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
Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne (née Milbanke; 1751 – 1818) was one of the most influential of the political hostesses of the extended Regency period, and the wife of Whig politician Peniston Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne. She was the mo ...
. 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 â€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
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