Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/280

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Ellis
274
Ellis

to receive and wear the grand cross of the Portuguese order of the Tower and Sword in 1841. On 10 Dec. 1840 Lord Howard de Walden, who in the July of the previous year had succeeded his father as second Lord Seaford, was appointed minister plenipotentiary at Brussels, and he remained at that court in that capacity for more than twenty years, enjoying the friendship both of Leopold I and Leopold II of Belgium. He died on 29 Aug. 1868 at his country château of Lesve, near Namur, leaving a family of six sons and two daughters.

[Foreign Office Lists; Foster's Peerage; obituary notices in Times and Illustrated London News, 12 Sept. 1868.]

H. M. S.


ELLIS, CHARLES ROSE, first Lord Seaford (1771–1845), was the second son of John Ellis, who was himself second son of George Ellis, sometime chief justice of Jamaica, and descendant of Colonel John Ellis, who settled in that island in 1665, and founded a family there. He was born on 19 Dec. 1771, and, having inherited a large West India property, entered the House of Commons in March 1793, when barely of age, as M.P. for Heytesbury. He was not a brilliant speaker, but through his cousin, George Ellis [q.v.], who was Canning's intimate friend, he became acquainted with that statesman, of whom he remained a consistent follower until the end of his parliamentary career. In 1796 he was elected both for Wareham and Seaford, but preferred to sit for the latter place, and on 2 Aug. 1798 he married Elizabeth Catherine Clifton, only daughter and heiress of John, lord Hervey. About the same period he purchased the estate of Claremont in Surrey, where he exercised a large hospitality, and he was re-elected for Seaford in 1802. His wife died on 21 Jan. 1803, and on 8 July of that year his infant son, Charles Augustus Ellis, succeeded his maternal great-grand-father, Frederick Hervey, earl of Bristol and bishop of Derry, in the ancient barony of Howard de Walden (see Foster, Peerage). He lost his seat in 1806, but was elected for East Grinstead in 1807. He was re-elected for Seaford in 1812, and continued to represent that place until his elevation to the peerage in 1826. His importance in the House of Commons rested in his being the acknowledged head of what was known as the West Indian interest, and Canning often found his assistance of great value to him, though his chosen intimate was George Ellis, who was one of the recognised wits of the time, and whose untimely death in 1815 was universally lamented. In 1820 Canning was allowed to nominate a friend for a peerage, and he nominated Ellis, to the surprise of everyone, according to Greville, and he was accordingly created Lord Seaford on 16 July 1826. Seaford died on 1 July 1845 at Wood End, near Chichester, and was succeeded in his peerage by his elder son, Lord Howard de Walden, a well-known diplomatist.

[Gent. Mag. October 1845.]

H. M. S.


ELLIS, CLEMENT (1630–1700), divine and poet, was born at the episcopal palace of Rose Castle, Carlisle, Cumberland, in 1630. His father. Captain Philip Ellis, had been educated at Queen's College, Oxford, under the tuition of Dr. Barnaby Potter, who, on being raised to the see of Carlisle in March 1628, appointed his old pupil to be his steward. The bishop, who was godfather to Clement, died before the outbreak of the civil war, in January 1641-2, but Captain Ellis kept possession of Rose Castle for the king, and stood a siege for some considerable time. On the castle being taken he was imprisoned for twenty-six weeks and lost most of his estate (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1661–2, pp. 362, 621). Clement became a servitor of Queen's College, Oxford, in 1649, was afterwards a taberdar, and was elected a fellow in 1657 (ib, 1656–7, pp. 23, 51, 242, 1657–8, pp. 201, 216). He proceeded B.A. 2 Feb. 1653, M.A. 9 July 1656 (Wood, Fasti Oxon., ed. Bliss, ii. 175, 193). While at Oxford he received several donations towards his subsistence, both before and after taking orders, from unknown hands, with anonymous letters informing him that those sums were in consideration of his father's sufferings, and to encourage his progress in his studies. After the Restoration he had reason to believe that he owed these gifts to Jeremy Taylor and Henry Hammond, as part of the funds entrusted to them for distribution among oppressed loyalists (Wordsworth, Christian Biography 4th edit. iv. 358 n). Ellis thought it necessary to welcome Charles in some wretched lines addressed `To the Kings most excellent Majesty, on his happie and miraculous Return to the Government of his Three (now) flourishing Kingdoms,' fol., London, 1660, in which he frankly confessed himself to be `much a better subject than a poet.' In 1661 he became domestic chaplain to William, marquis (afterwards duke) of Newcastle (Cal. State Papers Dom. 1660–1, p. 502), by whom he was subsequently presented to the rectory of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, in 1693 he was installed a prebendary of Southwell on the presentation of Sharp, archbishop of York. Ellis died 28 June 1700, aged 70. Before 1665 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas