Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/255

 he was one of the directors of the attack, and accompanied the column of Vandeleur's brigade to the storming of the breach, left of the main breach. In March and April of the same year he was at the last siege of Badajoz. For his services at this siege he received the brevet rank of major on 27 April, having been recommended by Wellington in his despatch of the 10th of that month. Subsequently he was present in the retreat from Burgos and the crossing of the Ebro. The following year he took part in the battle of Vittoria, serving on the staff as major of brigade, and shortly after was detailed for the siege of San Sebastian, through the whole of which (11 July to 8 Sept. 1813) he acted as brigade-major to the corps of royal engineers. For his exertions in the effectual discharge of this onerous duty and his distinguished conduct he was made a brevet lieutenant-colonel 21 Sept. 1813, and under the order of 1 June 1814 was decorated with the gold medal.

He subsequently fought at the passage of the Bidasson, and also at the battles of the Nivelle and Nive on 10, 11, and 12 Dec. 1813, concluding his war service by sharing in the campaign of 1814, particularly at the passage of the Adour, blockade of Bayonne, and repulse of the sortie from that fortress. At the cessation of hostilities he joined the headquarters of the army at Toulouse, and in July he returned to England. Some thirty-three years afterwards he was awarded for these distinguished services the war medal and five clasps for Ciudad Kodrigo, Badajoz, Vittoria, Nivelle, and Nive.

On 4 June 1815 he was created one of the first companions of the Bath, and for the next six years held an appointment as commanding engineer in the south of England. In 1821 he was made brigade major of the corps, and as such was on the staff of the inspector-general of fortifications at the ordnance office in London, an appointment corresponding to that of the present deputy adjutant-general, and held by an officer of rank. He was selected for the duty on account of his well-known administrative ability and intimate acquaintance with the large range of complicated details connected with the military and scientific business of the corps of royal engineers, and so well did he fulfil the duties for which his energy, clear mind, and untiring activity singularly fitted him, that he retained the appointment until December 1842, or a period of twenty-two years.

He had been promoted major-general in 1841, and rose to the rank of full general and colonel commandant of royal engineers,and on lO Nov. 1862 was advanced to the honour of a knight commander of the Bath. He married in 1822 a daughter of the Rev. E. Peach, rector of Cheam, Surrey. She died in 1860 without issue. On withdrawing from the active duties of his profession Ellicombe settled at Worthing, where he died on 7 June 1871.

[Official Records; Colburn's United Service Magazine, July 1871.]  ELLICOTT, JOHN (1706?–1772), clock-maker and man of science, son of John Ellicott, clockmaker, by Mary, his wife, was born in or about 1706. The elder Ellicott was apprenticed to John Waters 6 Sept. 1687; made free of the Company of Clockmakers 6 July 1696; chosen on the court of assistants of the company 19 Oct. 1726; and elected junior warden 29 Sept. 1731, and renter warden 29 Sept. 1732 (, Cat. of Library and Museum of Company of Clockmakers, p. 100, where the Ellicotts, father, son, and grandson, are confused; and, Account of the Company of Clockmakers, p. 87). He died in June 1733, in the parish of Allhallows, London. Wall, administration of his goods being granted in P. C. C. on the 25th of that month to his widow, Mary Ellicott. The son, who. carried on business at 17 Sweeting's Alley, Royal Exchange (, London Directory, 1738, p. 27;, Guide to London, 1752, p. 151), gained a great reputation for the beauty and excellence of his workmanship, and was appointed clockmaker to George III. Specimens of his art are much prized. He was also a mathematician of considerable ability. In 1736 he submitted to the Royal Society an improved pyrometer, to be again improved upon by Edward Troughton (, Treatise on Watchwork, p. 224). It is figured and described in the 'Philosophical Transactions,' xxxix. 297-9, with which cf. 'Gent. Mag.' xx. 119-22. He was elected F.R.S. 26 Oct. 1738 (, Hist. of Royal Soc., appendix iv.) The following year he read to the society two papers giving 'An Account of the Influence which two Pendulum Clocks were observed to have upon each other' (Phil. Trans. vol. xli. pt. i. pp. 126, 128), two editions of which were afterwards published separately, 4to. London, n.d. Another interesting contribution was a series of three 'Essays towards, discovering the Laws of Electricity,' read in 1748, and printed in 'Phil. Trans.' xlv. 195, 203, 213; reissued, with the addition of part of a letter from the Abbé Nollet to Martin Folkes (concerning electricity), 4to, London,1748. In June 1752 he communicated an account of his invention of a compensated pendulum in 'A Description of Two Methods