Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Elley, John
ELLEY, Sir JOHN (d. 1839), lieutenant-general, was, according to one statement, a native of Leeds, articled to a London solicitor, who enlisted in the royal horse guards — then better known as the Oxford Blues — for his future advancement in which corps his father found the means. Another, seemingly better authenticated statement, given in 'Biographia Leodiensis,' on the authority of the Rev. John Smithson, incumbent of Headingley, near Leeds, who died in 1835, is that Elley was born in London, where his father kept an eating-house in Furnival's Inn Cellars, Holborn; that he was apprenticed to Mr. John Gelderd of Meanwood Tannery, near Leeds, and was engaged to Anne Gelderd, his master's daughter, and that he attended her funeral at Armley chapel in great grief. Whether this was before or after his enlistment does not appear. Like many other young soldiers, Elley is said to have been very anxious to get out of the service again, but to have been, dissuaded therefrom by the Rev. Mr. Smithson. The regimental records show that Elley enlisted in the blues at Leeds 5 Nov. 1789, and that 4 June 1790 he purchased a troop-quartermastership in the regiment, such warrant rank being then obtained by purchase, and on 6 June 1794 a cornetcy. He was acting-adjutant of the four troops of the blues detached to Flanders with the Duke of York, with which he made the campaigns of 1793-5, and was particularly distinguished at the cavalry action at Cateau, 26 April 1794. After his return from the continent he purchased a lieutenancy in the regiment 26 June 1796, and a troop 26 Feb. 1801. He became major 29 Nov. 1804, and lieutenant-colonel 6 March 1808, having purchased every step. He was employed on the staff of General Staveley in the south of England during the invasion alarms of the beginning of the century, and was assistant adjutant-general of cavalry in Spain in 1808-9, when he was present at the affairs of Sahagun, Benevente, &c., and in the retreat to and battle of Corunna. He was appointed to the army in Portugal in the same capacity in 1809 (Gurwood, 'Well. Deep. iii. 337), and made the subsequent campaigns of 1809-14 in the Peninsula and south of France (ib, iv. 61, v. 160-2), including the battle of Fuentes de Onoro, the cavalry affair at Llerena (ib. v. 595), the battle of Salamanca, where he had two horses killed under him, and received a severe bayonet wound during the charge of Le Marchant's brigade (ib. vi. 57, 64), and the battles of Vittoria, Orthez, and Toulouse. As adjutant-general of cavalry he was present at Waterloo, and according to popular accounts of the battle more than one French cuirassier was laid low by him in single combat. He was made K.C.B., and received numerous foreign decorations, including the fourth class of St. George of Russia. He became a major-general in 1819, governor of Galway in 1820, was employed some years on the staff in the south of Ireland, and appointed colonel 17th lancers in 1829. In 1835 he was returned to parliament for Windsor as a staunch supporter of Sir Robert Peel. He became lieutenant-general in 1837. Elley died at his seat, Cholderton Lodge, near Amesbury, Wiltshire, 23 April 1839, and was buried in the Chapel Royal, Windsor. By his will (personalty sworn under 25,000l.) he left two sums of 300l. each to be expended on messplate for his regiment, a sum of 100l. to be distributed among decayed householders in Windsor, and six other legacies of 200l. to 300l. each to various London charities (see Gent. Mag. new ser. xii. 660).
[R. V. Taylor's Biog. Leodiensis, p. 375; Gronow's Anecdotes, iii. 86; Cannon's Hist. Rec. 17th Lancers (succession of colonels); Gurwood's Well. Desp.; Narratives of the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns, various; Gent. Mag. new ser. xi. 430-1, xii. 650.]