Background
He was born on 15 December 1713, the younger son of the Right Rev. Dr. Welbore Ellis, Bishop of Meath, and of Diana, daughter of Sir John Briscoe of Broughton, Northamptonshire.
He was born on 15 December 1713, the younger son of the Right Rev. Dr. Welbore Ellis, Bishop of Meath, and of Diana, daughter of Sir John Briscoe of Broughton, Northamptonshire.
Educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford.
He was elected, after some dispute, to the House of Commons as M.P. for Cricklade in the 1741 general election. Thereafter he occupied a number of posts in government. He was appointed Lord of the Admiralty in Henry Pelhams administration in February 1747, promoted to the Treasury board, and elected to represent the joint boroughs of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis in 1747.
He held these various offices until December 1755, when he resigned his seat in the House of Commons in favor of an appointment as vice treasurer of Ireland. He became a member of the Privy Council in 1760; he was elected jointly with John Wilkes to represent the borough of Aylesbury in 1761; and he was appointed secretary at war in December 1762, a post that conveyed the responsibility of representing military fiscal needs to the House of Commons.
Upon the formation of the government of the Marquess of Rockingham in 1765, Ellis resigned as secretary at war and became joint vice-treasurer of Ireland, a post that he held until September 1766. In the 1768 general election, he was returned as M.P. for Petersfield and became vice-treasurer of Ireland a third time, despite his deep opposition to Lord Norths motion for the repeal of the American tea duty. In 1774 he was returned for his old constituency at Weymouth. He resigned the office of vice-treasurer in March 1777, and was appointed treasurer of the navy in June 1777. He was again returned as M.P. for Weymouth in 1780.
Toward the end of Lord Norths ministry, on 11 February 1782, Ellis was appointed secretary of state for the American colonies. His tenure in this post was brief; he resigned in March 1782, when the Marquess of Rockingham became prime minister. Nevertheless, he continued to take an active part in politics, opposing William Pitt, the Younger, who was prime minister and chancellor of the exchequer between 1783 and 1801. Ellis was returned again for Weymouth in 1784. He was defeated in 1790, but won a byelection at Petersfield in April 1791. He was created Baron Mendip, of Mendip, in the county of Somerset, on 13 August 1794, but he never spoke in the House of Lords. He died at his house in Brook Street, Hanover Square, London, on 2 February 1802 and was buried in the north transept of Westminster Abbey.
Although Ellis was no great politician, he provided effective support in the 1750s to more prominent leaders, such as Henry Fox, the later Lord Holland. (Indeed, Horace Walpole, the son of Sir Robert Walpole, described Ellis as Fox’s “Jackal.”) He also served efficiendy in many offices, including—albeit briefly—that of secretary of state for the American colonies.
Ellis had married twice: first, Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir William Stanhope, in 1747; and following Elizabeth’s death in 1761, Anne, the daughter of Hans Stanley of Paultons, near Romsey, in Hampshire, in 1765. There were no children by either marriage.