Background
Ellis spent his early life in Suriname where he was born. He was the son of a wealthy civil servant and a freed Surinamese slave. His father, Johannes Ellis (b 1812), was the illegitimate love child of Abraham de Veer, governor of the Dutch Gold Coast (now in present-day Ghana) and his Ghanaian housekeeper Fanny Ellis.
His mother, Maria Louisa de Hart (b 1826) was born in bondage.
Her father, a Jewish plantation owner named Mozes-Meijer de Hart had purchased her family"s freedom when she had been just a few months old.
Education
Ellis graduated from the Royal Netherlands Naval College in Den Helder on 1 September 1864.
Career
Born in Suriname of a mother born in slavery, he was the first and only Minister of African descent to serve in a Dutch cabinet. De Veer was appointed in 1822 as governor of Suriname. On his departure from Africa he took Johannes with him.
Navy He spent over forty years in the navy serving tours to the Dutch East Indies, New Guinea, China, South America and Japan.
In between tours he worked ashore with the Naval Torpedo Service and the Personnel Department of the Navy. In June 1902, Ellis was promoted Rear Admiral and appointed director of Willemsoord naval wharf and the Commander of the Den Helder defense line (Stelling Den Helder).
There Ellis cracked down hard on the social democratic sailor"s union, earning him a reputation as a "Devourer of Socialists" (Socialistenvreter). Government (1903–1905) Following the death of Gerhardus Kruys, the apolitical Ellis was made Minister of the Navy in the Kuyper government.
His ministry was dominated by combating the rise of unionists within the navy and he saw little success.
When the government sought a new Foreign Affairs Minister after the resignation of the Minister Robert Melvil van Lynden, Ellis served briefly as interim minister. Ellis resigned from the Navy at the rank of Vice-admiral on 1 December 1905 due to heart problems. Retirement On 16 August 1905, less than two days after the end of his term in government, Queen Wilhelmina appointed Ellis as her special adjutant.
He remained closely associated to the navy and marine business interests and later died from a heart attack in November 1916 during a board meeting of the Colonial Rubber Company in Amsterdam.
