Ralph Hare

Ralph Hare (as depicted in An address from the gentry of Norfolk and Norwich to General Monck in 1660; facsimile of a manuscript in the Norwich Public Library. With an introduction by Hamon le Strange and biographical notes by Walter Rye)

Sir Ralph Hare, 1st Baronet (24 March 1623 – 28 February 1672) of Stow Bardolph, Norfolk was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1654 and 1672.

Hare was the son of John Hare and his wife Elizabeth Coventry, only daughter of Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry. Hare was created a baronet, of Stow Bardolph in the County of Norfolk on 23 July 1641 and appointed Sheriff of Norfolk for 1650.

Hare was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Norfolk in the First Protectorate Parliament in 1654, and then re-elected MP for Norfolk for the Second Protectorate Parliament in 1656. In 1660, he was elected MP for King's Lynn in the Convention Parliament and MP for Norfolk in 1661 for the Cavalier Parliament, sitting until his death in 1672.

Hare died at the age of 48. He married first Mary Crane, daughter of Sir Robert Crane, 1st Baronet of Chilton, Suffolk, with whom he had seven children, one of whom, Thomas, succeeded him. He married second, Vere Townshend, daughter of Roger Townsend of Raynham, Norfolk, but the marriage was childless. He married thirdly Elizabeth Chapman of Suffolk, and they had a posthumous son, John, who died in infancy.