Horatio William Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (18 April 1813 – 7 December 1894), styled Lord Walpole between 1822 and 1858, was a British peer and Conservative politician.

Background

Orford was the son of Horatio Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford, and Mary, daughter of William Augustus Fawkener.

Political career

In 1835, at the age of 21, Orford was returned to Parliament as one of two representatives for Norfolk East, a seat he held until 1837. In 1858 he succeeded his father in the earldom and took his seat in the House of Lords. He referred to the famed advocate of women's rights Mary Wollstonecraft as "a hyena in petticoats".

Family

Lord Orford married Harriet Bettina Frances, daughter of Admiral the Hon. Sir Fleetwood Pellew, in 1841. He "treated her with grotesquely violent cruelty" and in 1846 she went to live in Florence. They had two daughters. She died in November 1886. Lord Orford survived her by eight years and died in December 1894, aged 81. He was succeeded in the earldom by his nephew, Robert. Lord Orford had an illegitimate child, Horatio Walpole, by the Lady Susan, wife of the 5th Duke of Newcastle and daughter of Alexander Douglas-Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton.