John Ratcliffe was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons

House of Commons of England

The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...

  at various times between 1646 and 1673.

Ratcliffe was the of John Ratcliffe

John Ratcliffe (died 1633)

John Ratcliffe was an English brewer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1629.Ratcliffe was the son of John Ratcliffe who moved to Chester and became active in the government of the city, being mayor of Chester. Ratcliffe was a brewer and became an...

, brewer and alderman of Chester

Chester

Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...

 and his second wife Jane Brerewood, daughter of John Brerewood of Chester. He was educated at Queen's College, Oxford in 1628. In 1629, he entered Middle Temple

Middle Temple

The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...

. He succeeded his father in 1633 and was called to the bar in 1637.

In 1646, Ratcliffe was chosen recorder of Chester in 1646 and at about the same time was elected Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for City of Chester in the Long Parliament

Long Parliament

The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...

 to replace one of the disabled MPs. He was later removed from his position as recorder because he refused the negative oath and was replaced in 1651 by Richard Haworth, a lawyer of Manchester. Haworth was unwilling to make Chester his permanent residence and he surrendered the office to Ratcliffe in 1656. In the 1659, Chester became involved in the Cheshire rising led by Sir George Booth. Ratcliffe was one of the members of the corporation opposed to the regime which colluded with Booth although he was not penalised after the surrender of the city to John Lambert.

In 1660, Ratcliffe was elected MP for the City of Chester in the Convention Parliament. He was re-elected in 1661 as MP for Chester in the Cavalier Parliament

Cavalier Parliament

The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter century reign of Charles II of England...

In 1662 he was put out of his position as recorder by the commissioners for regulating the corporations of the city of Chester and the county of Cheshire, because he refused to take the oath required by act of parliament. Ratcliffe held his seat until his death in 1673, and the consequent contested by election resulted in serious disorder and accidental loss of life during the poll.

Ratcliffe married Dorothy and had at least two sons.