Ancestry of Sir John Ernle (ca 1464-1520), Lord Chief Justic

[Richard Carruthers-Zurows]

The new Oxford DNB states that Sir John Ernley*, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas (1519-1520), was the son of John Ernley (d. 1465) by his wife Margaret (d. in or before 1485), daughter of Nicholas Morley (1410-1472x4) and Joan Waleys, of Glynde, Sussex.

I wonder if anyone can extend this pedigree or help me corroborate it?

"Burke's Commoners" (vol. 3, p. 619, col. 2, pedigree of Ernle, of Ernle and Whetham, sub Money, of Much Marcle) states that Sir John Ernle was the son of John Ernle of Ernle [i.e Earnley], Sussex by his wife "Margaret Morley daughter of Nicholas Morley, a scion of the house of Morley, of Morley, in Lancashire, by his wife, one of the daughters and co-heirs of Sir John Walleys, knt."

The successor volumes, "Burke's Landed Gentry" give the parentage of the same Sir John Ernle, Chief Justice, as follows:

1906 edn, sub Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, p. 481, col. 2
Sir John Erneley, younger son of John Erneley of Erneley [i.e., the modern Earnley, Sussex] and his wife Margaret, daughter of Michael Grove.

The foregoing is restated in the 1937 edn, under Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax of Charborough, p. 641, col. 2 and in the 1952 edn, under the same, p. 689, col. 2.

Additionally, there has been a great deal of confusion over more than the parentage of this Sir John Ernle. Sometimes he is called Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and erroneously elsewhere Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench.

More serious for the genealogist, however, is the problem posed by the fact that apparently he had an elder brother, also named John Ernle, whom the Oxford DNB says was born 1461/2, and was of Fosbury and Bishops Cannings, Wilts.

This John Ernle, the Elder, is the ancestor of the Plunkett-Ernle-Ernle-Drax family, and of the Restoration Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir John Ernle, of Whetham, Calne, Wilts. (d. 1697) [whom Burke's General Armory, p. 328, col. 2, states was the descendant of Sir John Ernle, Chief Justice, which appears to be in error insofar as it implies that he was a direct rather than a collateral descendant of the Chief Justice {whom it also erroneously says was K.B.}]. Indeed, John Ernle The Elder would appear to be the forebear of the main (Wiltshire) line of the Ernle family which died out in the male line in 1787 (disputedly as baronets), as well as my own cadet Wiltshire line, a member of which, Banister Ernle, left male issue in 18th century London whose fate I have yet to learn.

Christopher Whittick, the author of the Oxford DNB article on Sir John Ernley, says in his article that the existence of these two brothers of the same name has been the source of the "subsequent confusion of genealogists". Indeed it has, and I am trying to untangle the garbled information to be found in various publications in order to produce a more accurate pedigree of the entire family and its many branches. It would seem that within England, at least, the surname is extinct, save in the Wodehousianly orotund, Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, whose Ernle descent, as mine, comes via many female lines.

In the effort to sort out the Ernle pedigree, I have been obtaining all the material listed in G.W. Marshall's "Genealogist's Guide"** regarding this family, as well as all the PCC wills via documentsonline. I have also obtained Col. Awdry's pedigree from the Society of Genealogists along with notes gathered by Mr Royal and deposited there. Edward Kite's pedigrees at the Wiltshire Archæological and Natural History Library in Devizes, Wilts., have been consulted via indistinct microfilm copies as have some other material alluding to Ernle and the allied families of Lambe of Coulston, Wilts., and Button of Alton Priors, Wilts. I have also collected material from the Victoria County History of Wilts., but some of it has also only increased my puzzles, e.g., the account under Fosbury, Wilts.

Some of this material listed in Marshall, being from secondary sources, has deepened the confusion over Sir John's parentage, along with creating other pedigree problems.

"A History of the Castles, Mansions, and Manors of Western Sussex", by D.G.C. Elwes and C.J. Robinson (1876), gives a very confusing pedigree of "Ernle of Earnley, co. Sussex." which it helpfully states is derived from "Burke's Hist. of The Commoners, Burke's Extinct Baronetage, Foss's Judges, Le Neve's Knights, Dallaway's Sussex, Kimber and Johnson's Baronetage, &c., &c."

Here, Sir John Ernle, Chief Justice is called the 2nd son, of "John Ernle, of Earnley, co. Sussex (4 Edw. IV, 1464-5)" [who would appear to be the correct father] by his wife, "Agnes or Joan, dau. of Simon Best, by Agnes, d. and h. of .... Mervin, of Echilhampton [sic], co. Wilts.", and names his elder brother not as John of Fosbury and Bishops Cannings, but as William Ernle (IPM, 1546). The pedigree goes on to marry Sir John first to "Anne, daughter of Constantine Darel, of Collinbourne [sic], co. Wilts." and second to "Margaret, daughter of Edmund Dawtrey, Esq." [the only wife, as Margaret Dawtry, Sir John Ernley is given in the Oxford DNB].

This account seems to have conflated the two John Ernles, giving both brothers' wives to the combined man. Moreover, the composite's mother is a third woman, closely resembling neither of the Margarets, Morley or Grove, more often named as his mother, but Agnes or Joan Best. This third lady, whom most sources call Joan Best, was properly the daughter and heir of Simon Best and Agnes, daughter and heir of John Malwyn/Malewain/Malewyn/Malwin/Malewin, Esq., lord of the manor of Etchilhampton (alias Ashlington), Wilts., and is normally the cited not as Sir John's mother, but as the wife of Sir John Ernle's paternal grandfather, yet another John Ernle. It would appear that this marital alliance was the source of the family's migration from Sussex to Wilts.in the time of John Ernle, The Elder, when the family eventually fell heir to the Etchilhampton estates of the Malwyn family via the Best heiress.

Even more confusing is Dallaway's Sussex, 1st edn, p. 25, which supplies a pedigree of "Ernley", derived from "MSS. Coll. Arms. D.11 Vis. by R. Cooke, 1570. MSS. B."

Here Sir John Ernley, Chief Justice of Common Pleas, ob. 1536 [sic]" is listed as the son of "John Erneley" and "Margaret, daughter of Henry Morley", and grandson of Sir Henry Erneley (whom Burke's mentions in some earlier editions, before discarding him).

His wife is cited as Anne, daughter of William Dawtrey.

His brother, John the Elder [b. 1461/2, of Fosbury and Bishops Cannings in ODNB] is made his great-great-grandson by having the John Ernle who married Joan Best tacked onto the pedigree as the 2nd son of Richard Erneley (d. 1577), Sir John's true grandson via his son William Ernley, of Cackham [now Cakeham, Sussex], M.P. for Chichester 1542, "ob. 1346" [sic, for 1546].

All this is not very helpful, save in demonstrating why Christopher Whittick mentions the confusion of genealogists in his ODNB article on Sir John Ernley, and lies behind my reasons for posting this query.

I have also made enquiries of the College of Arms, but shall have to renew these as initially I was interested only in the information that might have been housed there about my own branch of Ernle family that founded by my proven forebear, Thomas Ernle, gent. (d. 1595), lessor of Bremeridge manor in Dilton in the parish of Westbury, Wilts., second of the three sons of John Ernle***, Esq. (d. 1 Feb. 1571/2) and his wife Mary, daughter of William Hyde, Esq., of Denchworth, Berks., and his descendants whom Burke's only alludes to in passing as the Ernles of Brembridge [sic].

Many thanks in advance for any help.

Richard Carruthers
M.A., Oxon.

*=Ernle is the standard modern variant of the surname's spelling, but there have been many spellings. So far I have found Ernle, Erneley, Ernley and Ernely in the Oxford DNB all referring to the same family. The Sussex place name from which the surname Ernle is derived has been standardised as Earnley, which better reflects its pronunciation.

**=1903 edn, p. 281 "ERNELEY, ERNELY, ERNLEY, or ERNLE. Burke's Commoners, iii. 619; iv. 209 Visitation of Sussex, 1570, printed by Sir. T. Phillipps, (Middle Hill, fol.) 4. Harleian Society, viii. 1999; xx. 38 Dallaway's Sussex, i. 25. Visitatio Comitatus Wiltoniæ, 1623, printed by Sir T. Phillipps. Hutchins' Dorset, iii. 543. Wiltshire Archæological Magazine, xi, 192. Castles, Mansions, and Manors of Western Sussex, by D.G.C. Elwes and C.J. Robinson, 75. Private Memoirs of John Potenger, Esq., by C.W. Bingham, at end. Wotton's English Baronetage, iii. 217. Visitation of Wiltshire, edited by G.W. Marshall, 74 Burke's Extinct Baronetcies. The Genealogist, New Series, xii, 26".

***=apparently the son of John Ernle (d. 1556), of Bourton manorhouse, Bishops Cannings, Wilts. by Lucy, daughter of Thomas Cooke, merchant of Salisbury, and grandson of the abovementioned John Ernle, The Elder (b. 1461/2, d.?), by his wife Anne, daughter of Constantine Darell of Littlecote manor in Ramsbury, Wilts.

P.S.
I wrote to this list of my Ernle research about two years ago. Thanks mostly to PCC wills, I have now proved my Ernle descent back to where my cadet line branched off from the main line with the abovementioned, Thomas Ernle of Bremeridge (d. 1595). His PCC will lists a very large family including an eldest son, Thomas Ernle, who was born in 1574/5 according to his father's IPM.

The late T.R. Thomson, F.S.A., F.R.Hist.S., compiler of "Materials for a History of Cricklade [Wilts.]", revised edition, 1959, p.59, mentions this second, Thomas Ernle, as the tenant in 1633 of Abingdon Court manor in Cricklade, of which his father had first become tenant some time after the execution of Thomas, Lord Seymour of Sudely, in 1549. Thomson states that Thomas Ernle 2 was buried in Whiteparish, Wilts. on 27 September 1639, though does not cite his source for this information. I have checked the Whiteparish records at the Society of Genealogists, but have not found the burial entry, nor I have not found Thomas 2's will. I do, however, have that of his son, a third, successive, Thomas Ernle, gent., of Purton, Wilts. (Archdeaconry of Wilts. made 1694, pr. 1695), which names his son-in-law, Robert Major, otherwise known as Phillips, gent. [called yeoman in his will] who married Thomas Ernle 3's daughter, Cisalia/Cecilia "Sis" Earnlee, gentlewoman, by licence [not f!
ound] at Malmesbury Abbey, Wilts., on 17 August 1672. This couple had an eldest child, Cis Phillips (1672/3-1757), of Purton and Lyneham, Wilts., who married first, John Holliday (d. 1701), by whom she had issue, including some who seem to have gone to Pennsylvania colony with her Quaker brother, John Phillips, and second, my ancestor, William Large (1679-1747), yeoman, of Purton, Wilts. The PCC will**** of William Ernle (1583-1662/3), gent., of Bideford, Devon, is especially helpful in clarifying my Ernle descent. William was a younger brother of Thomas Ernle 2 and named his nephew Thomas Ernle 3 of Bradon (i.e. Bra[y]don, Purton, Wilts).

****=Will of William Ernle, Gentleman, of Bideford, Devon, dated 16 July 1662 & proved PCC London 15 June 1663, PRO reference PROB 11/311.