Educated in Lincoln's Inn and Queen's College Oxford, he lived mainly in Evesham where he acquired much land and built Abbey Manor House. Rudge became High Sheriff for Worcestershire (1829) and a Judge. His British plant collections were included in the herbarium of his uncle S. Rudge and donated to BM. A larger herbarium consisting mostly of collections acquired by E. Rudge, for example specimens from French Guiana collected by Joseph Martin, was bequeathed to BM in 1847. Nymphaea rudgeana G. Mey. (= Castalia rudgeana (G. Mey.) Britton & P. Wilson) is one of several plants named in his honour.