Sir Ralph Assheton was an English 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...

  variously between 1640 and 1680.

Assheton was the son of Sir Ralph Ashton, 1st Baronet of Lever, Lancashire. He matriculated from Magdalene College, Cambridge

Magdalene College, Cambridge

Magdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene...

 at Easter 1623. He was admitted at Gray's Inn

Gray's Inn

The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...

 on 7 May 1624.

In April 1640, Assheton 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 Clitheroe

Clitheroe (UK Parliament constituency)

Clitheroe was a parliamentary constituency in Lancashire.The town of Clitheroe was first enfranchised as a parliamentary borough in 1559, returning two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of England until 1707, then to the House of Commons of Great Britain until 1800, and finally to the...

 in the Short Parliament

Short Parliament

The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640 during the reign of King Charles I of England, so called because it lasted only three weeks....

. He was re-elected in November 1640 as MP for Clitheroe 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...

 He succeeded to the Baronetcy in 1644.

In 1660 Assheton was re-elected MP for Clitheroe for the Convention Parliament and again in 1661 for 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...

but was unseated on petition in February 1662. He was re-elected MP for Clitheroe in 1679 a year before his death.

Assheton died at the age of 75. He built the vault beneath the Assheton chapel at St Leonard's Church Downham, and endowed a sermon on the resurrection to be preached an annually on the anniversary of his death.