Ralph was the youngest child of William and Ada, Lord and Lady Lovelace. He was brought up by his grand-mother, Lady Byron, who made him her heir. He changed his name by royal licence in 1861 to Ralph Gordon Noel King-Milbanke. He succeeded to the title, 13th Lord Wentworth, on the death of his elder brother, Byron, in 1862, and he succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of Lovelace in 1893. He married Fannie Heriot (1852-1878) in 1869 and they had one daughter Ada Mary. After his wife's death, he married again to Mary Caroline Stuart-Wortley in 1880.