Career
Ellis was elected to the House of Commons for Heytesbury in 1793, a seat he held until 1796, and then represented Seaford from 1796 to 1806 and from 1812 to 1826 and East Grinstead from 1807 to 1812. In 1826 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Seaford, of Seaford in the County of Sussex. Lord Seaford married the Honorary
Elizabeth Catherine Caroline Hervey, daughter of John Hervey, Lord Hervey, eldest son of Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, in 1798.
She died in January 1803, aged 22. The same year their four-year-old son Charles succeeded his great-grandfather Lord Bristol as sixth Baron Howard de Walden.
Seaford"s second son was the army officer Augustus Frederick Ellis.