PHILIPPS, Sir Erasmus, 3rd bt. (c.1623-97), of Picton Castle, Pemb.

The Philipps family had been prominent in Pembrokeshire affairs, with a subsidiary interest in neighbouring Carmarthenshire, since the mid-sixteenth century. During the early stages of the civil war the allegiance of Sir Erasmus Philipps’s father, Sir Richard, wavered. He joined Pembrokeshire parliamentarians, including Hugh Owen* and John Wogan*, in refusing to join the 1st marquess of Hertford when summoned in November 1642, but submitted to the king at Carmarthen in August 1643. In July 1644 Sir Richard changed sides again and from that time garrisoned Picton Castle for Parliament until it fell to the royalists on 28 April 1645.16Pemb. Co. Hist. iii. 165-6, 172, 175-6, 194; LJ v. 441a. According to a later account, various members of the family received rough treatment at the hands of the Shropshire royalists who

joined in contriving indictments of treason against the most well affected gentlemen in counties Carmarthen, Brecon and Cardigan, as Sir Richard and Sir Erasmus Philipps, Bts., and others, some of whom were indicted, and others condemned by David Jenkins and Tim. Turner, judges, to be hanged, drawn and quartered, but they miraculously escaped out of prison.17CCAM 1195.

Picton Castle was recaptured for Parliament in September 1645.18Phillips, Civil War in Wales ii. 273. The war had placed a huge financial strain on the Philipps family, and in April 1646 the Lords had to pass an order for the repayment of money borrowed for the public service to allow the release of Sir Richard from a debtor’s prison.19LJ viii. 262a. In February 1648 Sir Richard was still a man of great local importance: he was appointed to the commission to disband all the remaining forces in south Wales; and his influence clearly extended beyond the border, as he appointed Oliver St John* as overseer of his will, written a month later.20LJ x. 63b; PROB11/207/158.

Sir Erasmus Philipps, who had succeeded to the baronetcy by the end of 1648, followed his father’s example, serving as a local militia commissioner in December of that year, as an assessment and sequestration commissioner from April 1649, and as sheriff of Carmarthenshire in 1649-50.21A. and O.; CB. He was a magistrate in both Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire by mid-1649.22Justices of the Peace ed. Phillips, 169, 218. Philipps was apparently an enthusiastic supporter of the commonwealth, and was one of the few established gentry to be included in the commission for the propagation of the gospel in Wales appointed in February 1650.23A. and O. ; T. Richards, Hist. Puritan Movement in Wales (1920), 82. He is known to have attended meetings of the south Wales commissioners.24LPL, Comm. VIII/1. His appointment to the commission to eject scandalous ministers in south Wales in August 1654 may also reflect his religious leanings as well as his local standing.25A. and O. The early 1650s were also marked by a legal row between Philipps and his widowed stepmother – mother of the ‘Matchless Orinda’, wife of James Philipps* – over the terms of Sir Richard’s will, which had encumbered lands in south Wales with three legacies.26C6/14/150, 164; NLW, Picton Castle 159: ‘bill of complaint of Sir Erasmus Phillipps’.

Philipps was returned as MP for Pembrokeshire in 1654, when James Philipps*, whose first wife had been Sir Erasmus’s late sister, was elected for neighbouring Cardiganshire. He was named to the committee on the bill to authorise ejection of ‘scandalous ministers’ on 25 September, but next day obtained leave ‘to go into the country, upon his occasions’.27CJ vii. 370a, 370b. He may not have returned to the House thereafter, and he was not mentioned in the Journals. In the autumn of 1655 he was appointed sheriff of Pembrokeshire.28Pemb. Co. Hist. iii. 214. And he was active by March 1656 on the south Wales commission for securing the peace of the commonwealth.29TSP iv. 583. Philipps did not retain his seat in 1656, but apparently remained on good terms with the regime, as he was included in the assessment commissions for Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire in June 1657.30A. and O. He was once more chosen as MP for Pembrokeshire in 1659, but played no known role in the session that followed.

After the fall of the protectorate Philipps was included in the Pembrokeshire militia commission in July 1659, and he was appointed to the assessment commission for the same county in January 1660 and to the assessment commissions for Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire in March of that year.31A. and O.; CJ vii. 859a. Although there seems to have been no question of his re-entering the House after the Restoration, Philipps’s local standing was unimpaired. In 1666-7 he was conspicuous in command of a local volunteer troop of horse during the Dutch invasion scare.32CSP Dom. 1666-7, p. 16; 1667, pp. 242, 270, 291. In 1674 he was made deputy lieutenant for Pembrokeshire.33CSP Dom. 1673-4, p. 116. In 1684 he was host to the duke of Beaufort and his retinue, as well as to the local gentry during the duke’s ‘official progress’ in Wales.34Official Progress of the Duke of Beaufort through Wales, (1684), 278. In 1688, when soundings were taken by James II on religious toleration, Philipps was said to be ‘very ill and aged’; nevertheless, he supported William III, and in 1689 and 1694 he was credited with loans of £500 and £300 to the treasury.35Duckett, Penal Laws and Test Act (1880), 285; CTB 1689-92, p. 1980; 1693-6, p. 908. He died on 18 January 1697. His will, drafted in August 1688, included a long religious preamble couched in Anglican terms which looked forward to his soul joining ‘the company of the heavenly angels and blessed saints’ and his body being resurrected ‘nothing doubting but according to the Articles of my faith at the great day of the general resurrection’. His estates had by that time been settled ‘by deed and fine’ upon his son and heir, Edward Philipps, with the younger sons, John and Erasmus, receiving lands in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire.36PROB11/438/203. By the time of Philipps’s death Edward had died and it was the second son, John Philipps†, who succeeded as 4th baronet.37CB; Oxford DNB.