Cholmondeley family, Marquesses of Cholmondeley

The Cholmondeley family was established at Cholmondeley (Cheshire) in the 13th century, and acquired further estates in Cheshire, Denbighshire and Flintshire by marriage and purchase. The Vale Royal (Cheshire) estate was acquired through the marriage of Sir Hugh Cholmondeley to Mary Holford in the late 16th century but passed to a more junior branch of the family (later Barons Delamere). In 1661 Robert Cholmondeley was created Viscount Cholmondeley in the Irish peerage and his son, Hugh Cholmondeley, was created Baron in 1689 in the English peerage and Earl of Cholmondeley in 1706. On the death of the Hon. James Cholmondeley in 1775 the Clifton or Rocksavage estate near Runcorn (Cheshire), which he had acquired through his first wife, heiress of the Savage family, Earls Rivers, passed to his great-nephew the 4th Earl (later 1st Marquess) of Cholmondeley.

The first Marquess of Cholmondeley (so created in 1815), whose grandfather the 3rd Earl had married Mary, daughter of Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745), 1st Earl of Orford, inherited the Walpole estate of Houghton (Norfolk) on the death of the 4th Earl of Orford in 1797. The Walpole family, settled at Houghton since the 13th century, had acquired property in Norfolk by marriage and purchase, including the Pell family's Dorsingham and West Winch estate, bought in 1697. Hessett and Rougham (Suffolk), acquired through the marriage of Robert Walpole (d. 1700) and Mary, daughter and heir of Sir Jeffrey Burwell of Rougham, had been sold by the 1st Earl of Orford, who, however, had extended the Norfolk estate by purchase and built Houghton Hall.

Property in Dorset (Puddletown), Devon and elsewhere in the west country was acquired by the 2nd Earl of Orford (d. 1751) through his marriage in 1724 to Margaret, Baroness Clinton, daughter and heir of Samuel Rolle of Heanton Satchville (Devon). On the death of the 3rd Earl of Orford in 1791 the barony of Clinton and a portion of this estate devolved upon the Trefusis family, Barons Clinton of Heanton Satchville, but Puddletown passed to the 4th Earl of Orford and on his death to his cousin, Horatio Walpole, Baron Walpole of Wolterton, who was created Earl of Orford in 1806.

Estates in 1883: 16,992 acres in Cheshire; 16,995 acres in Norfolk; 4 acres in Devon; worth a total of £41,228 a year.