Ralph Freke

Sir Ralph Freke, 1st Baronet (c. 1675 – 1717) of West Bilney, Norfolk, and Rathbarry (afterwards Castle Freke), County Cork, was a baronet in the Baronetage of Great Britain and a Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons.

He was the son and heir of Percy Freke, of Rathbarry, by Elizabeth, the daughter of Ralph Freke of Hannington, Wiltshire. Percy Freke was the son of Arthur Freke and his wife Dorothy, and was named after his maternal grandfather, Sir Percy Smith of Youghal, County Cork. Percy Freke purchased the estate of West Bilney in Norfolk, was High Sheriff of County Cork in 1694, and was the Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons for Clonakilty in 1692–93 and 1695–99, and the member for Baltimore from 1703 until his death in May 1707.^[1]

Ralph Freke was born after 1673, and was Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons for Clonakilty over three parliaments from 1703 until his death in 1717. He was High Sheriff of County Cork in 1709, and created a baronet on 4 June 1713.^[1]

He married Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir John Meade, 1st Baronet, on 5 March 1699. After his death in 1717, the baronetcy was inherited by his eldest son, Percy, and his widow married James King, 4th Baron Kingston.^[1] His second son, Ralph, died unmarried in 1727, and his third son, John Redmond, also died without issue. The Freke estate was eventually inherited by Ralph Freke's only daughter Grace, who married The Hon. John Evans, a younger son of George Evans, 1st Baron Carbery.^[2]

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