Vanderbank a share of the place of tapestry-maker to the crown, eventually obtained that position also. Ellys was consulted and employed by Sir Robert Walpole in the formation of his celebrated collection of pictures, and among other similar charges was especially sent over to Holland to purchase from the Princess of Friesland the great picture of 'The Virgin and Angels' by Vandyck, now in the Hermitage Gallery at St. Petersburg with the rest of the Houghton collection. For these services Ellys was rewarded by Walpole with the sinecure of master keeper of the lions in the Tower, which he held up to his death. He had, in October 1736, succeeded Philip Mercier as principal painter to Frederick, prince of Wales, He was a member of the committee of artists appointed in 1755 to frame a plan for constructing a royal academy, but did not survive to see any result of their efforts, as he died on 14 Sept. 1757. Ellys, who was usually known as 'Jack Ellys,' was a good and careful portrait-painter of the rather uninteresting school to which he belonged. There is a good portrait group of Lord Whitworth and his nephew, dated 1727, by him at Knole in Kent. Many of his portraits were engraved by John Faber, jun. Among these were Lavinia Fenton, duchess of Bolton, James Figg, the famous pugilist, Frederick, prince of Wales, Henry Medley, George Oldham, Lord Mayor Humphrey Parsons. William Wake, archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Walker, the actor, as Captain Macheath, Robert Wilks, the actor, and George Stanhope, dean of Canterbury. The last named was also engraved by J. Sympson. Among engravings by other artists from Ellys's portraits were Kitty Clive, by J. Tinney; Sir Charles Wager, by G. White; and Edmund Gibson, bishop of London, by G. Vertue.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Vertue MSS. (Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. 23068 &c.), Gent. Mag. 1767, xxvii. 436: Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits.]
ELLYS, Sir RICHARD (1688?–1742), theological writer, was eldest son of Sir William Ellys of Wyham and grandson of the first baronet, Sir Thomas (created 1660). His mother was Isabella, daughter of Richard Hampdon. chancellor of the exchequer, and granddaughter of John Hampden. Ellys, who was born about 1688, was educated abroad, probably in Holland. His tutor regarded him as the equal in Greek scholarship of almost any professor, and he was also acquainted with Hebrew. Throughout his life he corresponded with continental scholars, by whom he was much esteemed (see Gronovius's dedication to Ellys of his edition of Ælian's 'Varia Historia,' and the Wetsteins' edition of Suicer's 'Thesaurus,' to which he had contributed the use of a manuscript of Suicer in his possession). He was especially intimate with Maittaire, who, in his 'Senilis,' addressed several pieces of Latin verse to him. His learning took the direction of biblical criticism and bore fruit in his 'Fortuita Sacra; quibus subucitur Commentarius de Cymhelie' (Rotterdam, 1727), the first part of which consists of a critical commentary in Latin on doubtful passages in the Greek Testament, and the second of a curious treatise on cymbals, also in Latin. In 1727 Ellys was elected for the third and last time member of parliament for Boston, Lincolnshire, having been previously returned at a bye-election in 1719 and in 1722, and in the same year he succeeded his father (d. 6 Oct.) in the title and his estate of Nocton, Lincolnshire. (It is stated in Collins's Baronetage, vol. iii. pt. i. p, 89, apparently on the authority of Ellys himself, that he twice represented Grantham in parliament, but it does not so appear from the official 'Returns,' though Sir William Ellys represented that borough from 1715 to 1724.) Ellys now devoted himself to antiquarian research and amassed at Nocton a fine library. On 24 June 1742 an account of this library and some curiosities lately added thereto formed the day's transactions of the Gentlemen's Society at Spalding, of which Ellys had been elected a member on 12 March 1729. Ellys held strong religious opinions. He hnd been an Arminian, but was a decided Calvinist in 1730, and when living in London (Bolton Street. Piccadilly) he was a member of Calamy's congregation. and after Calamy's death of Bradbury's. He steadfastly befriended Thomas Boston [q. v.], whose treatise on Hebrew accents, 'Tractatus Stigmato-logicus,' was dedicated to him. He maintained his family's traditional hospitality. His father had kept open house at Nocton for all comers, and every day twelve dishes were prepared whether or no any guests came to partake of them. Ellys allowed 800l. per annum to a steward for the maintenance of the same custom. Ellys was twice married: first to Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of Sir Edwin Hussey, bart.; and, secondly, to Susan, daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Gould, who outlived him, and, re-marrying with Sir Francis Dashwood, died Lady Despencer on 19 Jan. 1769. By neither wife, however, did he have issue, and the disposition of his property excited much interest. Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, in his satire, 'Peter and my Lord
