Constituency Dates
West Looe 26 Jan. 1733 – 1734
Plympton Erle 21 Feb. 1735 – 1741
Helston 1741 – 1747
Family and Education
b. c. 1664, bro. of Peter Walker and bro.-in-law of Stephen Skynner, West India merchant, of Wanstead, Essex; prob. s. of Edward Walker of St. Sepulchre’s, London, by Susanna Winchurst.1PCC 346 Strahan, 49 Auber; Marriage Lic. Vic.-Gen. (Harl. Soc. xxxi), 143; Fac. Office marriage Lic. Index Lib. xxxiii), 22. unm.
Offices Held

Commr. of customs Nov. 1714–31; surveyor gen. of crown lands Oct. 1731 – d.

Address
Main residence: Wimbledon, Surr.
biography text

At George I’s accession Walker was appointed to a commissionership of customs, which he exchanged in 1731 for a post not disqualifying him from sitting in the House of Commons. Beginning a parliamentary career at the age of 69, he sat as a government nominee for Cornish boroughs, voting consistently with the ministry. He made his only known speech in 1733, when as an ex-commissioner of customs he defended the then commissioners against aspersions on them by the Opposition.2Stuart mss 160/129. He died 22 Oct. 1748, aged 84, ‘most immensely rich’, Henry Pelham reported to Newcastle, ‘most people say £300,000, I believe not much less’.31 Nov. 1748, Add. 32717, f. 245. Horace Walpole describes him as ‘a kind of toad-eater to Sir Robert Walpole and Lord Godolphin, a great frequenter of Newmarket, and a notorious usurer’.4Note to letter to Mann, 24 Oct. 1748.

Author
E.C.
Volume
Commons 1715-1754
Notes
  • 1. PCC 346 Strahan, 49 Auber; Marriage Lic. Vic.-Gen. (Harl. Soc. xxxi), 143; Fac. Office marriage Lic. Index Lib. xxxiii), 22.
  • 2. Stuart mss 160/129.
  • 3. 1 Nov. 1748, Add. 32717, f. 245.
  • 4. Note to letter to Mann, 24 Oct. 1748.