Sir Ralph Noel, 6th Baronet (28 July 1747 – 19 March 1825) was a British landowner and politician, and father-in-law of

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

. Before 1815 he was known as Sir Ralph Milbanke.

Biography

He was the eldest son of

Sir Ralph Milbanke, 5th Baronet Sir Ralph Milbanke (1725-1798) was an English baronet and Member of Parliament for Scarborough between 1754–61 and later for Richmond between 1761 and 1768. Life Milbanke was born 1725 into an aristocratic landed Yorkshire family. His father ...

, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of

John Hedworth John Hedworth (1683–1747), of Chester Deanery, Durham, was a British colliery owner and politician who sat in the House of Commons for 34 years from 1713 to 1747. Early life Hedworth was baptized on 10 July 1683, the eldest surviving son of Ral ...

. His uncle John Milbanke was married to a sister of the Whig leader

Lord Rockingham Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, (13 May 1730 – 1 July 1782; styled The Hon. Charles Watson-Wentworth before 1733, Viscount Higham between 1733 and 1746, Earl of Malton between 1746 and 1750 and The Marquess of Rocking ...

, and his sister was the political hostess Lady Melbourne. On 9 January 1777 he married Judith Noel, daughter of Lord Wentworth; they had one daughter, Anne Isabella. Milbanke succeeded his father as sixth baronet on 8 January 1798. The family lived at

Seaham Hall Seaham Hall is an English country house, now run as a spa hotel, in County Durham. History Seaham Hall was built in the 1790s by Sir Ralph Milbanke, 6th Baronet. In 1815 the poet Lord Byron married Anne Isabella Milbanke at Seaham Hall. The frui ...

, County Durham, but also owned property in Northumberland and Yorkshire. Milbanke was elected Member of Parliament for

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

at the 1790 general election. A

Foxite Foxite was a late 18th-century British political label for Whig followers of Charles James Fox. Fox was the generally acknowledged leader of a faction of the Whigs from 1784 to his death in 1806. The group had developed from successive earlier ...

Whig, he supported abolition of the slave trade and

Catholic emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...

. By 1812, worsening health and declining finances obliged him to retire from the Commons. Milbanke's wife Judith succeeded to the Leicestershire estates of her brother

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

in 1815 and on 29 May that year Milbanke adopted the surname of Noel by royal licence.David R. Fisher
MILBANKE, Ralph (1747-1825), of Seaham Hall, co. Dur. and Halnaby Hall, Yorks.
in ''

The History of Parliament The History of Parliament is a project to write a complete history of the United Kingdom Parliament and its predecessors, the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of England. The history will principally consist of a prosopography, in w ...

: the House of Commons 1790-1820'' (1986). He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his nephew John Penistone Milbanke. Lady Noel had died in 1822, and in 1856 their daughter Lady Byron succeeded as 11th

Baroness Wentworth Baron Wentworth is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1529 for Thomas Wentworth, who was also ''de jure'' sixth Baron le Despencer of the 1387 creation. The title was created by writ, which means that it can descend via femal ...

References

1747 births 1825 deaths People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Baronets in the Baronetage of England British MPs 1790–1796 British MPs 1796–1800 UK MPs 1801–1802 UK MPs 1802–1806 UK MPs 1806–1807 UK MPs 1807–1812 Whig (British political party) MPs for English constituencies {{England-UK-MP-stub