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.1 unm.

Offices Held

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

Biography

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.2 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’.3 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’.4

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

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.