RADCLIFFE, Ralph

There is little to be added to the earlier biography.1 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 160-2. As suggested there, Radcliffe remained a j.p. to the end of his life, sitting at Bolton in February and at Blackburn in June 1429.2 PL15/2, rots. 23d, 26. At the Lancaster assizes in the following August, he sued the warden of the collegiate church of Manchester, for close-breaking at Salford (an action he failed to pursue), and as his father’s executor he brought an action of debt against Henry Keighley*.3 PL15/2, rots. 8, 9, 32. More interestingly, at the same assizes, he joined with three other leaders of Lancashire society – Sir John Stanley†, Sir Edmund Trafford and Thomas Urswyk I* – in offering surety of the peace for Geoffrey Massy of Worsley, the brother of his eldest son’s wife. Since Massy was obliged to put as much as 500 marks at hazard, his offence was probably a serious one. Radcliffe remained active right up to his death. On 4 Sept. 1432, only two weeks before he died, he was named as an arbiter in a dispute within the family of Farington of Farington.4 PL15/2, rot. 22; Lancs. RO, Farington of Worden mss, DDF/856.

In 1450 Radcliffe’s son, another Sir Ralph, was assessed on an income of only £20 p.a., but this was clearly an underassessment of the family’s wealth.5 PL3/3/28. For the later hist. of the fam.: VCH Lancs. v.