[2] Orford's mother married again that year and was buried at Leghorn (Livorno) in 1781, "a woman of very singular character and considered half mad".

He appointed the Hon George Townshend and Sir Armine Wodehouse, 5th Baronet, as the colonels of the West and East Norfolk Regiments respectively.

He left no legitimate heirs, having never married, and at his death, aged 61, his titles – except the title of Baron Clinton, which due to its great antiquity had the peculiarity of being able to descend through the female line and passed into the Trefusis family, descendants of Walpole's great-aunt Bridget Rolle (1648–1721) – were passed to his uncle, Horace Walpole, who also took the still heavily encumbered Houghton estate.

[7] There is documentary evidence that he had an illegitimate daughter, named Georgina Walpole, whose mother was Mary Sparrow of Eriswell.

[8] Orford is particularly remembered for his 1778 sale of his grandfather Robert Walpole's magnificent collection of art to Catherine the Great.

[9] Orford intended his sale of the pictures to have taken place in secrecy but his plan soon leaked out and became of intense interest to the public.