Add MS 74245

ROBERT WALPOLE, M.P.: notebook of Robert Walpole, M.P., of Houghton, Norfolk, father of Sir Robert Walpole, Prime Minister, recording his receipts and expenses, chiefly during parliamentary sessions in London; 1690-1700. Autograph. Beginning at 22 Oct. 1690, expenses are listed at one end of the volume, including a number of purchases of books and pamphlets (ff. 1v-52), and receipts at the other (ff. 55-75). There are separate lists of expenses on his sons Edward and Robert when they accompanied him to London (ff. 60v, 65v-66, 68v-69). On two of the unused leaves are later pencil sketches of a townscape and a figure (ff. 53, 54). With preliminary notes by Horace Walpole (f. 1), 'This was the Account Book of my Grandfather Robert Walpole, Father of Sir Robert Walpole Earl of Orford, when he came up to Parliament without his Wife & Family', and by W. Ford, 'Bought at Dawson Turner's sale by the Countess of Waldegrave & sold by Her to me this year 1859 for 21£ (f. iii). Purchased at Sotheby's, 17-18 Dec. 1998, lot 109.

Paper; ff. iv + 75. Contemporary binding of brown leather, rebacked. 95 x 116 mm.