Sir Ralph Sydenham 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...

  from 1641 to 1642. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

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Sydenham was the son of Sir John Sydenham of Brimpton. He was knighted in Scotland on 17 July 1617.

In 1641, Sydenham 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 Bossiney

Bossiney (UK Parliament constituency)

Bossiney was a parliamentary constituency in Cornwall, one of a number of Cornish rotten boroughs, and returned two Members of Parliament to the British House of Commons from 1552 until 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.-History:...

 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...

 in place of Clotworthy who sat for Maldon. Sydenham followed the King to Oxford and was thus disabled from sitting in parliament on 29 September 1642. He compounded for his delinqency in a fine of £500. He lived at Youlston, Devon.

Following the Restoration in 1660, Sydenham was made Master of Charterhouse

London Charterhouse

The London Charterhouse is a historic complex of buildings in Smithfield, London dating back to the 14th century. It occupies land to the north of Charterhouse Square. The Charterhouse began as a Carthusian priory, founded in 1371 and dissolved in 1537...

and remained in post until his death in 1671.

Sydenham married the widow of Sir Arthur Chichester, Bt and had a family.