WALTER, John (d.1736), of Busbridge, nr. Godalming, Surr.

Between 1708 and 1715 John Walter, a rich West Indian, bought the manor of Busbridge and other properties in Surrey. After contesting Haslemere unsuccessfully in 1715, he was returned as a Tory for the county in 1719, heading the poll in 1722. In 1727 he joined with Thomas Scawen against Arthur Onslow, but gave up during the poll, apparently on the understanding that Scawen should pay all the election expenses, which were supposed to be ‘very large’, and ‘not suited, as it was thought, to Mr. Walter’s circumstances at that time’.1HMC 14th Rep. IX, 518-19. He died 12 May 1736.