ERNLE, Sir Edward, 3rd Bt. (c.1673-1729), of Brimslade Park, nr. Marlborough; Etchilhampton, nr. Devizes, Wilts., and Charborough, nr. Wareham, Dorset.

Sir Edward Ernle came of a Wiltshire family seated near Devizes since the early part of the sixteenth century.1Wilts. Arch. Mag. xi. 192. His grandfather was M.P. for that borough in 1679 and 1681. After sitting as a Whig in seven Parliaments under William III and Anne, he again offered opposition to the Tories in Wiltshire before the 1715 Parliament,2HMC 15th Rep. VII, 219. but did not go to a poll. Instead he was returned for the government borough of Portsmouth through the influence of the governor, his father-in-law, General Erle. In that Parliament he voted for the septennial bill in 1716, but went into opposition with Walpole the following year, voting against the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts and the peerage bill in 1719. On General Erle’s death in 1720, he succeeded to his electoral interest at Wareham and was himself returned there for the fourth time in 1722 and again in 1727. He died 31 Jan. 1729.