Frank Ellery was a grandson of William Eljery, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born at Newport, Rhode Island, the son of Christopher Ellery and his wife, Clarissa Bird. His father was the first Jeffersonian senator from Rhode Island and died as collector of the port of Newport.
On Febuary 19, 1812, Frank Ellery entered the navy as a midshipman.
Two years later he carried to Macdonough on Lake Champlain a letter of introduction from Oliver H. Perry, and for his services under Macdonough received a sword from Congress and $1, 427. 13 prize money.
Again luck favored him when in 1815 he sailed against the Algerian pirates on the Constellation, which participated in the capture of the Algerian flagship Mashonda.
He was promoted lieutenant on March 28, 1820, and his claim to have been the first midshipman to be promoted after a regular examination seems to be valid.
In 1825 he became associated with Captan Jesse D. Elliott and served the rest of his active career at sea under him, first on the Brazil station on the Cyane, and later in the West Indies on the Erie and the Shark, 1831-32.
In 1839, still a lieutenant, he was given command of the Enterprise, was ordered to Brazil, became oppressed with homesickness and anxiety for his family, and sent in his resignation.
Though he came to his senses as soon as he returned to the United States and managed to have the resignation cancelled, he was placed on waiting orders for twenty years.
By 1856 he was the navy’s most ancient lieutenant.
He did not help his case in 1858 by a pathetic appeal to President Buchanan, in which he attributed his resigning to temporary aberration of mind.
Most of this period was spent among the green hills of Castleton, Vermont, in comparative poverty.
At the beginning of the Civil War, however, though he was sixty-seven years old and had probably never trod the deck of a steam warship, he was called from the farm and put in command of a naval rendezvous, first at Philadelphia and then at Boston, to fit out vessels for the blockade.
In 1867 he was placed upon the retired list of commodores as No. 13, no worse place than he would probably have secured if he had served on the sea all his days.
On August 4, 1835, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Martin of Newport.
