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Sir Walter Clarges, 1st Baronet


Sir Walter Clarges, 1st Baronet (4 July 1653 – March 1705/6) was an English Tory politician who served four separate terms in Parliament. An early ally of William of Orange, he inherited large holdings of land but no great ability from his father, Sir Thomas Clarges, and largely used his Parliamentary seat to advance his own business and financial interests.

Clarges matriculated at Merton College, Oxford on 3 February 1670/1. On 30 October 1674 he was created a baronet, an honour which his father had sought for him; Clarges' father was one of the oldest and most respected of the Country Party. As soon as he had come of age in 1674, his father sought for him a seat in Parliament, intending him to stand for Clitheroe; however he was ordered to make way for a nominee of the Duke of Albemarle, his cousin.

Appointed a captain in the Duke of Monmouth's Regiment of Foot in 1678, Clarges transferred to the Royal Dragoons the next year, the same year as he was elected Member of Parliament for Colchester in the general election. He was made a Freeman of Maldon. In Parliament he was with his father in opposition to the efforts to remove the (Catholic) Duke of York from the line of succession to the throne. These efforts were unsuccessful and Clarges lost his seat at the 1681 election when Titus Oates told the electors that he was a Papist. Also in 1681 he became a Major in the 1st Troop of Horse Guards.


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