 He was son and heir of John Walpole of Houghton, Norfolk, by Catherine Calibut of Coxford in the same county, and was born on 28 January 1560.He matriculated as a fellow commoner at St Peter's College, Cambridge, in May 1576, the year after his cousin Henry Walpole had entered at the same college as a pensioner.He showed sympathy for Catholicism, and incurred the displeasure of his parents