Ellet was born on June 1, 1843 in Philadelphia, the son of the noted civil engineer Charles Ellet, Junior. He was studying medicine at Georgetown University when the Civil War began. In the spring of 1862, when his father established the United States. Ram Fleet, an Army unit of river steamers converted to rams, Charles Rivers Ellet transferred to that organization.
He graduated Bachelor of Arts with a first class in the final classical school in 1865. He afterwards attended law lectures in Edinburgh, and became a member of the Juridical Society, of which he was librarian in 1872-1873, and of the Speculative Society (president 1869-1871).
Not to be confused with Sir John Pearson, Queen's Counsel or William Pearson, Queen's Counsel, father of Karl Pearson
After attending Edinburgh Academy, he proceeded to the University of Saint Andrews, and thence to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he distinguished himself in classics, winning the Gaisford Greek prizes for prose (1862) and verse (1863). He was called to the English bar (from the Inner Temple) on 10 June 1870, and on 19 July 1870 passed to the Scottish bar, where he rapidly obtained a large practice. In 1887, he was knighted, and was appointed sheriff of Renfrew and Bute in 1888, and of Perthshire in 1889.
Pearson was a conservative, though not a keen politician, and in 1890 was appointed Solicitor General for Scotland in Lord Salisbury"s second administration, and was elected (unopposed) as Edinburgh and Street Andrews Universities.
In the same year he became Queen's Counsel
In 1891, he succeeded James Patrick Bannerman Robertson, as lord advocate, and was sworn of the Privy Council. At the general election of 1892, he was again returned unopposed for Edinburgh and Saint Andrews Universities.
After the fall of Lord Salisbury"s ministry in 1892, he ceased to be lord advocate, and was chosen dean of the Faculty of Advocates. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Edinburgh University in 1894, and on the return of the conservatives to power in the following year became again lord advocate, and resigned the deanship.
In 1896, on the resignation of Andrew Rutherfurd-Clark, Lord Rutherfurd-Clark, he was raised to the bench, from which he retired, owing to bad health, in 1909.
In later life he lived at 7 Drumsheugh Gardens, a large Victorian townhouse in Edinburgh"s West End. He died at home in Edinburgh on 15 August 1910, and was buried in the Dean Cemetery. He is buried against the north wall of the Victorian northern extension, near the north-west corner.
On 23 July 1873, Pearson married Elizabeth, daughter of M. Grayhurst Hewat of Saint Cuthbert"s, Norwood, by whom he had three sons.
United States Ship Ellet (Doctor of Divinity-398), which was in service in 1939-1946, was named in honor of Charles Rivers Ellet and other members of his family.
