Thomas Erle

General Thomas Erle (1650 – 23 July 1720) of Charborough, Dorset, was a general in the English Army and, thereafter, the British Army. He was also a Whig 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 Fiennes, daughter of William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele, of Charborough. He matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, on 12 July 1667, aged 17 and was admitted at Middle Temple in 1669. In 1675, Erle married Elizabeth Wyndham (died 1710), daughter of Sir William Wyndham, 1st Baronet of Orchard Wyndham, Somerset.

Erle succeeded his elder brother before 1665 and his grandfather to Charborough in 1665.

In February 1679, Erle was returned unopposed as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Wareham (a pocket borough controlled by his family) into the first Exclusion Parliament. He voted for exclusion. At the second general election in 1679, Erle was again returned unopposed, but left no record in the second Exclusion Parliament. He was returned unopposed again at the 1681 English general election but was again inactive. At the 1685 English general election Erle was returned unopposed again, and was named to committees in Parliament but was called away in response to Monmouth's invasion. On 27 May 1685, he was made Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset. Erle took command of the East Dorset militia as major, and fought as a volunteer at the Battle of Sedgemoor with his friend Thomas Chafin. Subsequently, he was presented to the King by Lord Churchill but received a cold reception from James II.

Erle returned home and carried up the mutiny bill on 27 February 1694. He was appointed Governor of Portsmouth in July 1694, and held the position until 1712. He was returned unopposed for Wareham at the 1695 English general election. Erle was again involved in the management of the mutiny bill, he signed the Association, and voted with the Court in March 1696 to fix the price of guineas at 22 shillings. In 1696, Erle was made a Major-General. He voted for the attainder of Sir John Fenwick on 25 November 1696 and spoke against a reduction of the military establishment on 8 January 1698. At the 1698 English general election, under a sharing agreement with a Tory, George Pitt, he had his nephew returned at Wareham and was himself returned unopposed as MP for Portsmouth on the government interest. Erle was a Court supporter and spoke and voted against the third reading of the disbanding bill on 18 January 1699.

Erle was returned at Wareham again in 1710 and 1713.

Erle died on 23 July 1720 and was buried at Charborough. He left a daughter Frances, who married Edward Ernle and died on 14 May 1728. Charborough House thus passed to the Ernle family.