in Shakespeare's 1599/1601 play Hamlet. He was a Member of Parliament for fifty-four years from 1702 until his death in 1757. During his political career he served as Secretary to the Treasury, Chief Secretary for Ireland, British Ambassador to France, Cofferer of the Household, Ambassador to the United Provinces and Teller of the Exchequer. Christopher Walpole, died as an infant Galfridus Walpole (1683–1726) Mordaunt Walpole (1688 – 1689) A stillborn boy (1690) Charles Walpole (1691 – ?) William Walpole (1693 – ?) Daughters Susan Walpole (1672 – ?), wife of Anthony Hamond (d.1743); Mary Walpole (1673–1701), who married Sir Charles Turner, 1st Baronet of Warham, Norfolk, a lawyer and Whig politician, and was the great-grandmother of the great Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805); Elizabeth Walpole, died in infancy; Elizabeth Walpole (1682–1736) Anne Walpole (1685 – ?) Dorothy Walpole (1686 – 29 March 1728), who in about 1713 married Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend (1674-1738), who in his childhood had been her father's ward, son and heir of Horatio Townshend, 1st Viscount Townshend (1630-1687), a grandson of Horatio de Vere, 1st Baron Vere of Tilbury (1565-1635), an English military leader (one of the earliest English holders of that first name); Susan Walpole (1687 – ?) A stillborn girl Overdue library book In 1668 Walpole borrowed a German biography book about the Archbishop of Bremen from the library of Sidney Sussex College. It was finally found in 1956 when his descendant the 5th Marquess of Cholmondeley together with Professor John Plumb discovered the book in the library at Houghton. The book was quickly returned, 288 years after it was checked out. Notes References Burke, Bernard. A genealogical history of the dormant, abeyant, forfeited, and extinct peerages of the British empire. Harrison, 1866. Cherry, George L. The Convention Parliament, 1689: a biographical study of its members. Bookman Associates, 1966. Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 28 of The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information. Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911. Coxe, William. Memoirs of the Life and Administration of Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Oxford: Containing the Memoirs. Kessinger Publishing, 2006. Coxe, William. Memoirs of the life and administration of Sir Robert Walpole: earl of Orford, Volume 4. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, 1816. Englefield, Dermont J. T. Facts about the British prime ministers: a compilation of biographical and historical information. H.W. Wilson Co., 1995. Ewald, Alexander Charles. Sir Robert Walpole: a