Sir Ralph Howard, 1st Baronet

Family

Howard was the first son of Hugh Howard and Catherine née Bligh, daughter of Robert Bligh. He was also the grandson of Ralph Howard, 1st Viscount Wicklow, and brother-in-law of Granville Proby, 3rd Earl of Carysfort. Educated at Eton College from 1817, and Brasenose College, Oxford, from 1819, he married, in 1817, Charlotte Anne Crauford, daughter of Daniel Craufurd, and widow of James John Fraser.

Political career

At the 1826 general election, Howard proposed his brother-in-law, Granville Proby, for election at Wicklow and, three years later at a by-election, the support was repaid in kind when Proby made way for Howard to take the seat as a Whig. With the approval and "no objection whatever" of Charles Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 5th Earl Fitzwilliam, he was returned unopposed. In Parliament, he voted for the enfranchisement of Leeds, Birmingham, and Manchester and divided with the Whigs against pensions for Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville and W. L. Bathurst, for the abolition of the Irish viceroyalty, and a reduction of the grant to South America missions.

At the 1830 general election, promising to support ministers when "their measures entitled them", he was returned unopposed and was listed by ministers as "bad doubtfuls". In the House of Commons, he voted against the civil list, and then sponsored a "very short and tolerably mild" against a repeal of the Acts of Union 1800, later pushing for the reintroduction of the acts to suppress seditious meetings. He noted that popular meetings could "not be held without the permission of the local authorities". He presented petitions for the abolition of slavery and voted for reform, going into the 1831 general election as a reformer, where he was returned unopposed.

In the latter year, he joined Brooks's, sponsored by Lords Charlemont and Gosford, and continued to vote for the reform bill, including granting the franchise to all persons rated to the poor at £10 and giving two members of parliament to Stoke-upon-Trent. At some time a member of the Athenaeum Club, he then held the Wicklow seat until 1847 when he unsuccessfully sought election at Evesham. He was returned for Wicklow again at a by-election in 1848—caused by the resignation of William Acton—and held the seat until 1852 when he did not seek re-election.

On 1 October 1834 he was appointed Colonel of the disembodied Wicklow Militia, formerly commanded by his father. When the regiment was revived in 1852 he continued as its Honorary Colonel until he resigned on 9 December 1871.

Baronetcy

He was elevated to the Baronetcy of Bushey Park in 1838; it became extinct upon his death in 1873.