WALTER, Peter (c.1663-1746), of Stalbridge, Dorset.

The parentage of Peter Walter, the ‘very noted money scrivener’,Gent. Mag. 1746, p. 45. i.e. moneylender, is unknown, but he probably came of a Dorset family. By 1694 he was the trusted clerk of Richard Newman, whose niece he married and who made him his executor in 1695.PCC 143 Bond. By 1707 he had become steward for life to John Holles, Duke of Newcastle,Cal. Treas. Pprs. 1702-7, p. 561; Walter to Ld. Pelham, 4 Dec. 1713, Add. 33064, f. 27. whose successor obtained for him a lucrative place. He also acted as agent for many of the nobility, including the 2nd and 3rd Earls of Essex and the 1st Earl of Uxbridge,Cal. Treas. Bks. xxiv. 511; HMC Portland, vii. 422; Cal. Treas. Pprs. 1714-19, p. 89. whose name, Paget, he gave to his only son. Returned on petition in 1715 for Bridport, where he unseated a Tory, he voted for the Administration in all recorded divisions. He did not stand there for the 1727 election but was found a seat at Winchelsea in the following year.

By taking up mortgages and then foreclosing on the estates, Walter built up a large fortune. He was thus able to buy for himself Stalbridge and other valuable properties, chiefly in Dorset and Somerset, including those of Michael Harvey. For his unscrupulous methods he was portrayed by Fielding as ‘Peter Pounce’; Swift wrote of him as

That rogue of genuine ministerial kind, Can half the peerage by his arts bewitch, Starve twenty lords to make one scoundrel rich;Epistle to Mr. Gay.

and Pope:

If Peter deigns to help you to your own:

What thanks, what praise, if Peter but supplies!

And what a solemn face if he denies!

...

And lies to every Lord in everything, Like a King’s favourite—or like a King.Second satire of Dr. John Donne.

He died 19 Jan. 1746, ‘reputed worth £300,000’.Gent. Mag. 1746, p. 45.