Ralph Cockerell (died 1576?) was an English politician and clergyman, who served as MP for Ludgershall and rector of Acton, Middlesex. Cockerell's early life is unknown, though he had connections in

Cheshunt Cheshunt ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London on the River Lea and Lee Navigation. It contains a section of the Lee Valley Park, including much of the River Lee Country Park. To the north lies Broxbourne and Wormley, Hertfor ...

, Hertfordshire. He was probably the Cockerell who graduated

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

in 1523/4. In 1534, he co-signed a letter from the scholars of

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...

Thomas Cromwell Thomas Cromwell (; 1485 – 28 July 1540), briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false charge ...

, defending a member of the college against a charge of treason. He was elected MP for Ludgershall in the parliament of 1547–1552. He then went to Ireland, where he was appointed a clerk of the pipe at the Irish Exchequer on 23 November 1553. By 1555 he was secretary to Sir Anthony St Leger, the Lord Deputy of Ireland. He was appointed a clerk of the

Privy Council of Ireland His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...

in 1559. He then entered the church, and was instituted rector of Acton, Middlesex on 26 February 1563. In this capacity he was a member of the

Convocation of 1563 The Convocation of 1563 was a significant gathering of English and Welsh clerics that consolidated the Elizabethan religious settlement, and brought the ''Thirty-Nine Articles'' close to their final form (which dates from 1571). It was, more accu ...

as a clerical proctor for Surrey, voting for the "six articles" compromise (which was defeated) and signing a petition of the Lower House for discipline. In 1573, Cockerell was party to a case in the

Court of Requests The Court of Requests was a minor equity court in England and Wales. It was instituted by King Richard III in his 1484 parliament. It first became a formal tribunal with some Privy Council elements under Henry VII, hearing cases from the poor an ...

: John Garaway of Buckhurst, Sussex complained that Cockerell had dishonestly procured from a third party an indenture made some four years previously by which Garaway was to pay Cockerell £50 a year for a lease of the rectory and advowson of Acton. Cockerell probably died early in 1576: his successor as rector of Acton was instituted on 3 May 1576.

References

1576 deaths Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge English MPs 1547–1552 16th-century English Anglican priests {{16thC-England-MP-stub