Family and Education

b. 2 Jan. 1703, 1st surv. s. of George Cholmondeley, M.P., 2nd Earl of Cholmondeley, by Elizabeth, da. of Heer van Baron Ruytenburg of Ghent; bro. of Hon. James Cholmondeley. m. 14 Sept. 1723, Mary, da. of Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, 3s. Styled Visct. Malpas 1725-33; K.B. 27 May 1725; suc. fa. as 3rd Earl 7 May 1733.

Offices Held

Gov. Chester 1725-d.; master of the robes 1726-7; ld. of Admiralty 1727-8; master of the horse to Prince of Wales 1728-35; ld. lt. and vice-adm. Cheshire 1733-d.; ld. lt. N. Wales (except Denb.) 1733-61; ld. of Treasury 1735-6; P.C. 21 May 1736; chancellor of duchy of Lancaster 1736-43; chamberlain of Cheshire 1736-d.; ld. lt. Mont. 1737-61; ld. privy seal Dec. 1743-Dec. 1744; jt. vice-treasurer [I] 1744-57.

Col. 1745; maj.-gen. 1755; lt.-gen. 1759.

Biography

Marrying Walpole’s daughter, Malpas was brought into Parliament and appointed master of the robes to George I, on whose death he ‘was turned out ... and not in the softest manner, the day after the King [George II] came to the throne’. He was then put by Walpole into the Admiralty, from which a year later he was transferred to the newly-formed household of the Prince of Wales. He spoke for the Hessians in February 1730 and 1731; and in March 1732 supported a motion for making a qualification in any of the public funds as good as a qualification in land.1

After succeeding to the peerage in 1733 he filled a number of lucrative offices, but at the end of 1746 his brother-in-law, Horace Walpole, reported him (to Mann) to be ‘totally undone and all he has seized for debt’. In January 1747 he wrote to Newcastle, applying for a pension on the Irish establishment, stating that

a great part of my present incumbrances have arisen from my endeavours to serve his Majesty in various elections, both in Cheshire and the adjacent counties of Wales; in which I have never asked any assistance from the public, nor have I ever had a shilling issued to me for that purpose.

Since his official income already amounted to an average of £3,700 p.a., his application was unsuccessful, as was another for the post of ambassador to Spain in 1748. In 1752, according to Horace Walpole, he was reduced to borrowing money under false pretences. In 1757 he was removed from the vice-treasureship of Ireland, receiving as compensation an annual pension of equivalent value on the Irish establishment, £2,500 of it during life and £1,200 during pleasure.2

He died 10 June 1770, ‘a vain, empty man, shoved up too high by his father-in-law, Sir Robert Walpole, and fallen into contempt and obscurity by his own extravagance and insufficiency’.3

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

• 1. Hervey, Mems. 30, 37; HMC Egmont Diary, i. 25, 126, 240.
• 2. Add. 32710, ff.130-2; 32862, f.231; 32715, f.134; 32876, f.17; Corresp. H. Walpole (Yale ed.), xx. 325 n.29.
• 3. Walpole, Mems. Geo. II, i. 173.