Christopher Erle (c. 1590 – 1634) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

at various times between 1621 and 1629. Erle was born at Stourminster Marshall, the son of Thomas Erle of

Charborough House Charborough House, also known as Charborough Park, is a Grade I listed building, the manor house of the ancient manor of Charborough. The house is between the villages of Sturminster Marshall and Bere Regis in Dorset, England. The grounds, w ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

and his wife Dorothy Pole, daughter of William Pole of Columpton, Devon. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford on 10 June 1608, aged 18. He was called to the bar at

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

in 1617. 'Alumni Oxonienses, 1500-1714: Eade-Eyton', Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714: Abannan-Kyte (1891), pp. 440-479. Retrieved 9 December 2011
/ref> Erle and his brother Sir Walter Erle were issued shares in the

Virginia Company The Virginia Company was an English trading company chartered by King James I on 10 April 1606 with the object of colonizing the eastern coast of America. The coast was named Virginia, after Elizabeth I, and it stretched from present-day Mai ...

in 1620.Michael Russell ''Christopher Erle''
/ref> In 1621, Erle was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis. He shared puritan ideals with Rev. John White in Dorchester and with his brother Walter invested in the

Dorchester Company The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as th ...

. He was elected MP for Poole in 1626. In 1628 he was elected MP for

Lyme Regis Lyme Regis is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and beaches on the Heri ...

and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. Erle died at the age of about 44 and was buried in the middle aisle of the

Temple Church The Temple Church is a Royal peculiar church in the City of London located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built by the Knights Templar as their English headquarters. It was consecrated on 10 February 1185 by Patriarch Heraclius of J ...

on 4 April 1634. Erle married Elizabeth Denny, daughter of Edward Denny of Stortford on 26 April 1623 at Birchanger in Essex. Their son Christopher born in 1624 was MP for Essex in 1653.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erle, Christopher 1590s births 1634 deaths English MPs 1621–1622 English MPs 1626 English MPs 1628–1629 Members of the Middle Temple