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Ralph lane went to Oxford University in 1554.
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He served the English Parliament (government) in the late 1550s and early 1560s.
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Ralph Lane was serving in Queen Elizabeth's court, marking the beginning of his career and service to the queen and country.
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Ralph Lane participated in a force that suppressed a rebellion in Scotland where he gained his military skill.
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Ralph Lane involved himself in maritime affairs which included a queen’s commission to seize ships in 1571.
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In the late 1570s and early 1580s, he was developing plans and offering his services in helping England struggle with Spain.
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Ralph Lane received the commission to go to Ireland and direct the construction of a new colony.
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The queen recalled Ralph Lane from Ireland and he was given command of the colony that Sir Walter Raleigh was organizing to sail to Virginia (Roanoke Island and they left with 7 ships with 600 men on them.
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On June 18 or 19, 1586, Sir Francis Drake left Roanoke carrying the first English colonists back home.
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Ralph Lane was never involved in another colonization expedition but remained active in service to his county. He provided the foreword to Thomas Harriot’s Briefe and True Report of the new found land of Virginia.
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Ralph Lane's account of the colony appeared in Richard Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations.
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Ralph Lane was back in Ireland and serving as “muster master general” and “clerk of the check of the garrison” and remained in that country for the rest of his life.
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By 1601 Lane’s physical weakness had made him unfit as muster master.
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Lane died in Dublin, Ireland, in October 1603 and was buried at St. Patrick’s Church on the 28th of that month