Sir Ralph Clare was an English courtier and politician who sat in the House of Commons

House of Commons of England

The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...

  at various times between 1614 and 1628.

Clare was the eldest son of Sir Francis Clare of Caldwell, Worcestershire who died in 1608. He matriculated at Hart Hall, Oxford on 12 May 1597 aged 10 and was awarded BA from St John's College, Oxford

St John's College, Oxford

__FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...

 on 17 February 1601. In 1602 he was a student of the Middle Temple

Middle Temple

The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...

. He was in service to Prince Henry from about 1606 until the Prince's death on 6 November 1612. In 1614, Clare was elected Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Droitwich

Droitwich (UK Parliament constituency)

Droitwich was the name of a constituency of the House of Commons of England in 1295, and again from 1554, then of the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918...

. He was elected MP for Droitwich in February 1621 in a by-election. Under King James I he was Keeper of Bewdley Park and Keeper of the deer at Twickenham. In 1624 he was elected MP for Bewdley

Bewdley (UK Parliament constituency)

Bewdley was the name of a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1605 until 1950. Until 1885 it was a parliamentary borough in Worcestershire, represented by one Member of Parliament; the name was then transferred to a county constituency from 1885 until...

 and was re-elected MP for Bewdley in 1625. He was knighted in the Order of the Bath

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

 at the coronation of Charles I on 2 February 1626. He was re-elected MP for Bewdley in 1626 and in 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. He was Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Charles I. On 4 August 1636 he was appointed the first steward of Kidderminster.

In November 1640 he was elected to represent Bewdley in the Long Parliament

Long Parliament

The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...

, but his election was declared void. He did not take arms for the King in the civil war but as a long standing royal servant, he was subject to penalties. He was assessed at £1000 on 19 August 1646 and on 8 March 1648 was sequestered for non-payment. On 10 July 1650 he was discharged as having paid his fine. In 1651 he joined the Royalist army for Charles II which was defeated at the Battle of Worcester

Battle of Worcester

The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 at Worcester, England and was the final battle of the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians defeated the Royalist, predominantly Scottish, forces of King Charles II...

. He was taken prisoner and in June 1655 he was commited to Worcester prison with Colonel Sandys and Major Wilde. He was released and went into exile with King Charles II. On the Restoration, he became a Gentleman of the King's Privy Chamber. He became a J.P.

Justice of the Peace

A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

for Worcester on 10 July1660 and was granted £3000 on 30 August 1660 for services to the King. He stood unsuccessfully for parliament at Bewdley in 1661 and petitioned without success. In 1664 he was granted another £3000 for services to the last two kings and for his sufferings after the civil war.

Clare died unmarrried at the age of 82 and was buried at All Saint's Church Kidderminster on 23 April 1670.