At the Battle of Solebay of 1672, Ernle commanded HMS Dover, and during the battle he saved Sir John Harman and the Charles from a fire ship.[2] By the summer of 1678, he was in command of the new 64-gun ship of the line HMS Defiance.[3][4] Although he lived chiefly in Herefordshire,[5] he was elected member of Parliament for Calne in 1685, about a year before his death; the property inherited from his father included Whetham House, near Calne.[6]
Sir John Ernele, great-grandson of Sir John Ernele above sayd, and eldest son of Sir John Ernele, late Chancellour of the Exchequer, had the command of a flagship, and was eminent in some sea services.
Ernle was knighted in 1673. On 6 December 1674 he married Vincentia Kyrle, co-heir of Sir John Kyrle, 2nd Baronet, of Homme House, Much Marcle, Herefordshire.[5] They had two children: Hester (1676–1723) and John Kyrle Ernle (1682–1725).[6]
He died on 25 October 1686 and was buried at Much Marcle.[5]
Reference
^Oliver Lawson Dick, note to John Aubrey's Brief Lives (1949 edition): "ERNLE, SIR JOHN (1647-86), of Exeter College, Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn, sat as MP for Calne."
^Publications of the Navy Records Society, vol. 34, pp. 19, 24
^Thomas Baker, Piracy and diplomacy in seventeenth-century North Africa: the journal of Thomas Baker, ed. C. R. Pennell (1989), pp. 84, 94, 99
^Henry Teonge, The Diary of Henry Teonge: Chaplain on Board HM's Ships Assistance, Bristol and Royal Oak 1675-1679 (1927 edition) p. 252