Ernle FamHist

ERNLE Family History (including variants spellings of the surname)

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Family Name: ERNLE (pronounced Earn'-lee, i.e. with the stress falling on the first syllable). This surname is thought to be extinct in the male line, though it may survive under the form EARNLEY in the United States, but the precise filiation of the American family, which has been traced back to the 18th century in Berkshire, whence it emigrated first to British North America (now Canada) in the 19th century, and thence to the U.S., has yet to be established. Unrelated to this possible overseas survival of the Sussex surname, a distaff line of descendants of the Wiltshire branch of the Sussex manorial family revived the surname in the twentieth century after the lapse of over a century of use following the death of the last known male of the sib to bear the surname in male line descent, the Rev. Dr (and possibly Sir) Edward ERNLE, rector of Avington, Berkshire, who died unmarried and childless in 1787, survived by his spinster sister, known as Madam ERNLE, until her death in 1793 whereupon the surname died out in the connected line begun at Earnley, Sussex, circa 1166. The revivor of the name was Lady DUNSANY, otherwise the Rt Hon. Ernle Elizabeth Louisa Maria Grosvenor ERNLE-ERLE-DRAX, wife of the Rt Hon. John William PLUNKETT, 17th Baron of DUNSANY, née Ernle Elizabeth Louisa Maria Grosvenor BURTON (1855–1916), who was doubly descended, both in the female line, from members of the Wiltshire ERNLE family. This revival occurred in 1916 by Letters Patent of the British Crown and allowed the second and only younger son of the DUNSANY-BURTON marriage to bear the surname his mother had adopted in 1916 appended to his paternal surname as PLUNKETT-ERNLE-ERLE-DRAX. The first bearer of this surname was Admiral The Honourable Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly PLUNKETT-ERNLE-ERLE-DRAX (d. 1967), of Charborough (Charborough House, Charborough Park), Dorset, whose eldest patrilineal grandson is the current head of this landed family, and the current Westminster M.P., Capt. Richard Grosvenor PLUNKETT-ERNLE-ERLE-DRAX, commonly known as Richard DRAX, M.P. Via this revival the otherwise extinct family of ERNLE retains a present-day bearer and representation among the traditional ruling classes of the country where the name came into existence over 850 years, or nine centuries, since its first creation, possibly as an offshoot of the 'de LANGINGES' family, feudal lords of the manor of Lancing, Sussex.

Name Variants: various variant forms of the surname appear starting with the letters A, E, I, O, U, Y, and H, and including EARNLE, EARNLEE, EARNLEY, EARNLIE, EARNLY, EARNLYE, ERNELE, ERNELEY, ERNLE, ERNLEY, ERNLIE, HURNLEY, YERNLE, YERNLEY, etc. Occasionally, the medial 'n' is dropped in references to known members of this sib which can be the source of confusion with similar surnames with a separate genealogical origin and family history. Only painstakingly-acquired knowledge of the ramifications of the ERNLE family and careful study of the context of every instance where this occurs makes it possible to discern such instances of 'n-dropped' forms which nonetheless refer to members of this family rather than an unrelated one with a similar name whose spelling may occasionally overlap with the form used in an individual reference or multiple ones when concerning a member of what is more usually denoted by an ERNLE variant including the medial 'n'.

N.B. Not all variants necessarily occur in the AALT and its WAALT, but have been encountered in over twenty years of research into this family by the main researcher and writer of this page, named below. It should be noted that as a locative surname derived from the name of a place where the person originally denominated with the name as a surname was a landholder, the name was originally prefixed by the French preposition, sometimes known as the noble particle (particule de la noblesse) 'de'. This began to be dropped after the first few centuries of use to leave the main element which is derived from an Anglo-Saxon elements forming the original Sussex place name which gave rise to this particular family, apparently the only one know by the name ERNLE (or variant) consistently over a number of centuries in the British Isles. For the German surname spelt similarly, there is a different though possibly related etymological derivation, and, it should go without saying, that it is a genealogically distinct surname unrelated to that developed in England of the 12th century. Occasional instances of confusion between similar surnames found in the British Isles, including Ireland and Scotland may arise from similar Anglo-Saxon word elements elsewhere giving rise to another family with a similar surname. This can be seen to have occurred with the surname now usually spelt ERLE, derived from Maiden Earley (once Earnley) in Berkshire, which began as 'de ERLEY' and was a family of knightly rank which gave rise to a much more extensive sib than did the Sussex family named ERNLE, members of the minor or lower feudal nobility who rarely achieved knightly rank in their first few centuries, whose head was seated on manorial estates at Earnley on the Sussex coast near Chichester, and in neighbouring parishes, including Sidlesham, and East Wittering. For more on this please consult the article initiated by the present page manager and largely written by him at [1]. (Commentary by Richard Carruthers-Żurowski, 25 July 2022Richard Carruthers-Zurowski (talk) 22:36, 25 July 2022 (UTC)).

Managing Page Editor: RC: Richard Carruthers-Żurowski leliwite at gmail dot com (convert email element substitutions and elide all into one string before using this email address), who welcomes correspondence on this topic. Other contributors:

Twelfth Century

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Thirteenth Century

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Fourteenth Century

• William ERNELEY of Arundel, Sussex
  • 1458. Wilts. Thomas Clotte /Slotte v. William, earl of Arundell (Arundel); John Dudley de Dudley, Staffs, knight; Thomas Barette de Arundel, Sussex, armiger; and William Erneley de Arundel, Sussex, armiger. Trespass: jury in respite[2]; [3]
  • 1458. Sussex. William Ernele, armiger v. John Nudegate (Newdigate) de Cranley (Cranleigh), Surrey. Debt for £13/6/8; early process. [4]

Comments: William ERNELEY appears thus far only in 1458, with his residence in Arundel, Sussex. He was, from the case of trespass above, plausibly associated with William FITZALAN, 9th Earl of Arundel (of the 2nd creation, reigned 1438-1487), and Sir John DUDLEY (also known as SUTTON), Knt, of Dudley, Staffordshire. ERNELEY's appearance together as a defendant in a plea with DUDLEY is perhaps an early example of what later came to be a closer association of a member of the ERNLE family with that of DUDLEY which can be seen some forty years later in the early career of later Tudor solicitor-general, attorney-general, and lord chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas (cjcp)(1519-1520), Sir John ERNLE, Knt. As a young man, John ERNLE (1464/65-1520) began his legal practice as a Gray's Inn lawyer and associate of one of the notorious financial agents of King Henry VII, Edmund DUDLEY (exec. 1510), but ERNLE survived his patron's fall to rise in royal favour as a legal advisor and agent to Henry VII's son and successor, King Henry VIII. See the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, under Sir John ERNLEY (1464/5-1520), for more on this later connexion. External citations

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Fifteenth Century

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Sixteenth Century

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Seventeenth Century

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Eighteenth Century

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