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Ralph Stawell, 1st Baron Stawell

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Name
  
Ralph 1st


Died
  
1689

Ralph Stawell, 1st Baron Stawell (died 1689) was an English landowner, soldier, Member of Parliament and peer.

Stawell married firstly Ann, a daughter of John Ryves, Esquire, and by her had one son, John. He married secondly Abigail, daughter and heiress of William Pitt, Esq., and with her had two sons and four daughters.

In 1679, standing in the Tory or "court" interest, Colonel Ralph Stawell was returned as one of the two members of parliament for Bridgwater in Somerset. A Roman Catholic, on 15 January 1683/84 Stawell was created Baron Stawell, of Somerton in the County of Somerset. In 1688, the year of the Glorious Revolution, he was briefly Lord Lieutenant of Somerset. In a commission dated from London on 6 November 1688, the day after the landing in England of William, Prince of Orange, King James II appointed Stawell as his Lord Lieutenant in Somerset in place of Lord Waldegrave, who was the husband of the king's illegitimate daughter Henrietta FitzJames.

Some sources have claimed that with the success of the Revolution against James, Stawell was committed to the Tower of London, where he died in 1689. His parliamentary biography says that despite his appointment as Lord Lieutenant of Somerset by James II, Stawell at once rallied to William of Orange and makes no suggestion that he was imprisoned.

References

Ralph Stawell, 1st Baron Stawell Wikipedia