Ralph
's eldest son, opens a line of squires who were prominent in
Flintshire
; he was alive in
1517
, and his son
THOMAS
RAVENSCROFT
was alive in
1547
.
Thomas
's eldest son was
GEORGE
RAVENSCROFT
,
sheriff
in
1578-9
, who d. in
1592
and is commemorated (like others of the family) in
Hawarden
church; he was
Member of Parliament
for his shire in
1563-7
; his wife,
Dorothy
, was the heiress of
John
Davies
,
constable
of
Hawarden castle
and owner of
Broadlane
hard by, which she brought into the family.
(
Elizabeth
, sister of
George
Ravenscroft
, m. the
lord chancellor
Egerton
whose romantic story is narrated in the
D.N.B.
) Of
George
's children, his daughter
Katherine
m.
Robert
Davies
of
Gwysaney
(see under
Davies-Cooke
), and three of his sons must be recorded:
(1)
THOMAS
RAVENSCROFT
, the eldest son,
sheriff
in
1606-7
, d. in
1630
.
Two of his sons were
ROBERT
RAVENSCROFT
(
1589
-
1640
;
Member of Parliament
in
1614
) and
THOMAS
RAVENSCROFT
, originator of the separate line of ‘
Ravenscroft
of
Pickhill
’ in
Denbighshire
(but near
Bangor-on-Dee
— see
P. Fadog
, iii, 181).
Robert
's son was
colonel
THOMAS
RAVENSCROFT
, who acquired some notoriety in the
Civil War
. Though his wife was a daughter of that zealous
Royalist
William
Salusbury
(q.v.)
of
Rug
, he sided with the
Parliamentarians
, and in
Nov. 1643
handed over to them the
castle of Hawarden
— ‘
betrayed by one
Ravenscroft
’, as
archbishob
John
Williams
scornfully describes the surrender (
J. R.
Phillips
,
Civil War in Wales
, i, 180, ii, 99). In
May 1648
he was a
member of the parliamentary committee which supervised Flintshire
; but after
1660
was pardoned. He was succeeded by his son
EDWARD
RAVENSCROFT
, who m.
Anne
, daughter of
Sir
Richard
Lloyd
of
Esclus
(q.v.)
, and d. in
1678
. Their son was the last male of the line,
THOMAS
RAVENSCROFT
‘of
Broadlane
’ (
1670
-
1698
),
sheriff
in
1692
,
Member of Parliament
1697-8
, who d.
3 May 1698
, leaving two heiresses,
Honora
and
Catherine
. It was by marriage with
Honora
's daughter that the
family of
Glynne
(q.v.)
, and afterwards that of
Gladstone
, came to own
Broadlane
, which was rebuilt in
1752
and is today known as ‘
Hawarden castle
’. On the other hand,
Catherine
's portion of the estate was purchased (
1756
) by the
Grosvenors
.
(2)
WILLIAM
RAVENSCROFT
,
second son of
George
, born at
Bretton
, went to
Brasenose College
,
Oxford
, and to
Lincoln's Inn
, of which he became a
Bencher
; he was ‘
Clerk of the Petty Bag
’ in the
court of Chancery
. He was
Member of Parliament
for
Flintshire
in
1586-7
and
1601
, for
Old Sarum
in
1601-11
, and for
Flint Boroughs
in
1620-2
,
1624
,
1625
, and
1628
, d. unmarried in
1628
, and was buried at
Hawarden
.
(3)
ROGER
RAVENSCROFT
,
a younger son of
George
, was
rector
of
Dodleston
in
Cheshire
, and d. in
1634
. Perhaps the best known of all the
Ravenscrofts
was
Roger
's son
THOMAS
RAVENSCROFT
(
1592
-
1635?
), the
musician
, who was b. at
Hawarden
in
1592
and is commemorated in the
D.N.B.
Our congregational tune-books have time and again drawn upon ‘
Ravenscroft's Psalter
’, i.e.
The Whole Book of Psalms
edited by him in
1621
and including forty-eight of his own settings. The
D.N.B.
says nothing of his ancestry, but his
Melismata
,
1611
, has a dedication to his uncles
Thomas
and
William
, mentioned under (1) and (2) above.
