvi. f. 133;, Hist. of Eton, p. 303). When in 1723 he was applied to for a contribution to the new buildings at King's he subscribed 500l., and, in reply to the thanks of the provost and fellows, said ‘I deserve no thanks: I have only paid for my board.’ His intimate friends at King's were Francis Hare [q. v.], his tutor, whom he afterwards appointed bishop of Chichester; and Henry Bland, his schoolfellow at Eton, whom he made chaplain of Chelsea Hospital in 1716, and dean of Durham in 1727. Bland's son-in-law, William George [q. v.], was elected provost of King's in 1743 through Walpole's personal interest (, Lit. Anecd. ix. 702).

Walpole had been originally intended for the church. His father now assigned to him the active management of his estates, and from this time he abandoned literary pursuits. On 30 July 1700 he married, at Knightsbridge chapel, Catherine Shorter, whom Coxe describes as ‘a woman of exquisite beauty and accomplished manners,’ but whom he erroneously states to have been the daughter of Sir John Shorter, lord mayor of London in 1688. She was, in fact, daughter of John Shorter of Bybrook in Kent, a Baltic timber merchant, and a son of the lord mayor (Horace Walpole to Mason, 13 April 1782, Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xii. 14). There seems to have been some haste or secrecy about the marriage, for Hare, writing to Walpole on 8 Aug. following, mentions that Walpole's brother Horatio had only heard of it the day before. His wife brought him a dowry of 20,000l., but she was an extravagant woman of fashion and ‘wasted large sums.’ According to Horace Walpole, her dowry was ‘spent on the wedding and christening … including her jewels’ (Letters, viii. 423).

Walpole had already recommended himself to influential friends. He was intimately acquainted with Charles Townshend (afterwards second Viscount Townshend) [q. v.], his father's ward, his schoolfellow at Eton, and afterwards his brother-in-law. Still more important was the patronage of Sarah, then Countess of Marlborough [see, first ], which perhaps arose out of a friendship with her son John, lord Churchill, also a pupil both of Newborough and Hare, though a few years Walpole's junior. Lady Marlborough had a ‘difference’ with Walpole upon his marriage (Corresp. ii. 469, written in 1726), which was, however, afterwards settled.

In November 1700 Walpole's father died, and he succeeded to the estates. These had been considerably diminished since the time of Elizabeth, probably by the necessity of making provision for a succession of large families. A paper in the handwriting of his father, dated 9 June 1700, shows their extent at this time in Norfolk and Suffolk to have been nine manors in Norfolk and one in Suffolk, besides outlying lands, with a total rent-roll of 2,169l. a year. On 11 Jan. following Walpole was returned for the borough of Castle Rising, and a second time on 1 Dec. 1701. This seat he transferred to his uncle Horatio upon the election of the first parliament of Queen Anne in July 1702. He himself was returned on 23 July 1702 for the borough of King's Lynn, for which he sat during the rest of his career in the House of Commons.

Walpole's name first appears upon the journals of the House of Commons as serving upon a committee for privileges and elections on 13 Feb. 1701, three days after the opening of the parliament in which he first sat. He early familiarised himself with the forms of the house. He was the author in his first session of a report from a committee on a bill for erecting hospitals and workhouses in the borough of Lynn, and for the better employment and maintenance of the poor, on which, however, no legislative action took place. His first speech in the House of Commons is traditionally recorded to have been a failure, arising from embarrassment, but no record remains of its substance or occasion. Nor was he at once successful, though, after a subsequent comparative failure, Arthur Mainwaring, one of Lady Marlborough's circle, prophesied to detractors that he would ‘in time become an excellent speaker.’ He first drew public attention to himself by a speech delivered in February 1702 in favour of compelling all heads and fellows of colleges to take the oath of abjuration. This was carried without a division. Walpole is described by a member present as having ‘vehemently inveighed’ against the academical nonjurors, thereby exciting fierce resentment at Cambridge (Horatio Walpole to Robert Walpole, 28 Feb. 1702). His name now constantly recurs as teller upon divisions. The first occasion of this deserves to be noted, in view of his subsequent policy in ecclesiastical questions. On 19 Feb. 1702 he acted as teller against ‘a clause to be added to a bill for the further security of his majesty's person and government, that persons who take