Sir Ralph Bankes, of Corfe Castle, MP

Sir Ralph Bankes (1631–1677) was a courtier of the restored Charles II and a knighted member of the Privy Chamber. He was the builder of Kingston Lacy, the restored seat of the Bankes family, designed by architect Sir Roger Pratt.

Family

Second son and one of nine children of Sir John Bankes and Mary Hawtrey.

Ralph Bankes married Mary Brune, niece of Charles Brune of Athelhampton, by whom he had two children, John and Mary.

Property

Kingston Lacy takes its name from the de Lacy Earls of Lincoln who were tenants in the 13th and 14th centuries. In 1635 Sir John Bankes bought Corfe Castle as an occasional private residence, and in
the following year he bought the neighbouring Kingston Lacy estate. Sir John was Attorney General to
King Charles I and supported the Royalist cause in the Civil War. In 1643 Parliamentarian forces laid siege
to Corfe Castle but were forced to withdraw after six weeks in the face of stern resistance from Sir John's
wife, Lady Mary Bankes. Sir John died in Oxford in 1644 and in late 1645 Colonel Bingham, Governor of
Poole, launched a second siege of Corfe Castle, but the widowed Lady Bankes again refused to capitulate.
However after 48 days she was forced to surrender when a member of the garrison let Parliamentarian
troops disguised as Royalist reinforcements in to the castle. Colonel Bingham was so impressed with Lady
Bankes' courage that he allowed her to keep the keys to the castle, which was subsequently reduced to ruins.
In 1663 Sir John's son, Sir Ralph Bankes, commissioned the architect Sir Roger Pratt to create a new family
seat at Kingston Lacy. This first house, known as Kingston Hall, was completed in about 1667. In the 1780s
Robert Furze Brettingham remodelled the house for Sir Ralph's great-grandson Henry Bankes. In 1835
Henry's son, the eccentric and flamboyant William John Bankes, employed Sir Charles Barry, architect of
the Houses of Parliament, to transform Kingston Hall into an Italian palazzo. The house, which now became
known as Kingston Lacy, was completely encased in Chilmark stone, and a new balustrade and cupola
were added to the roof. In 1841 William was charged with indecently exposing himself to a guardsman
and fled to Italy, where he spent the rest of his life, although he continued to concern himself with
the furnishing and decoration of his house. Following the death of Henry John Ralph Bankes in
1981 the estate passed into the custodianship of the National Trust.

Origins

To the memory of LADY MARY BANKES, the only daughter of Ralph Hawtery, of Riselip, in the county of Middlesex, esq. the wife and widow of the Honourable Sir John Bankes, knight, late Lord Chief Justice of his Majesty's Court of Common Pleas, and of the Privy Council of his Majesty King Charles I. of blessed memory, who, having had the honour to have borne with a constancy and courage above her sex a noble proportion of the late calamities, and the restitution of the government, with great peace of mind laid down her most desired life the 11th day of April 1661. Sir Ralph Banckes her son and heir hath dedicated this. She had four sons: 1. Sir Ralph; 2. Jerome; 3. Charles; 4. William (since dead without issue), and six daughters.
===References===

• A short account of Sir Ralph Bankes on page 59 of the free online book Baronia Anglica Concentrata, Or, A Concentrated Account of All the Baronies Commonly Called Baronies in Fee.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Bankes cites
  • https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/b...
  • Mitchell, Anthony, nd: Kingston Lacy Guide by the National Trust, ISBN 1-84359-042-5
• Lady Mary Bankes defended her castle for three years with her daughters and maids, throwing hot coal and buckets of boiling water on the attackers News Sep 1, 2016
• http://curteisfamily.net.au/curteis%20family%20tree/1559.htm