CONGREVE, Ralph (?1721-75), of Aldermaston, Berks.

Congreve was ‘a person who was not so much as known’ in CardiganshireHe is described as such by a group of his constituents in a petition presented against his return, CJ, 3 Feb. 1769. when he stood for Cardigan in 1769 as the candidate of a party of local squires who were opposed to the unpopular Sir Herbert Lloyd. He was returned after a hard-fought and expensive contest. Before 1773 his only recorded vote in the House was for Administration on the Middlesex petition, 8 May 1769. In Robinson’s first survey on the royal marriage bill he is classed as ‘pro, present’; in the second, 8 Mar. 1772, as ‘contra, present’. He voted for the naval captains’ petition, 9 Feb. 1773, and in the King’s list is classed as a friend to Government; but voted against them on the renewal of the Middlesex question, 26 Apr. 1773. His only recorded speeches in the House were for the Reading canal bill, 21 Feb. 1771. He did not stand in 1774, and died December 1775.