Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/301

 , 'grandævus senectute, viz. ætat. 71.' His arms are emblazoned in the bay window of Gray's Inn Hall.

 ELLIS, WILLIAM (d. 1732), secretary of State, second son of  [q. v.], was educated on the foundation of Westminster, whence he was elected to a studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1665, and proceeded B.A. 19 June 1669. He lost his studentship for accepting the degree of M.A. 'per literas regias' at Cambridge in 1671, without having first obtained his grace in his own college; and, despite the intercession of the Prince of Orange, in whose train he had visited Cambridge, was never restored. In 1676 he was appointed, along with his brother, Welbore Ellis, customer, comptroller and searcher for the provinces of Leinster and Munster (Addit. MS. 21135, f. 53), and while holding this lucrative sinecure acquired considerable property in Ireland (ib. 28930, 28938, 28940, 28941, 28946). He acted as secretary to Richard, earl of Tyrconnel, on the latter's appointment to the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland in 1686, and was knighted. At the revolution he elected to follow the fortunes of the house of Stuart. Accompanying James to Ireland he was placed on his privy council and appointed one of the assessors of Dublin in April 1690 (, King James's Irish Army List, 2nd ed. i. 33, ii. 692, where he is confounded with Sir William Ellis, 'solicitor-general for Ireland In 1657 and one of the baronets created by Cromwell'). He was attainted in 1691, and his older brother, [q. v.]]], to whom he owed money, gained possession of his Irish property. He afterwards became secretary to James in his exile at St. Germain, and on his death in 1701 acted as treasurer to his son, the Old Pretender. Ellis died a protestant at Rome in the autumn of 1732, aged between 65 and 90 (Gent. Mag. ii. 930). His letters to his brother John and others (1674-1689) are in the British Museum, Addit. MSS, 28875-6: those to Cardinal Gualtorio (1719-27) will be found in Addit. MSS. 20310, 31267.

 ELLIS, WILLIAM (1747–1810), engraver, born in London in 1747, was the son of a writing engraver, and was placed as a pupil with [q. v.] He produced some fine plates in the style of that celebrated engraver, some being executed in conjunction with him, vis. the two portraits of Rubens and his wife, published in 1774; 'A River Scene with a Windmill,' after S. Ruysdael), published in 1777; 'Solitude,' after R. Wilson, R.A., published in 1778; and two scenes from the 'Vicar of Wakefield,' after T. Hearne, published in 1780, and exhibited at the Society of Artists in that year, Ellis engraved several topographical views after Paul Sandby and T. Hearne, a set of 'The Seasons,' after Hearne, and some plates for the 'Ladies' Magazine.' In 1800 he aquatinted a set of engravings of 'Views of the Memorable Victory of the Nile,' engraved by F. Chesham from paintings by W. Anderson. Some of his engravings, e.g. a landscape, 'Peasants Dancing,' after Berchem, are signed 'William and Elizabeth Ellis,' and a plate of 'The Solitary Traveller,' after J. Pye, is stated to be etched by Elizabeth Ellis alone. She was no doubt his wife, and assisted him in his art. Ellis died in 1810, as is shown from the inscription on a plate representing 'A South View of the City of Exeter, from a Drawing taken at Shooting Marsh by the late Mr, William Ellis,' published 24 Nov. 1810, in aid of his five orphan children. In 1814 there was published a set of 'Twenty-nine Views illustrative of the Rev. Daniel Lysons's Environs of London, drawn and engraved by William Ellis.'

 ELLIS, WILLIAM (d. 1758), was a writer on agriculture, of whom little save his books has survived. He is supposed to have been born about 1700, received an ordinary education, and began life as a plain farmer. For nearly fifty years he held a farm at Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire, on which, however, he made no pretence to scientific agriculture. His early works brought him into 'repute,' and many applications were made to him by landed proprietors in all parts of the country to visit and report on their farms. Thus he travelled over the north of England in order to give those who complied with his terms the benefit of his experience. Ellis seems to have been a shrewd man of 