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

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...

and grandfather of the mathematician Lady Ada Lovelace. 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 fat ...

, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of

John Hedworth John Hedworth (10 July 1683 – 31 May 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 sur ...

. 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 Honourable Charles Watson-Wentworth before 1739, Viscount Higham between 1739 and 1746, Earl of Malton between 1746 and 1750, and the Marquess of R ...

, 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 fr ...

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

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

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. 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 A ...

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. Sir Ralph was admitted as a joining member of the Sea Captain's Lodge, Sunderland (later to become Palatine Lodge No.97) on the 14th February 1793 and became Provincial Grand Master of the Province of Durham in 1799.

References

1747 births 1825 deaths People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Milbanke baronets 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