Sir Ralph Clare (1589–1670) was an English courtier 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. ...

at various times between 1614 and 1628.

Life

Clare was the eldest son of Sir Francis Clare of Caldwell, Worcestershire who died in 1608. He matriculated at

Hart Hall, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The colleg ...

on 12 May 1597 aged 10 and was awarded BA from

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pro ...

on 17 February 1601. In 1602 he was a student of the

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 an ...

. 'Alumni Oxonienses, 1500-1714: Chocke-Colepeper', Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714: Abannan-Kyte (1891), pp. 274-303. Date accessed: 12 October 2011
/ref> He was in service to Prince Henry from about 1606 until the Prince's death on 6 November 1612. In 1614, Clare 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 of ...

for

Droitwich Droitwich Spa (often abbreviated to Droitwich ) is an historic spa town in the Wychavon district in northern Worcestershire, England, on the River Salwarpe. It is located approximately south-west of Birmingham and north-east of Worcester. The ...

. He was elected MP for Droitwich in February 1621 in a by-election. Under King James I he was Keeper of Bewdley Park and Keeper of the deer at Twickenham. In 1624 he was elected MP for

Bewdley Bewdley ( pronunciation) is a town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District in Worcestershire, England on the banks of the River Severn. It is in the Severn Valley west of Kidderminster and southwest of Birmingham. It lies on the River Sev ...

and was re-elected MP for Bewdley in 1625. He was appointed

Knight of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one ...

at the coronation of Charles I on 2 February 1626. He was re-elected MP for Bewdley in 1626 and in 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. He was Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Charles I. On 4 August 1636 he was appointed the first steward of

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it had ...

.W R Williams ''Parliamentary History of the County of Worcester''
/ref> In November 1640, he was elected to represent Bewdley 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 ...

, but his election was declared void. He did not take arms for the King in the civil war but as a long-standing royal servant, he was subject to penalties. He was assessed at £1000 on 19 August 1646 and on 8 March 1648 was sequestered for non-payment. On 10 July 1650 he was discharged as having paid his fine. In 1651 he joined the Royalist army for Charles II which was defeated at the

Battle of Worcester The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 in and around the city of Worcester, England and was the last major battle of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A Parliamentarian army of around 28,000 under Oliver Cromwell def ...

. He was taken prisoner and in June 1655 he was committed to Worcester prison with Colonel Sandys and Major Wilde. He was released and went into exile with King Charles II. On the Restoration, he became a Gentleman of the King's Privy Chamber. He became a J.P. for Worcester on 10 July 1660, and was granted £3000 on 30 August 1660 for services to the King. He stood unsuccessfully for parliament at Bewdley in 1661 and petitioned without success. In 1664 he was granted another £3000 for services to the last two kings and for his sufferings after the civil war. Clare died unmarried at the age of 82 and was buried at St Mary and All Saints' Church, Kidderminster on 23 April 1670.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Clare, Ralph 1589 births 1670 deaths Alumni of Hart Hall, Oxford Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Members of the Middle Temple English MPs 1614 English MPs 1621–1622 English MPs 1624–1625 English MPs 1625 English MPs 1626 English MPs 1628–1629 Cavaliers