Thomas Erle

Lieutenant-General Thomas Erle PC (1650 – 23 July 1720) was an English army general and politician who sat in the House of Commons of England and of Great Britain from 1678 to 1718. He was Governor of Portsmouth and a Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance.

Life

Erle was born in 1650, the second son of Thomas Erle and his wife Susanna (née Fiennes) of Charborough, Dorset. In 1678 he became Member of Parliament (MP) for Wareham, then on 27 May 1685 was made Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset.

In 1686 he hosted a group of conspirators who met at Charborough House to plan the overthrow of "the tyrant race of Stuarts". This meeting lead to the Invitation to William, signed by the Immortal seven, and resulting in the Glorious Revolution.

Erle was the colonel of a foot regiment and on 8 March 1689 was sent to Ireland to fight the combined French and Irish Army of the deposed King James II of England.

In 1690 he took part in the Battle of the Boyne, the Siege of Limerick, and, the following year, the Battle of Aughrim. In 1692 he took part in an expedition to Flanders and on 3 August 1692 was Colonel of the former Luttrell's Regiment at the Battle of Steenkerque. Henceforth the regiment he raised in 1689 became the 2nd Battalion of the former Luttrell's Regiment, later the Green Howards. In 1693 Thomas Erle was promoted to Brigadier-General, fighting in the Battle of Landen on 22 March 1693.

Thomas Erle (Parliamentarian)

Thomas Erle (1621 – 1 June 1650) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1648. He supported the Parliamentarian cause in the English Civil War.

Erle was the son of Sir Walter Erle (1586–1665) of Charborough House, Dorset, and his wife Ann Dymoke, daughter of Francis Dymoke. He matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford on 18 February 1636, aged 14.

In April 1640, Erle was elected Member of Parliament for Milborne Port in the Short Parliament. He was elected MP for Wareham for the Long Parliament in November 1640. He sat until 1648 when he was excluded in Pride's Purge.

Erle was called to the bar at Middle Temple in 1647 and was a friend of Anthony Ashley Cooper, the future Earl of Shaftesbury. He was chosen as a commissioner on the trial of the King in 1649, but did not sit.

Erle died in 1650, a number of years before his father.

Erle married Susanna Fiennes, daughter of William Fiennes, 3rd Viscount Saye and Sele. Their children included General Thomas Erle who was one of those who helped instigate the Glorious Revolution.

Thomas Erle (disambiguation)

Thomas Erle was an English general and politician.

Thomas Erle may also refer to:

See also