at this time are among the Hyde Papers in the British Museum (Add. MS. 15895), including ‘Proposals for the Defence of Ireland during ye Warre’ (ib. fol. 265). In 1703 he became a lieutenant-general, and in 1705 lieutenant-general of the ordnance on the recommendation of Marlborough. Summoned to England (Marl. Desp. i. 612), among other services he raised a regiment of dragoons for Ireland (disbanded later), the colonelcy of which was given to Lord Cutts [q. v.], who succeeded Erle in the Irish command in 1705 (Treas. Papers, xcv. 62). In 1706 he was appointed to a command in the expedition under Lord Rivers, and Marlborough, who appears to have appreciated Erle's good sense and trustworthiness, writing to him in Dorsetshire 29 July 1706, apologises ‘for contributing to calling you away from so agreeable a retirement, which I should not have done if I had not thought it absolutely necessary to the service that a person of your experience and authority should be joined with Lord Rivers in his expedition’ (Marl. Desp. iii. 34). Erle proceeded to Spain in January 1707 (ib. iii. 293), and appears to have commanded the centre at the battle of Almanza, 23 April 1707. He returned home in March 1708, and soon after was appointed commander-in-chief of a combined expedition to the coast of France (commission in Treas. Papers, cvii. 62). The troops were put on board Sir George Byng's fleet, and, after some unimportant movements between the Downs and the French coast, were landed at Ostend and employed there during the siege of Lille (see Marl. Desp. vol. iv.). At the end of the year Erle, whose health was much broken by repeated attacks of gout, returned home. In 1709 he sold the colonelcy of his regiment (19th foot) to the lieutenant-colonel, George Freke. He retained the lieutenant-generalship of the ordnance, and was appointed commander-in-chief in South Britain. In 1711 he was made a general of foot in Flanders, in succession to Charles Churchill, but never took up the appointment. In 1712 he was removed from his post at the ordnance and as commander-in-chief on political grounds. Except in 1715, when he was sent down to put Portsmouth in a state of defence, he was not employed again. He died at Charborough 23 July 1720, and was buried in the vault of the parish church beside his wife, Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir William Wyndham, bart., of Orchard Wyndham, Somersetshire, who died before him. By her he left one child, a daughter, who married Sir Edward Ernle, third baronet, of Maddington, Wiltshire, and died in 1728 (see Burke, Extinct Baronetages, under ‘Ernley’). Her second daughter married Henry Drax of Ellerton Abbey, Yorkshire, some time secretary to Frederick, prince of Wales. Drax thus succeeded to the Charborough property, which is held by his descendants. Erle represented Wareham as a whig from 1678 to 1718, except in 1698 and 1700, when he was returned for Portsmouth on both occasions with Admiral Sir George Rooke. He was returned both for Portsmouth and Wareham in 1702 and 1708, and each time elected to sit for Wareham. He resigned his seat on receiving a pension of 1,200l. a year in 1718. He was M.P. for Cork in the Irish parliament 1703–13. His portrait was painted by Kneller and engraved by J. Simson. There was a Thomas Erle appointed major and exempt in the 3rd troop of horse guards in 1702 (Home Off. Mil. Entry Book, v. 87), who is believed to have been father of Major-general Thomas Erle, colonel 28th foot, who died in 1777.
[Hutchins's Dorsetshire (1813), pp. 126–9; Granger's Biog. Hist. ii. 197; Collins's Peerage, 5th ed. vi. 32; D'Auvergne's Narratives of Campaigns in Flanders; Marl. Desp. Hutchins mentions that a collection of Erle's letters to the Earl of Rochester is or was in the library at Charborough; some are in the Hyde Papers in British Museum, Add. MS. 15895; others in the Marquis of Ormonde's, see Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. Incidental notices of Erle will be found in Luttrell's Relation of State Affairs, vols. i–vi.; in Treasury Papers, indexed in Calendars of Treasury Papers, 1702–9, 1709–14; in Home Off. Military Entry Books, i–viii. which are in Public Record Office, London; and in All Souls' Coll. MSS. 152A ff. 53, 54, 54 b, 152D ff. 21, 22 b, 45 b, 152E ff. 5 b, 162, 163 b, 152F f., 154 f. 120.]
ERLE, Sir WILLIAM (1793–1880), judge, son of the Rev. Christopher Erle of Gillingham, Dorsetshire, by Margaret, daughter of Thomas Bowles of Shaftesbury in the same county, a relative of the poet William Lisle Bowles, born at Fifehead-Magdalen, Dorsetshire, on 1 Oct. 1793, was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, where he graduated B.C.L. in 1818, and held a fellowship until 1834. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple on 26 Nov. 1819. His circuit was the western. Here he slowly acquired a reputation for thoroughness rather than brilliancy, and a fair share of remunerative practice. He was admitted a member of the Inner Temple on 11 June 1822, and became a bencher of that society on 18 Nov. 1834. He married in 1834 Amelia, eldest daughter of the Rev. Dr. Williams, warden of New College and prebendary of Winchester, thereby vacating his fellowship. The same
