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1610 Alexander Standish (Inherited the manor 1610)	1610	1611 Arthur Standish and the Training of Mallards

When Ralph succeeded to the manor in 1610 he had been married in the preceding year to Frances, daughter of Sir Thomas Gerard. It was a brief union, for Frances died in 1610.

There is an interesting glimpse of the early life of Ralph. He and his brother, Alexander, as youths, appear to have been sent to London by their parents to learn a trade or profession, possibly Law, (according to a note attached to deed 447) and bound in apprenticeship for that purpose. Ralph seems to have caused his parents some anxiety by disappearing in London and Alexander was told to make enquiries. He replied in a letter to his mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Standish at Wooleston - after greeting her as "the Worshipful" he goes on:

“this given with haest. Mother, My most hearty commendations remembered unto you and unto my very good father. Mother I have received your letter by my cousen Clese man, and I was at his chamber with him, according to your desire, which you willed him to send for me and talke with me about my brother Rauff's sudden departur from his master; and I told him all that I could learn anywhere or by any means. Also my cousen Tilstlee (Tyldesley?) did com unto my master to talke with him about it, and my master did let him know all that he could learn, and he desired my master to go with him unto Mr. Nicholson's about the later end of the terme to take some order about it if they doe not hear of him at the return of this Fleet to London, which is looked for every day”

“Now Mother I am bound unto my master for a term of 8 years which they did begin at Michaelmas last past, for I did lose all the time I have been with him for he did promise my father and you that I should lose non at all, for now you may see that I have lost it all. For he promised you that if I was bound for 8 years, as I am, he would make me free when I had served him seven years. Which I would desire you to write unto him about it, to see what answer he would make you about it and so desiring dayly Blessing with my hearty commendation unto you and unto my father, and all the rest of my Brothers and Sisters. I am ashamed to troble you any further."

"From Chepside this 25th October,
your loving sonne,
Alexander Standish"

Another brother, Roger was apprenticed to a dyer in London.

In 1613 Ralph made settlements of the manor of Standish and of Shevington. The following year his step-grandmother died; she was the second wife of Edward Standish and was a Towneley. Her brothers - Charles and Lawrence Towneley are mentioned in the will. Ralph married for a second time in 1615, his second wife being Brigit Molyneaux of Sefton, and there were four known children of the marriage - Frances, Elizabeth, Edward and Alexander. Then in 1622, on the death of Alexander, his father, Ralph succeeded to the manor of Woolston also. Alexander's grave is at Warrington, where his wife Elizabeth was buried also.

By this time, 1622, Ralph was forty years of age and two years later Brigit, his wife, died. In spite of the large estates he had inherited Ralph got into financial difficulties about this time, for in 1625 he was outlawed for debt. The reasons for this we do not know but his difficulties must have persisted for some years as, in 1632, he was sued again for debt by one Jeremy Elwis, a merchant tailor from London, and in 1634 an inquisition was held into his estate. At the same time his standing in society must have been respected for he was a High Sheriff of Lancashire. He had, however, had to pay a fine of £30 for refusing a Knighthood. Such honours were not always welcome at that time because of the duties and expense accompanying the title. In a declaration he had to make, Ralph stated that he was neither a recusant nor delinquent.

The heir to the Standish estates must have been a very suitable match for a father of substance to provide for his daughter, and in 1632 Sir Frances Howard of Naworth arranged with Ralph for his daughter, Elizabeth, to marry young Edward Standish and paid £1,500 for her dowry, a very large sum in those days. In 1637, one of Ralph's daughters, Elizabeth, died and left, by will, £1,000 to her father and legacies to her brothers, Edward and Alexander, to her uncle, John Standish, and to her sister, Frances who had married Thomas Tyldesley. Among other bequests was one to "Nicholas, my nursedad", and various ones to others. The John Standish, just mentioned, was a church-warden at Wigan Parish Church about this time. Ralph made a settlement of his estates whereby all except Woolston were to be entailed upon Edward and his heirs male, failing that to Ralph's brothers, John, Edward and Thomas. When this last named Thomas died his will contained a request that he should be buried in his nephew Standish's chapel.

The Civil War, which divided all classes throughout the country, now broke out. Even families were split in their adherence to one side or the other. The Standishes of Standish were for the King while the Standishes of Duxbury fought for Parliament. At the outset when Royalist forces attacked Manchester in 1642, a Master Standish was with them. This may have been Edward, for his estates were sequestered by Parliament. Later he was present at the burning of Lancaster, and his estates , which presumably had been restored to him, were confiscated. Edward's brother, Alexander was a Colonel of Horse in the Royalist army and Wigan Lane House estate in Standish was sequestered in the belief that it belonged to him. Thomas Standish, a cousin, and a Captain in the Royalist army was killed at Manchester in 1654. Ralph's daughter, Frances, who is mentioned above in his sister's will, was the wife of Sir Thomas Tyldesley, the famous Royalist General, who perished in the last battle of the Civil War in Lancashire, the Battle of Wigan Lane. A monument to his memory, erected by his Cornet, Alexander Rigby, who later became High Sheriff of Lancaster, still stands in Wigan Lane near the present Wigan Infirmary. Thomas Standish of Duxbury became a member of the Long Parliament.

In 1656 Ralph Standish died and was buried in Standish Churchyard. Edward succeeded him to the manor, being then some thirty nine years of age.^[1]

1. ↑ Eleanor Johnson, The Standish Family 1189-1920 (Published by the Standish Local History Group, 1972)

Preceded by Edward Standish (under Wardship 1547-1551, Lord of the Manor 1551-1610)

Lord of the Manor 1610 - 1656

Succeeded by Edward Standish (Lord of the Manor 1656-1682)