John Ratcliffe (ca. 1611 – 13 January 1673) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

at various times between 1646 and 1673.

Life

Ratcliffe was the son of John Ratcliffe, brewer and alderman of Chester Joseph Hemingway ''History of the city of Chester, from its foundation to the present time''"> Joseph Hemingway ''History of the city of Chester, from its foundation to the present time''
/ref> and his second wife Jane (born Brerewood), daughter of Mary (born Parrey) and John Brerewood of Chester. He was educated at

Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

in 1628. In 1629, he entered

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

. He succeeded his father in 1633 and was called to the bar in 1637.History of Parliament Online – John Ratcliffe
/ref> In 1646, Ratcliffe was chosen

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of Chester in 1646 and at about the same time was elected

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for City of Chester in the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

to replace one of the disabled MPs. He was later removed from his position as recorder because he refused the negative oath and was replaced in 1651 by Richard Haworth, a lawyer of Manchester. Haworth was unwilling to make Chester his permanent residence and he surrendered the office to Ratcliffe in 1656. In 1659, Radcliffe became involved in the Cheshire rising led by

George Booth, 1st Baron Delamer George Booth, 1st Baron Delamer (18 December 16228 August 1684), was an English landowner and politician from Cheshire, who served as an MP from 1646 to 1661, when he was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Delamer. A member of the moder ...

. Ratcliffe was one of the members of the corporation opposed to the regime which colluded with Booth although he was not penalised after the surrender of the city to John Lambert. In 1660, Ratcliffe was elected MP for the City of Chester in the Convention Parliament. He was re-elected in 1661 as MP for Chester in the

Cavalier Parliament The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of C ...

In 1662 he was put out of his position as recorder by the commissioners for regulating the corporations of the city of Chester and the county of Cheshire, because he refused to take the oath required by act of parliament. Ratcliffe held his seat until his death in 1673, and the consequent contested by election resulted in serious disorder and accidental loss of life during the poll. 'Early modern Chester 1550–1762: City government and politics, 1662–1762', A History of the County of Chester: Volume 5 part 1: The City of Chester: General History and Topography (2003), pp. 129–137. Date accessed: 9 April 2011
/ref> Ratcliffe married Dorothy and had at least two sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ratcliffe, John 1611 births 1673 deaths People from Chester Year of birth uncertain Members of the Middle Temple Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford 17th-century English lawyers English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1648–1653 English MPs 1660 English MPs 1661–1679