Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip
The Right Honourable The Lord Mendip | |
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![]() Portrait by Anton Hickel | |
Secretary of State for the Colonies | |
In office February 1782 – 8 March 1782 | |
Monarch | George III |
Prime Minister | Lord North |
Preceded by | Lord George Germain |
Succeeded by | Office abolished |
Personal details | |
Born | (1713-12-15)15 December 1713 England, Kingdom of Great Britain |
Died | 2 February 1802(1802-02-02) (aged 88) England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip, PC, FRS (15 December 1713 – 2 February 1802) was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons for 53 years from 1741 to 1794 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Mendip. He held a number of political offices, including briefly serving as Secretary for the Colonies in 1782 during the American War of Independence.
Background
Ellis was the second but only surviving son of the Most Reverend Welbore Ellis, Bishop of Kildare and Bishop of Meath. He was educated at Westminster School from 1727 to 1732 and then entered Christ Church, Oxford.
Political career
In 1741, he was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Cricklade, then moved to Weymouth and Melcombe Regis (1747–1761), Aylesbury (1761–1768), Petersfield (1768–1774), Weymouth and Melcombe Regis (1774–1790) and Petersfield (1791–1794).[1]
In 1762, he succeeded Charles Townshend as Secretary at War, and in 1763, he proposed the appropriation of twenty army regiments to the colonies of America. In Parliament, with many others, he opposed the reception of papers from the American Continental Congress. He became Treasurer of the Navy in 1777, then succeeded to the Colonial Secretaryship in 1782, which he held for a matter of months, before the American colonies were lost. In 1784, he became the longest-serving member of the House of Commons (having served for 43 years non-continuously), becoming the honorary Father of the House.
He was created Baron Mendip, of Mendip in the County of Somerset, in 1794 in recognition of his governmental service. The peerage was created with remainder to the three eldest sons of his sister Anne by her husband Henry Agar, of Gowran and Gowran Castle.
Personal life
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Timothy_Collopy_%28d.c.1810%29_-_Wellbore_Ellis_%281713%E2%80%931802%29%2C_1st_Baron_Mendip%2C_Statesman_-_PG_3576_-_National_Galleries_of_Scotland.jpg/200px-Timothy_Collopy_%28d.c.1810%29_-_Wellbore_Ellis_%281713%E2%80%931802%29%2C_1st_Baron_Mendip%2C_Statesman_-_PG_3576_-_National_Galleries_of_Scotland.jpg)
In 1738 he inherited a large fortune from his uncle, John Ellis and built Clifden House in Brentford.
He married firstly in 1747 Elizabeth, the daughter and heiress of Sir William Stanhope and secondly in 1765 Anne, the daughter of George Stanley of Paultons, Hampshire. Ellis nevertheless died childless in February 1802, aged 88, and was succeeded in the barony according to the special remainder by his great-nephew, Henry Welbore Agar, 2nd Viscount Clifden, who assumed the surname of Ellis two years later.
See also
References
- ^ "ELLIS, Welbore (1713–1802), of Tylney Hall, Hants". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
External links
- "Archival material relating to Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip". UK National Archives.
Parliament of Great Britain | ||
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Preceded by Sir Thomas Reade, Bt Charles Gore | Member of Parliament for Cricklade 1741–1747 With: Sir Thomas Reade, Bt | Succeeded by John Gore William Rawlinson Earle |
Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis 1747–1761 With: Richard Plumer 1747–51 George Dodington 1747–54 Edward Hungate Beaghan 1747–54 Lord George Cavendish 1751–54 Lord John Cavendish 1754–61 George Dodington 1754–61 John Tucker 1754–61 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by John Willes John Wilkes | Member of Parliament for Aylesbury 1761–1768 With: John Wilkes 1761–64 Anthony Bacon 1764–68 | Succeeded by Anthony Bacon John Durand |
Preceded by John Jolliffe Richard Croftes | Member of Parliament for Petersfield 1768–1774 With: William Joliffe | Succeeded by William Joliffe Sir Abraham Hume, Bt |
Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis 1774–1790 With: John Tucker 1774–78 William Chaffin Grove 1774–81 John Purling 1774–90 Gabriel Steward 1778–80, 1780–16 & 1788–90 Warren Lisle 1780 William Richard Rumbold 1781–84 Sir Thomas Rumbold, Bt 1784–90 George Jackson 1786–88 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by William Joliffe Marquess of Titchfield | Member of Parliament for Petersfield 1791–1795 With: William Joliffe | Succeeded by William Joliffe Charles Greville |
Political offices | ||
Preceded by | Secretary at War 1762–1765 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | Treasurer of the Navy 1777–1782 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | Secretary of State for the Colonies 1782 | Succeeded by — |
Preceded by Charles Frederick | Father of the House 1784–1790 | Succeeded by William Drake |
Peerage of Great Britain | ||
New creation | Baron Mendip 1794–1802 | Succeeded by |
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