WALKER, Thomas (c.1664-1748), of Wimbledon, Surr.

At George I’s accession Walker was appointed to a commissionership of customs, which he exchanged in 1731 for a post not disqualifying him from sitting in the House of Commons. Beginning a parliamentary career at the age of 69, he sat as a government nominee for Cornish boroughs, voting consistently with the ministry. He made his only known speech in 1733, when as an ex-commissioner of customs he defended the then commissioners against aspersions on them by the Opposition.Stuart mss 160/129. He died 22 Oct. 1748, aged 84, ‘most immensely rich’, Henry Pelham reported to Newcastle, ‘most people say £300,000, I believe not much less’.1 Nov. 1748, Add. 32717, f. 245. Horace Walpole describes him as ‘a kind of toad-eater to Sir Robert Walpole and Lord Godolphin, a great frequenter of Newmarket, and a notorious usurer’.Note to letter to Mann, 24 Oct. 1748.