Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/298

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Inn, and was called to the bar in February 1824, and for some years went the northern circuit. Here he first became acquainted with Macaulay, whose intimate friend he ever afterwards remained. So attached were they, that when Macaulay went to India, Ellis wrote to him that, 'next to his wife, he was the person for whom he felt the most thorough attachment, and in whom he placed the most unlimited confidence.' In later life they visited the continent together every autumn, and he was an executor of Macaulay's will. After his friend died the light seemed to have gone out of Ellis's life, but he occupied himself in preparing for publication the posthumous collection of Macaulay's essays, in 1831 he was a commissioner under the Reform Bill to determine the boundaries of parliamentary boroughs in Wales. In early life he enjoyed a considerable practice. He was till his death attorney-general for the Duchy of Lancaster, and had 'Palatine silk;' and in 1839 he succeeded Armstrong as recorder of Leeds. He was, about 1830, a contributor to the 'Edinburgh Review,' was a member of the Useful Knowledge Society, and revised several of its publications. He is best known as part author of three excellent series of law reports: 'Adolphus and Ellis,' 1835-42; 'Ellis and Blackburn,' 1853-8; and 'Ellis and Ellis,' published after his death. He died at his house, 15 Bedford Place, Russell Square, 5 April 1861. His wife died in March 1839; and he had two children, Francis and Marian.

[Trevelyan's Life of Macaulay; Knight's Passages of a Working Life, ii. 126; Gent. Mag. 1861; Law Times, 27 April 1861.]

J. A. H.

ELLIS, WELBORE (1651?–1734), bishop of Meath and a privy councillor in Ireland, descended from an ancient family at Kiddall Hall, Yorkshire, was the fourth son of the Rev. John Ellis (1606?–1681) [q. v.], rector of Waddesdon, and author of ‘Vindiciæ Catholicæ.’ His brothers John and William are separately noticed. He was educated at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1684, M.A. 1687, and B.D. and D.D. by diploma 1697. He likewise received in 1732 the ad eundem degree of D.D. from Trinity College, Dublin. His three brothers, Sir William (1642?–1730), John (1645–1738), and Philip (1653–1726), are separately noticed. Welbore Ellis became a prebendary of Winchester in 1696. He was promoted in 1705, by patent dated 22 Sept., to the bishopric of Kildare, with the deanery of Christ Church, Dublin, in commendam, and was translated, 13 March 1731, to the premier bishopric of Meath, with a seat in the Irish privy council. He married Diana, daughter of Sir John Briscoe, knt., of Boughton, Northamptonshire, and Amberley Castle, Sussex, and had, with other issue, Welbore, afterwards Lord Mendip [q. v.]. He died on 1 Jan. 1733–4, and was buried with great ceremony in the cathedral of Christ Church, Dublin, where a monument was ‘erected by his only surviving son, the Right Hon. Welbore Ellis.’ The funeral procession included the boys of the Bluecoat Hospital, to which he had bequeathed 100l. (Cooper MS., quoted by Bishop Mant). A portrait of Ellis is preserved in the hall of Christ Church, Oxford. His publications are: 1. ‘The Dean of Dublin, Plaintiff, Archbishop of Dublin, Defendant, upon a Writ of Error—the Defendant's Case,’ London, 1724. 2. ‘The Lord Bishop of Kildare, Dean of the Church of the Holy Trinity of Dublin, Plaintiff in Error. The Lord Archbishop of Dublin Defendant in Error. The Plaintiff in Error's Case,’ London, 1724.

[The Ellis Correspondence; Alumni Westmonast. 189–90; Wood's Athenæ (Bliss), iii. 711; Catalogue of Oxford Graduates; Sir James Ware's Works, ed. Harris, i. 164, 396; Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ, ii. 45, 234, iii. 122, v. 90, 143; Bishop Mant's History of the Church of Ireland, ii. 175, 528.]

B. H. B.

ELLIS, WELBORE, first Baron Mendip (1713–1802), younger son of the Right Rev. Dr. Welbore Ellis, bishop of Meath [q. v.], by his wife, Diana, daughter of Sir John Briscoe of Boughton, Northamptonshire, was born at Kildare on 15 Dec. 1713, and was educated at Westminster School, where he was admitted on the foundation as head of his election in 1728, and was elected to a studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1732. He graduated B.A. 5 June 1736, and at the general election in May 1741 contested the Borough of Cricklade. A double return was made for this constituency, but ultimately the seat was assigned to Ellis by an order of the House of Commons on 24 Dec. 1741. In November 1744 and again in October 1745 Ellis seconded the address to the throne (Parl. Hist. xiii. 991-2, 1331-3). In February 1747 he was appointed a lord of the admiralty, in Henry Pelham's administration, in the place of George Grenville, who was promoted to the treasury board, and was returned as one of the members for the joint boroughs of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis at the general election in July of the same year. He continued in office after Pelham's death in March 1754, and was re-elected for Weymouth in the following month, but resigning his seat at the admiralty in December 1755 was appointed one of the vice-treasurers of Ireland. On 20 March 1760