Life

Born in or about 1643, he was the eldest son of John Ellis

John Ellis (clergyman)

John Ellis was an English clergyman, known as the author of Vindiciæ Catholicæ.-Life:He was Fellow of St. Catharine Hall, Cambridge, university proctor, and chaplain to Archbishop George Abbot. At the outbreak of the First English Civil War he took sides with the parliament, and was appointed to...

, author of Vindiciæ Catholicæ, by his wife Susannah, daughter of William Welbore of Cambridge. He received his education at Westminster School

Westminster School

The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...

, and was elected student of Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

, in 1664. At college he met Humphrey Prideaux

Humphrey Prideaux

Humphrey Prideaux , Doctor of Divinity and scholar, belonged to an ancient Cornish family, was born at Padstow, and educated at Westminster School and at Oxford....

, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. Ellis did not take a degree, but obtained employment in the secretary of state's office.

In March 1672 he was under Sir Joseph Williamson in the paper office, Whitehall. On the promotion of Williamson to be secretary of state in the autumn of 1674 Ellis lost his situation. He obtained, however, the appointment of secretary to Sir Leoline Jenkins, one of the envoys chosen to attend the conference at Nimeguen, Holland, and set out 20 December 1675. He was employed in this capacity until September 1677. His doings during this period of his life were set down in his Journal of Proceedings of the Nimeguen Conference, 1674–1677, and Note Book at Nimeguen, 1675–6. From 1678 to 1680 Ellis acted as secretary to Thomas Butler, 6th Earl of Ossory

Thomas Butler, 6th Earl of Ossory

Vice-Admiral Thomas Butler, 6th Earl of Ossory, KG, PC, PC was the eldest son of the James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde and Lady Elizabeth Preston, and an Irish politician born at Kilkenny Castle.-Life and career:...

. At the beginning of 1680 he made another journey into Holland to lay before the States-General the claims of Lord Ossory to the rank of general, which the latter had received from the Prince of Orange. He was successful in obtaining the necessary confirmation. After the death of Ossory in August 1680 Ellis became secretary to his father, James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde PC was an Irish statesman and soldier. He was the second of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom. He was the friend of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, who appointeed him commander of the Cavalier forces in Ireland. From 1641 to 1647, he...

, then lord-lieutenant of Ireland. In October 1682 he received the appointment of secretary to the commissioners of the revenue of Ireland, a post he continued until the Glorious Revolution

Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...

.

He left Dublin for England early in 1689, and his place at the Irish treasury was filled up by some one on the spot. Towards the end of 1689 he became secretary to James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde

James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde

James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde KG KT was an Irish statesman and soldier. He was the third of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom of Ormonde...

, as he had been before to his father, the Earl of Ossory. Two years later he was one of the commissioners of transports, and finally under-secretary of state in May 1695. He filled for ten years the office of under-secretary to four successive secretaries of state; but after some misunderstanding with Sir Charles Hedges, he resigned in May 1705. William III had given him the place of comptroller of the Mint, worth £500 a year on 23 May 1701. The office was confirmed to him in the next reign by letters patent of 11 June 1702. In 1711 he was deprived of it by Robert Harley

Robert Harley

Robert Harley may refer to:*Robert Harley , English statesman, Member of Parliament for Radnor and Herefordshire*Robert Harley , British Member of Parliament for Radnor...

, and he petitioned to be reinstated at the accession of George I.

Ellis sat for Harwich, Essex

Harwich (UK Parliament constituency)

Harwich was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Until its abolition for the 2010 general election it elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

, in the parliaments of 1702–5 and 1705–8, and in 1710 unsuccessfully contested Rye, Sussex

Rye (UK Parliament constituency)

Rye was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Rye in East Sussex. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until its representation was halved under the Reform Act 1832....

. He died unmarried at his house in Pall Mall

Pall Mall

-Places:* Pall Mall, urban downtown ares of Bendigo, Australia* Pall Mall, London, a street in the City of Westminster, London* Pall Mall, Tennessee, a small unincorporated community in Fentress County, Tennessee...

 8 July 1738, aged 95. By making use of opportunities while in office he had become wealthy.

Legacy and reputation

He gave towards the buildings in Peckwater quadrangle at Christ Church, Oxford. To his Jacobite brother, Sir William Ellis

William Ellis (Secretary of State)

Sir William Ellis was an English Jacobite, secretary of State to James II in exile.-Life:Ellis was the second son of John Ellis, and was educated at Westminster School. He was elected to a studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1665, and proceeded B.A. 19 June 1669. He lost his studentship for...

 (died 1732), he had lent £1,231, and in consideration of the debt he received a grant of the brother's forfeited estate in Ireland from William III. The estate having been ‘resumed’ and vested in trustees by the Act of Resumption (11 and 12 Will. III) ‘before he had received any benefit by it,’ Ellis in the next reign petitioned parliament for a bill of relief, and obtained it in May 1702. He died possessed of the estate.

Ellis left a large collection of letters addressed to him on both public and private matters. Two volumes of his correspondence during 1686, 1687, and 1688 were edited in 1829 by George Agar-Ellis

George Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover

George James Welbore Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover PC FRS FSA was a British politician and man of letters. He was briefly First Commissioner of Woods and Forests under Lord Grey between 1830 and 1831.-Background and education:...

, a descendant of his brother Welbore Ellis

Welbore Ellis (bishop)

Welbore Ellis was an English bishop of Kildare, bishop of Meath and Irish privy councillor.-Life:He was the fourth son of the Rev. John Ellis , rector of Waddesdon, and author of Vindiciæ Catholicæ; and brother to John Ellis and William Ellis. He was educated at Westminster School and at Christ...

. Attention had already been drawn to the value of the manuscript by Sir Henry Ellis, who published some extracts in vol. iv., 2nd ser., of his Original Letters. In 1872 the trustees of the British Museum purchased from Thomas Parker, 6th Earl of Macclesfield

Thomas Parker, 6th Earl of Macclesfield

Thomas Augustus Wolstenholme Parker, 6th Earl of Macclesfield was a British peer. Before inheriting the earldom, he sat in the House of Commons as Conservative Member of Parliament for Oxfordshire from 1837 until 1841....

 a voluminous collection of Ellis's official and private correspondence and papers extending from 1643 to 1720. The letters from Humphrey Prideaux, ranging from 1674 to 1722, but with many gaps, were edited for the Camden Society

Camden Society

The Camden Society, named after the English antiquary and historian William Camden, was founded in 1838 in London to publish early historical and literary materials, both unpublished manuscripts and new editions of rare printed books....

 in 1875 by Sir Edward Maunde Thompson

Edward Maunde Thompson

Sir Edward Maunde Thompson, GCB was a British palaeographer and Principal Librarian and first Director of the British Museum. He is also noted for his study of William Shakespeare's handwriting in the manuscript of the play Sir Thomas More.-Biography:Thompson's father was Edward Thompson, Custos...

. Ellis's letters to George Stepney

George Stepney

George Stepney was an English poet and diplomat.Stepney was the son of George Stepney, groom of the chamber to Charles II, and was born at Westminster...

, 1700–8, are in Additional MSS.

Ellis was one of the many lovers of the Duchess of Cleveland. His intrigue is mysteriously alluded to in six lines of Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...

's Sober Advice from Horace, implying that, having offended the duchess by boasting of the intimacy, he was, at her instigation, castrated. In a poem called The Town Life he is singled out from certain disreputable company as "that epitome of lewdness, Ellys" (Poems on Affairs of State, ed. 1703–7, i. 192). There is also allusion to him in The Session of the Poets (ib. i. 210).