Sir Ralph Verney, 1st BaronetDL, JP (12 November 1613 – 24 September 1696)[1] was an English baronet and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1690.
Verney entered the Short Parliament in 1640, sitting as Member of Parliament for Aylesbury. He was re-elected MP for Aylesbury for the Long Parliament in November 1640.[4] He was present in the trial of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford in January 1641, making notes, and was knighted in March.[4] Verney opposed William Laud before the Civil War, and sided with the Parliamentarians at its outset; however, when he did not partake in the Solemn League and Covenant in 1643, he was forced to flee into exile; three years thereafter his assets were confiscated.[4] He went first to the Netherlands, met his wife in Blois in France, where she died, and arrived then in Italy.[4] He was disabled from sitting in Parliament on 22 September 1645.
Following his return to England in 1653, Verney was captured and imprisoned two years later, however released with a fine in 1656.[3]
In 1675, Verney was nominated a Commissioner of Recusants in Buckinghamshire.[3] He was re-elected to the House in 1681 and represented Buckingham until 1690.[6] During this time as Member of Parliament, he spoke against the coronation of William of Orange as king of England.[7]
Family
On 31 May 1629, Verney married Mary Blacknall, daughter of John Blacknall in Hillesdon and had by her three sons and as many daughters.[8] He died, aged 82 and was buried at Middle Claydon on 9 October 1696.[9] His eldest son Edmund predeceased him and Verney was succeeded in the baronetcy by his second son John, who was later raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Viscount Fermanagh.[8]
^Burke, John (1841). John Bernhard Burke (ed.). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland and Scotland (2nd ed.). London: Scott, Webster, and Geary. p. 545.
^ abcdefgHenning, Basil Duke (1983). The House of Commons, 1660-1690. Vol. I. London: Secker & Warburg. pp. 634–635. ISBN0-436-19274-8.
^Kimber, Edward (1771). Richard Johnson (ed.). The Baronetage of England: Containing a Genealogical and Historical Account of All the English Baronets. Vol. III. London: Thomas Wotton. p. 317.
^Lodge, John (1789). Mervyn Archdall (ed.). The Peerage of Ireland or A Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of that Kingdom. Vol. II. Dublin: James Moore. pp. 285–286I.