Thomas Walpole's Letters to the Duke of Grafton on American Affairs, 1776-1778

Abstract

N A PREVIOUS article in this journal,' I drew casual attention to the 1 private efforts of Thomas Walpole, the London merchant banker, to patch up a peace between the Britsh and Americans in 1776 and thereby head off a French intervention. Thomas was a nephew of the great Sir Robert, famous as Britain's first prime minister, and was a cousin of Horace, known to later generations from his memoirs and voluminous correspondence. Walpole in 1776 was nearing the half-century mark. He was a member of Parliament, but, being little practiced to speak in public;' he exerted his very considerable abilities without much reference to that body. The Dictionary of National Biography gives him no recognition, but Namier and Brooke in their new monumental work on The House of Commons, 1754-1790 have made up for this deficiency by devoting almost six pages to a sketch of his career.2 One of the wealthiest men in England, he was a director of the East India Company and was active in many other enterprises. Holding the tobacco contract with the Farmers General of France, he knew that country intimately. Politically he was a Whig, but was closer to Chatham than to Rockingham. His principal contact in parliamentary affairs was, however, the duke of Grafton, who while a Whig nevertheless remained in touch with members of the North ministry. This is the factor that makes Walpole's letters to the duke historically sigficant: they were a source of intelligence on French and American affairs passed on to the government as well as to the opposition. Walpole's American friendships led him to an interest in western lands, and he accepted the headship of a group formed with the object of revoking the government's policy as laid down by the Procla-