RALPH, or RAPHAEL, was one of the humble but useful class of historians called chronologers. He was educated at Cambridge, according to Bishop Tanner, and became A. M. in the year 1544. The nature and extent of his education, as well as his profession, are involved in uncertainty. It seems probable, however, that he was steward to Thomas Burdett, Esq. of Bomcote in Warwickshire, where he died about the year 1580. He has given name to a compilation of Chronicles of English history from the earliest times, the first edition of which was published at London in 1577, in two volumes folio, and the second edition in three volumes, was printed about seven years after his death, brought down to 1586. This work, according to the testimony of Holingshed himself, was begun by the advice of Reginald Wolfe, printer to Queen Elizabeth. Part of it was compiled by himself, but he received considerable assistance from William Harrison, John Hooker, Abraham Fleming, Francis Thynne, and some others. It was continued by John Stowe after the death of Holingshed. Some parts of the first edition were altered in the second and third, because they gave offence to Queen Elizabeth and the ministry, who laid many restraints on the liberty of the prelts. The first edition of consequence is both scarce and valuable; but the suppressed sheets were afterwards printed by themselves. The chronicles of Holingshed, although considered as both tedious and vulgar, contain many important facts, which tend to illustrate the customs and manners of remote periods.