sanction his proposals. With the distressed Eurasian community he showed generous sympathy, and, always on the watch for the well-being of the masses he pushed on sanitary and medical measures, being largely instrumental in the widespread distribution of quinine as a remedy against fever. In foreign affairs he was impatient of Chinese delays in the delimitation of the frontiers of Tibet and Sikkim, and urged Lord Elgin to occupy the Chambi valley (19 Nov. 1895), and even to annex it.
After a strenuous service of forty years he retired in December 1895, and was soon afterwards co-opted a member of the London school board as a member of the moderate party, being elected for the Tower Hamlets division in 1897 and 1900. In 1904 he was co-opted a member of the education committee of the London county council, serving till 1906. From 1897 to 1904 he was chairman of the finance committee of the school board, and his annual estimates were remarkable for their exceptional agreement with the actual expenditure. A strong churchman, he took active part in the work of missionary and charitable societies; he was a member of the House of Laymen as well as of the Representative Church Council. He was also chairman of Toynbee Hall. He died at Wimbledon on 28 May 1911. He married twice: (1) on 20 June 1866 Louisa Jane (d. 1877), daughter of G. W. Dumbell of Belmont, Isle of Man, by whom he had three sons and one daughter; and (2) on 22 Sept. 1887 Alice Louisa, daughter of Thomas Gaussen of Hauteville, Guernsey, and widow of T. J. Murray of the I.C.S., by whom he had one son, Claude, now fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. His eldest son by his first marriage, Henry Venn Elliott, is vicar of St. Mark's, Brighton. In his possession is a portrait of his father by Hugh Rivière. As a memorial to Elliott it is proposed to add a wing to St. Mary's Hall, Brighton, a church school in which he was especially interested.
Elliott's contributions to Indian literature were mainly official. They included, besides the ‘Chronicles of Oonao,’ ‘Report on the Hoshangabad Settlement’ (1866); ‘Report on the Mysore Famine’ (1878); ‘Report on the Famine Commission’ (1879); and ‘Report on the Finance Commission’ (1887).
[The Times, 29 May 1911; C. E. Buckland, Bengal under the Lt.-Governors, 1901; Lady Betty Balfour, Lord Lytton's Administration, 1899; Kaye's Sepoy War ; Sir Henry Cotton, Indian and Home Memories, 1911; official reports.]
ELLIS, FREDERICK STARTRIDGE (1830–1901), bookseller and author, the sixth son of Joseph Ellis, hotel-keeper, of Richmond, was born there on 7 June 1830. He entered, at the age of sixteen, the house of Edward Lumley of Chancery Lane, and afterwards became assistant to C. J. Stewart, the well-known bookseller of King William Street, Strand, from whom he acquired his knowledge of books. In 1860 he went into business for himself at 33 King Street, Covent Garden, and in 1871 took into partnership G. M. Green (1841–1872), who had enjoyed the same training. After the death of Green in 1872 Ellis took the premises, 29 New Bond Street, previously occupied by T. & W. Boone, and carried on a large and successful business, chiefly in old books and MSS. His next partner was David White, who retired in 1884. For many years Ellis was official buyer for the British Museum, which brought him into rivalry with trade opponents in the auction rooms. Mr. Henry Huth entrusted to him the editing of the catalogue of his famous library, which was printed in 1880 (5 vols., large 8vo). The English books were catalogued by W. C. Hazlitt, those in other languages by Ellis. Another excellent catalogue compiled by Ellis was 'Descriptive Catalogue of a Collection of Drawings and Etchings by Charles Meryon, formed by the Rev. J. J. Heywood' (1880, 4to, privately printed). He also produced 'Horæ Pembrochianæ: some account of an illuminated MS. of the Hours of the B.V.M., written for William Herbert, first earl of Pembroke, about 1440 (1880), and a biographical notice appended to an account of 'The Hours of Albert of Brandenburg,' by W. H. J. Weale (1883, 4to). In 1885 he retired from business, and his stock of rarities was sold by Messrs. Sotheby for about 16,000l. He was succeeded in business by Mr. G. I. Ellis, a nephew.
Ellis was a publisher on a limited scale, and brought out the works of William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, with whom he formed a close personal intimacy. Among other friends were A. C. Swinburne, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and John Ruskin, whose 'Stray Letters to a London Bibliopole' were addressed to Ellis and republished by him (1892). Ruskin called him 'Papa Ellis' (E. T. Cook, Life of John Ruskin, 911, i. 371). It was in 1864 that Morris was first introduced by Swinburne to Ellis. They remained close friends to the end of
