As to the _Walpole family_, it appears to be no less ancient than that of the Howards, although it did not rise so soon to very great eminence. Like the Howards, or rather the _Wigenhales_, it first appeared among the opulent Marshland families, not long after the conquest; but whether either of these families is of Saxon, Danish, or Norman descent, does not appear. The Walpole family took its name from the town of Walpole in Marshland, where the forefathers of the family resided, and had large possessions. Reginald de Walpole, who lived in the reign of Henry I. is thought the lineal ancestor of the present family. His son, Richard de Walpole, married Emma the daughter of Walter de Havelton (or de Houghton) of Houghton, in Norfolk. From that time, the family, or the principal branch of it, fixed its residence at Houghton, where it has continued almost ever since. Sir John Walpole, knight, was a favourite of Henry III. whom he accompanied in his expedition to Britany. His son, Sir Henry de Walpole, was a Judge, about the 50th year of the same king’s reign. Another of the family, Ralph de Walpole, was about the same time bishop of Ely, and afterward of Norwich. {132} Some of the family, at different times, long after the removal of one branch to Houghton, appear to reside at Walpole; and in the reign of Henry VII. we find the owner of Houghton residing at Lynn, as appears by his Will, where he is called Thomas Walpole, Esquire, of Lynne Bishop. In that Will, among other things, he leaves certain lands and tenements at Walpole, “to the brodirhode of the Holy Trinity at Lynne Bishop, to the intent the Alderman and Skyvens of the said Gylde shall find and pay yerly eight marks to the wages of an abil prest to synge mess perpetually for his sowl, and the sowl of Jone his wife, in the chapel of our Lady, in the chapel of St. Nicholas in Lynne.”—For many ages the Walpoles made no mean figure among the Norfolk gentry; but none of them appear to have been advanced to the peerage till the eighteenth century; since which time, they have ranked among the principal nobility of the kingdom. But of the whole race, from first to last, the most distinguished and memorable character was the famous Sir Robert Walpole, prime minister to our two first sovereigns, of the present dynasty, and afterward created Earl of Orford; of whom some account will be given in the next chapter, section IV.