Dorothy Clement, a young girl from humble origins in Darlington, for the first time on her own for the first time came to London and became a seamstress. This is the start of our story.
Some newspapers reported Prince Harry’s friendship with 25-year-old Florence Brudenell-Bruce, who is not only his cousin eight times removed, but also a descendant of the 18th Century Sir Edward Walpole. Sir Edward’s daughter, Maria, became a member of the British royal family when she married Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, and was given the title Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh. Her mother was a native of Darlington – and there begins a fascinating love story.
In 1758, the London Gazette, the journal for all royal, military and society news, carried an announcement that Edward Walpole had been appointed captain in a regiment of Light Dragoons which was then being formed. Little else was known about the life of this soldier until 13 years later when his death was reported:
April 1, 1771: At Calais, on his way to the South of France for the recovery of his health, Lieutenant Colonel Edward Walpole. He was the only son of Sir Edward Walpole KB and brother to the Bishop of Exeter’s lady, to the Countess Dowager Waldegrave and the Countess of Dysart.
Edward was the son of Sir Edward Walpole, Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath, born in 1706, the second son of Sir Robert Walpole who was Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer to both King George I and King George II from 1721 until 1742.
Sir Edward was also a politician through and through. At the age of 24, Edward became MP for Lostwithiel, a seat he held for four years before winning the constituency of Great Yarmouth, which he represented for the next 34 years.
From 1730 until 1739, he was a Junior Secretary at the Treasury, from 1737 to 1739 Chief Secretary for Ireland, and from 1739 to his death in 1784 Clerk of the Pells, a role at the Exchequer that involved little work but for which he was paid £30,000 a year. He also served in the Parliament of Ireland from 1737 to 1760 as member for Ballyshannon.
Dorothy Clement, who bore his four children, but to whom he was never legally married, was born in 1715 and came from much humbler stock. Dorothy hailed from Darlington where her parents, Hammond and Priscilla Clement, born in 1692 and 1684 respectively, were married in 1712. Hammond’s christening had taken place in Durham Cathedral in 1692, suggesting that his father, John Clement, born in Durham in 1670, had lived with his family in that city at the time.
Hammond became Postmaster of Darlington, where he and his wife raised a large family. The family was larger than Hammond's so, at the age of 15, Dorothy left the family home and made her own way in the world. Dorothy made her way to the home of Mrs. Rennie (maker of children's coats) to whose care her father had entrusted her. The home and business premises were in Pall Mall centre of the London fashion industry.
Another part of Mrs Rennie’s property was given over to up-market apartments leased to well-to-do young gentlemen of means, one of whom was Sir Edward Walpole on his return in 1731 from the Grand Tour of Europe.
Another version of the story has Sir Edward living in a house opposite Mrs Rennie, but, no matter the location of his rooms, he made the acquaintance of Miss Dorothy Clement, who was described as the most beautiful young lady in London: a seamstress of very humble origin, an extremely most lovely remarkable beauty, a most lovely creature.
Despite their different social stations, the pair became romantically involved, but their path of true love was destined to be more than a little rocky.
Upon discovering the assignation, Mrs Rennie summoned Dorothy’s father from Darlington and when he arrived, he sent for his daughter: Not with anger, but in tears. He plead with her to come home with him, that he might bear her away from the perils gathering around her. And Mary wept because she saw her kind father weeping, still more because she regarded his solution as her sentence of doom.
Nevertheless, she was on the point of agreeing to return with him. While her father and Mrs Rennie retired to a back room, congratulating each other on the success of their mission, Dorothy changed her mind again and fled the house to run the length of Pall Mall to Sir Edward’s new house.
Edward's father, Sir Robert Walpole, knew of Sir Edward’s liaison but was a most wise man who knew when to let events play themselves out.
As the Monthly Chronicle of North Country Lore and Legend pointed out retrospectively, and with the benefit of hindsight, 150 years later:
It was unlikely that he would give his blessing to such an illassorted match as that for which his son soon came to long. Sir Robert was wise above all men in the wisdom of the world. He deemed it but a sowing of wild oats. So long as there was no talk of housing the harvest thereof in his stately barns, he had nothing to say in the matter. The freak would come and go, the passion would cool, the fancy would fade, the toy would in due time be broken and thrown aside. Then Edward, known to the Italian ladies as the handsome Englishman, would play the man and mate with a daughter of some princely house. But it was not to be.
On this occasion, Sir Robert miscalculated badly. Edward and Dorothy remained happily together until her death at the young age of 24, just after the birth of their fourth child, their son Edward.
The children all took the family name of Walpole, but respectability and admission into polite society was not so easily achieved, although they were eventually recognised.
Although Edward and Dorothy were never able to marry because their lifestyle depended on the money and patronage of Edward's father, Sir Robert Walpole and such a union would have caused a huge rift, their love was so great that after Dorothy’s death Sir Edward refused to have any other female companion.
Throughout their relationship and even after her death, wherever and whenever he could, Sir Edward helped Dorothy’s parents and siblings and made sure that his own children, all of whom had inherited their mother’s looks, were properly educated and happy.
Following Dorothy’s death, her sister arrived to look after these children – the girls, Laura, Maria and Charlotte, soon became generally known as The Three Graces. Laura, sometimes called Louisa, in 1758 was first to marry; her groom being the clergyman the Honourable and Reverend Frederick Keppel who rose to become Bishop of Exeter and Dean of Windsor. Both Laura and Honorable Reverend Frederick Keppel are buried in St. George Chapel, Windsor, Berkshire.
Edward's mother, Lady Albemarle, introduced Laura's two sisters at Court and Maria Walpole soon captivated the powerful Lord Waldegrave to whom she was married by the Reverend Keppel at Sir Edward Walpole’s Pall Mall home, Luxborough House. The Earl of Waldegrave, an intimate friend of King George II and onetime governor of the boy who would become George III, died less than four years later. In their short marriage, Lord Waldegrave and Maria had three daughters: Elizabeth Laura, Charlotte Maria and Anna Horatia. This last daughter was an ancestor of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
Three years after the death of Lord Waldegrave, in 1766, Maria secretly married the favourite brother of King George III, Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh at her home in Pall Mall, but because the pair married so covertly and without his permission, George III refused to receive Maria at Court. Prince William Henry and Maria had two daughters and one son: Her Royal Highness Princess Sophia of Gloucester 1773-1844; Her Highness Princess Carolina Augusta Maria, who died aged nine months; and His Royal Highness Prince William Frederick, 1776-1834.
Maria Walpole, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester, daughter of Dorothy Clement of Darlington, died in 1807.
In 1760, Charlotte Walpole, married Lionel Tollemache, Lord Huntingtower, 5th Earl of Tollemache, thereby becoming Countess of Dysart. Charlotte Couintess of Dysart died in 1789.
Some newspapers reported Prince Harry’s friendship with 25-year-old Florence Brudenell-Bruce, who is not only his cousin eight times removed, but also a descendant of the 18th Century Sir Edward Walpole. Sir Edward’s daughter, Maria, became a member of the British royal family when she married Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, and was given the title Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh. Her mother was a native of Darlington – and there begins a fascinating love story.
In 1758, the London Gazette, the journal for all royal, military and society news, carried an announcement that Edward Walpole had been appointed captain in a regiment of Light Dragoons which was then being formed. Little else was known about the life of this soldier until 13 years later when his death was reported:
April 1, 1771: At Calais, on his way to the South of France for the recovery of his health, Lieutenant Colonel Edward Walpole. He was the only son of Sir Edward Walpole KB and brother to the Bishop of Exeter’s lady, to the Countess Dowager Waldegrave and the Countess of Dysart.
Edward was the son of Sir Edward Walpole, Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath, born in 1706, the second son of Sir Robert Walpole who was Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer to both King George I and King George II from 1721 until 1742.
Sir Edward was also a politician through and through. At the age of 24, Edward became MP for Lostwithiel, a seat he held for four years before winning the constituency of Great Yarmouth, which he represented for the next 34 years.
From 1730 until 1739, he was a Junior Secretary at the Treasury, from 1737 to 1739 Chief Secretary for Ireland, and from 1739 to his death in 1784 Clerk of the Pells, a role at the Exchequer that involved little work but for which he was paid £30,000 a year. He also served in the Parliament of Ireland from 1737 to 1760 as member for Ballyshannon.
Dorothy Clement, who bore his four children, but to whom he was never legally married, was born in 1715 and came from much humbler stock. Dorothy hailed from Darlington where her parents, Hammond and Priscilla Clement, born in 1692 and 1684 respectively, were married in 1712. Hammond’s christening had taken place in Durham Cathedral in 1692, suggesting that his father, John Clement, born in Durham in 1670, had lived with his family in that city at the time.
Hammond became Postmaster of Darlington, where he and his wife raised a large family. The family was larger than Hammond's so, at the age of 15, Dorothy left the family home and made her own way in the world. Dorothy made her way to the home of Mrs. Rennie (maker of children's coats) to whose care her father had entrusted her. The home and business premises were in Pall Mall centre of the London fashion industry.
Another part of Mrs Rennie’s property was given over to up-market apartments leased to well-to-do young gentlemen of means, one of whom was Sir Edward Walpole on his return in 1731 from the Grand Tour of Europe.
Another version of the story has Sir Edward living in a house opposite Mrs Rennie, but, no matter the location of his rooms, he made the acquaintance of Miss Dorothy Clement, who was described as the most beautiful young lady in London: a seamstress of very humble origin, an extremely most lovely remarkable beauty, a most lovely creature.
Despite their different social stations, the pair became romantically involved, but their path of true love was destined to be more than a little rocky.
Upon discovering the assignation, Mrs Rennie summoned Dorothy’s father from Darlington and when he arrived, he sent for his daughter: Not with anger, but in tears. He plead with her to come home with him, that he might bear her away from the perils gathering around her. And Mary wept because she saw her kind father weeping, still more because she regarded his solution as her sentence of doom.
Nevertheless, she was on the point of agreeing to return with him. While her father and Mrs Rennie retired to a back room, congratulating each other on the success of their mission, Dorothy changed her mind again and fled the house to run the length of Pall Mall to Sir Edward’s new house.
Edward's father, Sir Robert Walpole, knew of Sir Edward’s liaison but was a most wise man who knew when to let events play themselves out.
As the Monthly Chronicle of North Country Lore and Legend pointed out retrospectively, and with the benefit of hindsight, 150 years later:
It was unlikely that he would give his blessing to such an illassorted match as that for which his son soon came to long. Sir Robert was wise above all men in the wisdom of the world. He deemed it but a sowing of wild oats. So long as there was no talk of housing the harvest thereof in his stately barns, he had nothing to say in the matter. The freak would come and go, the passion would cool, the fancy would fade, the toy would in due time be broken and thrown aside. Then Edward, known to the Italian ladies as the handsome Englishman, would play the man and mate with a daughter of some princely house. But it was not to be.
On this occasion, Sir Robert miscalculated badly. Edward and Dorothy remained happily together until her death at the young age of 24, just after the birth of their fourth child, their son Edward.
The children all took the family name of Walpole, but respectability and admission into polite society was not so easily achieved, although they were eventually recognised.
Although Edward and Dorothy were never able to marry because their lifestyle depended on the money and patronage of Edward's father, Sir Robert Walpole and such a union would have caused a huge rift, their love was so great that after Dorothy’s death Sir Edward refused to have any other female companion.
Throughout their relationship and even after her death, wherever and whenever he could, Sir Edward helped Dorothy’s parents and siblings and made sure that his own children, all of whom had inherited their mother’s looks, were properly educated and happy.
Following Dorothy’s death, her sister arrived to look after these children – the girls, Laura, Maria and Charlotte, soon became generally known as The Three Graces. Laura, sometimes called Louisa, in 1758 was first to marry; her groom being the clergyman the Honourable and Reverend Frederick Keppel who rose to become Bishop of Exeter and Dean of Windsor. Both Laura and Honorable Reverend Frederick Keppel are buried in St. George Chapel, Windsor, Berkshire.
Edward's mother, Lady Albemarle, introduced Laura's two sisters at Court and Maria Walpole soon captivated the powerful Lord Waldegrave to whom she was married by the Reverend Keppel at Sir Edward Walpole’s Pall Mall home, Luxborough House. The Earl of Waldegrave, an intimate friend of King George II and onetime governor of the boy who would become George III, died less than four years later. In their short marriage, Lord Waldegrave and Maria had three daughters: Elizabeth Laura, Charlotte Maria and Anna Horatia. This last daughter was an ancestor of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
Three years after the death of Lord Waldegrave, in 1766, Maria secretly married the favourite brother of King George III, Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh at her home in Pall Mall, but because the pair married so covertly and without his permission, George III refused to receive Maria at Court. Prince William Henry and Maria had two daughters and one son: Her Royal Highness Princess Sophia of Gloucester 1773-1844; Her Highness Princess Carolina Augusta Maria, who died aged nine months; and His Royal Highness Prince William Frederick, 1776-1834.
Maria Walpole, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester, daughter of Dorothy Clement of Darlington, died in 1807.
In 1760, Charlotte Walpole, married Lionel Tollemache, Lord Huntingtower, 5th Earl of Tollemache, thereby becoming Countess of Dysart. Charlotte Couintess of Dysart died in 1789.
Dorothy Clement, a young girl from humble origins in Darlington, for the first time on her own for the first time came to London and became a seamstress. This is the start of our story.
Some newspapers reported Prince Harry’s friendship with 25-year-old Florence Brudenell-Bruce, who is not only his cousin eight times removed, but also a descendant of the 18th Century Sir Edward Walpole. Sir Edward’s daughter, Maria, became a member of the British royal family when she married Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, and was given the title Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh. Her mother was a native of Darlington – and there begins a fascinating love story.
In 1758, the London Gazette, the journal for all royal, military and society news, carried an announcement that Edward Walpole had been appointed captain in a regiment of Light Dragoons which was then being formed. Little else was known about the life of this soldier until 13 years later when his death was reported:
April 1, 1771: At Calais, on his way to the South of France for the recovery of his health, Lieutenant Colonel Edward Walpole. He was the only son of Sir Edward Walpole KB and brother to the Bishop of Exeter’s lady, to the Countess Dowager Waldegrave and the Countess of Dysart.
Edward was the son of Sir Edward Walpole, Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath, born in 1706, the second son of Sir Robert Walpole who was Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer to both King George I and King George II from 1721 until 1742.
Sir Edward was also a politician through and through. At the age of 24, Edward became MP for Lostwithiel, a seat he held for four years before winning the constituency of Great Yarmouth, which he represented for the next 34 years.
From 1730 until 1739, he was a Junior Secretary at the Treasury, from 1737 to 1739 Chief Secretary for Ireland, and from 1739 to his death in 1784 Clerk of the Pells, a role at the Exchequer that involved little work but for which he was paid £30,000 a year. He also served in the Parliament of Ireland from 1737 to 1760 as member for Ballyshannon.
Dorothy Clement, who bore his four children, but to whom he was never legally married, was born in 1715 and came from much humbler stock. Dorothy hailed from Darlington where her parents, Hammond and Priscilla Clement, born in 1692 and 1684 respectively, were married in 1712. Hammond’s christening had taken place in Durham Cathedral in 1692, suggesting that his father, John Clement, born in Durham in 1670, had lived with his family in that city at the time.
Hammond became Postmaster of Darlington, where he and his wife raised a large family. The family was larger than Hammond's so, at the age of 15, Dorothy left the family home and made her own way in the world. Dorothy made her way to the home of Mrs. Rennie (maker of children's coats) to whose care her father had entrusted her. The home and business premises were in Pall Mall centre of the London fashion industry.
Another part of Mrs Rennie’s property was given over to up-market apartments leased to well-to-do young gentlemen of means, one of whom was Sir Edward Walpole on his return in 1731 from the Grand Tour of Europe.
Another version of the story has Sir Edward living in a house opposite Mrs Rennie, but, no matter the location of his rooms, he made the acquaintance of Miss Dorothy Clement, who was described as the most beautiful young lady in London: a seamstress of very humble origin, an extremely most lovely remarkable beauty, a most lovely creature.
Despite their different social stations, the pair became romantically involved, but their path of true love was destined to be more than a little rocky.
Upon discovering the assignation, Mrs Rennie summoned Dorothy’s father from Darlington and when he arrived, he sent for his daughter: Not with anger, but in tears. He plead with her to come home with him, that he might bear her away from the perils gathering around her. And Mary wept because she saw her kind father weeping, still more because she regarded his solution as her sentence of doom.
Nevertheless, she was on the point of agreeing to return with him. While her father and Mrs Rennie retired to a back room, congratulating each other on the success of their mission, Dorothy changed her mind again and fled the house to run the length of Pall Mall to Sir Edward’s new house.
Edward's father, Sir Robert Walpole, knew of Sir Edward’s liaison but was a most wise man who knew when to let events play themselves out.
As the Monthly Chronicle of North Country Lore and Legend pointed out retrospectively, and with the benefit of hindsight, 150 years later:
It was unlikely that he would give his blessing to such an illassorted match as that for which his son soon came to long. Sir Robert was wise above all men in the wisdom of the world. He deemed it but a sowing of wild oats. So long as there was no talk of housing the harvest thereof in his stately barns, he had nothing to say in the matter. The freak would come and go, the passion would cool, the fancy would fade, the toy would in due time be broken and thrown aside. Then Edward, known to the Italian ladies as the handsome Englishman, would play the man and mate with a daughter of some princely house. But it was not to be.
On this occasion, Sir Robert miscalculated badly. Edward and Dorothy remained happily together until her death at the young age of 24, just after the birth of their fourth child, their son Edward.
The children all took the family name of Walpole, but respectability and admission into polite society was not so easily achieved, although they were eventually recognised.
Although Edward and Dorothy were never able to marry because their lifestyle depended on the money and patronage of Edward's father, Sir Robert Walpole and such a union would have caused a huge rift, their love was so great that after Dorothy’s death Sir Edward refused to have any other female companion.
Throughout their relationship and even after her death, wherever and whenever he could, Sir Edward helped Dorothy’s parents and siblings and made sure that his own children, all of whom had inherited their mother’s looks, were properly educated and happy.
Following Dorothy’s death, her sister arrived to look after these children – the girls, Laura, Maria and Charlotte, soon became generally known as The Three Graces. Laura, sometimes called Louisa, in 1758 was first to marry; her groom being the clergyman the Honourable and Reverend Frederick Keppel who rose to become Bishop of Exeter and Dean of Windsor. Both Laura and Honorable Reverend Frederick Keppel are buried in St. George Chapel, Windsor, Berkshire.
Edward's mother, Lady Albemarle, introduced Laura's two sisters at Court and Maria Walpole soon captivated the powerful Lord Waldegrave to whom she was married by the Reverend Keppel at Sir Edward Walpole’s Pall Mall home, Luxborough House. The Earl of Waldegrave, an intimate friend of King George II and onetime governor of the boy who would become George III, died less than four years later. In their short marriage, Lord Waldegrave and Maria had three daughters: Elizabeth Laura, Charlotte Maria and Anna Horatia. This last daughter was an ancestor of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
Three years after the death of Lord Waldegrave, in 1766, Maria secretly married the favourite brother of King George III, Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh at her home in Pall Mall, but because the pair married so covertly and without his permission, George III refused to receive Maria at Court. Prince William Henry and Maria had two daughters and one son: Her Royal Highness Princess Sophia of Gloucester 1773-1844; Her Highness Princess Carolina Augusta Maria, who died aged nine months; and His Royal Highness Prince William Frederick, 1776-1834.
Maria Walpole, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester, daughter of Dorothy Clement of Darlington, died in 1807.
In 1760, Charlotte Walpole, married Lionel Tollemache, Lord Huntingtower, 5th Earl of Tollemache, thereby becoming Countess of Dysart. Charlotte Couintess of Dysart died in 1789.
Some newspapers reported Prince Harry’s friendship with 25-year-old Florence Brudenell-Bruce, who is not only his cousin eight times removed, but also a descendant of the 18th Century Sir Edward Walpole. Sir Edward’s daughter, Maria, became a member of the British royal family when she married Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, and was given the title Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh. Her mother was a native of Darlington – and there begins a fascinating love story.
In 1758, the London Gazette, the journal for all royal, military and society news, carried an announcement that Edward Walpole had been appointed captain in a regiment of Light Dragoons which was then being formed. Little else was known about the life of this soldier until 13 years later when his death was reported:
April 1, 1771: At Calais, on his way to the South of France for the recovery of his health, Lieutenant Colonel Edward Walpole. He was the only son of Sir Edward Walpole KB and brother to the Bishop of Exeter’s lady, to the Countess Dowager Waldegrave and the Countess of Dysart.
Edward was the son of Sir Edward Walpole, Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath, born in 1706, the second son of Sir Robert Walpole who was Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer to both King George I and King George II from 1721 until 1742.
Sir Edward was also a politician through and through. At the age of 24, Edward became MP for Lostwithiel, a seat he held for four years before winning the constituency of Great Yarmouth, which he represented for the next 34 years.
From 1730 until 1739, he was a Junior Secretary at the Treasury, from 1737 to 1739 Chief Secretary for Ireland, and from 1739 to his death in 1784 Clerk of the Pells, a role at the Exchequer that involved little work but for which he was paid £30,000 a year. He also served in the Parliament of Ireland from 1737 to 1760 as member for Ballyshannon.
Dorothy Clement, who bore his four children, but to whom he was never legally married, was born in 1715 and came from much humbler stock. Dorothy hailed from Darlington where her parents, Hammond and Priscilla Clement, born in 1692 and 1684 respectively, were married in 1712. Hammond’s christening had taken place in Durham Cathedral in 1692, suggesting that his father, John Clement, born in Durham in 1670, had lived with his family in that city at the time.
Hammond became Postmaster of Darlington, where he and his wife raised a large family. The family was larger than Hammond's so, at the age of 15, Dorothy left the family home and made her own way in the world. Dorothy made her way to the home of Mrs. Rennie (maker of children's coats) to whose care her father had entrusted her. The home and business premises were in Pall Mall centre of the London fashion industry.
Another part of Mrs Rennie’s property was given over to up-market apartments leased to well-to-do young gentlemen of means, one of whom was Sir Edward Walpole on his return in 1731 from the Grand Tour of Europe.
Another version of the story has Sir Edward living in a house opposite Mrs Rennie, but, no matter the location of his rooms, he made the acquaintance of Miss Dorothy Clement, who was described as the most beautiful young lady in London: a seamstress of very humble origin, an extremely most lovely remarkable beauty, a most lovely creature.
Despite their different social stations, the pair became romantically involved, but their path of true love was destined to be more than a little rocky.
Upon discovering the assignation, Mrs Rennie summoned Dorothy’s father from Darlington and when he arrived, he sent for his daughter: Not with anger, but in tears. He plead with her to come home with him, that he might bear her away from the perils gathering around her. And Mary wept because she saw her kind father weeping, still more because she regarded his solution as her sentence of doom.
Nevertheless, she was on the point of agreeing to return with him. While her father and Mrs Rennie retired to a back room, congratulating each other on the success of their mission, Dorothy changed her mind again and fled the house to run the length of Pall Mall to Sir Edward’s new house.
Edward's father, Sir Robert Walpole, knew of Sir Edward’s liaison but was a most wise man who knew when to let events play themselves out.
As the Monthly Chronicle of North Country Lore and Legend pointed out retrospectively, and with the benefit of hindsight, 150 years later:
It was unlikely that he would give his blessing to such an illassorted match as that for which his son soon came to long. Sir Robert was wise above all men in the wisdom of the world. He deemed it but a sowing of wild oats. So long as there was no talk of housing the harvest thereof in his stately barns, he had nothing to say in the matter. The freak would come and go, the passion would cool, the fancy would fade, the toy would in due time be broken and thrown aside. Then Edward, known to the Italian ladies as the handsome Englishman, would play the man and mate with a daughter of some princely house. But it was not to be.
On this occasion, Sir Robert miscalculated badly. Edward and Dorothy remained happily together until her death at the young age of 24, just after the birth of their fourth child, their son Edward.
The children all took the family name of Walpole, but respectability and admission into polite society was not so easily achieved, although they were eventually recognised.
Although Edward and Dorothy were never able to marry because their lifestyle depended on the money and patronage of Edward's father, Sir Robert Walpole and such a union would have caused a huge rift, their love was so great that after Dorothy’s death Sir Edward refused to have any other female companion.
Throughout their relationship and even after her death, wherever and whenever he could, Sir Edward helped Dorothy’s parents and siblings and made sure that his own children, all of whom had inherited their mother’s looks, were properly educated and happy.
Following Dorothy’s death, her sister arrived to look after these children – the girls, Laura, Maria and Charlotte, soon became generally known as The Three Graces. Laura, sometimes called Louisa, in 1758 was first to marry; her groom being the clergyman the Honourable and Reverend Frederick Keppel who rose to become Bishop of Exeter and Dean of Windsor. Both Laura and Honorable Reverend Frederick Keppel are buried in St. George Chapel, Windsor, Berkshire.
Edward's mother, Lady Albemarle, introduced Laura's two sisters at Court and Maria Walpole soon captivated the powerful Lord Waldegrave to whom she was married by the Reverend Keppel at Sir Edward Walpole’s Pall Mall home, Luxborough House. The Earl of Waldegrave, an intimate friend of King George II and onetime governor of the boy who would become George III, died less than four years later. In their short marriage, Lord Waldegrave and Maria had three daughters: Elizabeth Laura, Charlotte Maria and Anna Horatia. This last daughter was an ancestor of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
Three years after the death of Lord Waldegrave, in 1766, Maria secretly married the favourite brother of King George III, Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh at her home in Pall Mall, but because the pair married so covertly and without his permission, George III refused to receive Maria at Court. Prince William Henry and Maria had two daughters and one son: Her Royal Highness Princess Sophia of Gloucester 1773-1844; Her Highness Princess Carolina Augusta Maria, who died aged nine months; and His Royal Highness Prince William Frederick, 1776-1834.
Maria Walpole, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester, daughter of Dorothy Clement of Darlington, died in 1807.
In 1760, Charlotte Walpole, married Lionel Tollemache, Lord Huntingtower, 5th Earl of Tollemache, thereby becoming Countess of Dysart. Charlotte Couintess of Dysart died in 1789.
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