Ralph Ewens

{{Short description|English administrator and Member of Parliament}}

Ralph Ewens of South Cowton (1569–1611) was an English administrator and Member of Parliament.

File:Old and new London - a narrative of its history, its people, and its places (1873) (14781319831).jpg garden]]

Ewens was first employed by John Stanhope, 1st Baron Stanhope, who was Master of the Posts and Treasurer of the Chamber in the 1590s. Ewens was Member of Parliament for Winchelsea in 1597, and for Beverley in 1601.[https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/ewens-ralph-1611 EWENS, Ralph (d.1611), of Gray's Inn, London and Southcowton, Yorks., The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981] Ewens was also Clerk of the Commons.Helen Wilcox, 1611: Authority, Gender and the Word in Early Modern England (Wiley, 2014), 112: Madeleine Gray, 'Exchequer officials and Crown property', Richard W. Hoyle, The Estates of the English Crown, 1558-1640 (Cambridge, 1992), 45, 123, 126–128.

Ewens was appointed to the council administering the English jointure lands of Anne of Denmark, wife of James VI and I, and acted as surveyor and auditor under the leadership of Robert Cecil.N. R. R. Fisher, 'The Queenes Courte in Her Councell Chamber at Westminster', The English Historical Review, 108:427 (April 1993), p. 318. Like the Queen's Attorney, Robert Hitcham, he was a member of Gray's Inn. In December 1603, Ewens, aged 34, married Margaret Hotoft, the widow of a goldsmith at St Margaret, New Fish Street.Allegations for Marriage Licences Issued by the Bishop of London, p. 281.

The first grant of English lands and manors was made to Anne of Denmark on 19 September 1603, and included Havering Palace and Nonsuch Palace. These were said to have been lands held by Elizabeth I before her accession. The administration of the King's estate and crown lands was a responsibility of the Lord Treasurer, Lord Buckhurst.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, 15, pp. 237, 240.

Ralph Ewens had researched the dower lands given to previous queen consorts, and the activities of the council of Catherine Parr, in the archives of the Rolls Office in August.Colin J. Brett, Crown Revenues from Somerset and Dorset, 1605 (Somerset Record Society, 2012), p. 214 fn. 667. He wrote to Cecil that Lord Buckhurst had researchers looking at the same material.Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1603–1610 (London, 1857), p. 35, and BL Cotton Vitellius C/XI f.374.Dakota L. Hamilton, "The Learned Councils of the Tudor Queens Consort", Charles Carlton, State Sovereigns & Society (Stroud: Sutton, 1992), 87-101. The work was achieved during the "tyme of sickness when the same was very hoate".HMC Salisbury Hatfield, 23, p. 167. The lands, chosen by Ewens and approved by Robert Cecil would generate an income of £5,000 yearly. Anne of Denmark would be allowed to grant leases of 21 years duration. The settlement was said to be comparable with that given to Catherine of Aragon, and included similar crown lands and manors.Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, 3 (London, 1838), pp. 36, 64.

Lord Cecil was the keeper of Somerset House, a property granted to the Queen. An adjacent garden was leased to the herbalist, John Gerard.Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, Addenda 1580–1625 (London, 1872), p. 431: Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1603–1610 (London, 1857), p. 146. Ewens worked on drafting a lease for Gerard's garden and the palace tennis court in July 1604. Cecil was to present the finished document to Anne of Denmark for her signature.M. S. Giuseppi, HMC Salisbury Hatfield, 16 (London, 1933), pp. 182–183.

As Clerk of the Commons, Ewens noted the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in the margin of an official journal.[https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentwork/offices-and-ceremonies/collections/clerk-of-the-hoc/gunpowder/ Journal recording the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, UK Parliament]

Ewens died in September 1611 and was buried at St Clement Danes.Madeleine Gray, "An Early Professional Group? The Auditors of Land Revenue in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries", Archives: The Journal of the British Records Association, 20:87 (January 1992), p. 45. {{doi|10.3828/archives.1992.5}} Justinian Povey was appointed the Queen's auditor. Ewens mentioned in his will that he was a friend of Thomas Smythe and an adventurer in the Virginia Company. He left his property in Yorkshire to his brother Richard Ewens.[https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/ewens-ralph-1611 EWENS, Ralph (d.1611), of Gray's Inn, London and Southcowton, Yorks., The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981] Richard Ewens and his son-in-law John Messenger bought Fountains Abbey in May 1627 from Humphrey Wharton of Gillingwood Hall.John Richard Walbran, [https://archive.org/details/memorialsofabbey21walb/page/354/mode/2up Memorials of the abbey of St. Mary of Fountains, 1 (Ripon, 1878), p. 354]