Waldegrave was the son of the
1st Baron Waldegrave and
Henrietta FitzJames, the illegitimate daughter of
James II and his mistress,
Arabella Churchill. Educated in France, Waldegrave inherited his father's title in 1690, and, on 20 May 1714, he married Mary Webb (who died in childbirth in 1719), a daughter of
Sir John Webb, 3rd Baronet and they had three surviving children: •
James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave (1715–1763) •
John Waldegrave, 3rd Earl Waldegrave (1718–1784) •
Lady Henrietta Waldegrave (1717–1753), married firstly, Lord Edward Herbert, a son of the
2nd Marquess of Powis and had issue; married secondly,
John Beard (a singer at
Covent Garden). After the death of his wife, he returned to England from the
Jacobite court in exile and converted from
Roman Catholicism (the religion he was brought up in) to
Anglicanism in order to take his seat in the
House of Lords. He was briefly a
Lord of the Bedchamber in 1723 and again from 1730 to 1741. He was ambassador extraordinary to France in 1725 and Ambassador to Austria from 1727 to 1730. He then succeeded
Horatio Walpole as ambassador to France from 1730 to 1740. ==Ancestry==