Augustus Frederick Ellis Explained

Augustus Frederick Ellis
Birth Date:17 September 1800
Allegiance:United Kingdom
Branch:British Army
Rank:Lieutenant-Colonel
Alma Mater:Eton College

Lieutenant-Colonel Hon. Augustus Frederick Ellis (17 September 1800 – 16 August 1841) was a British Army officer and Tory politician.

Ellis was the son of Charles Ellis, 1st Baron Seaford and Elizabeth Catherine Caroline Hervey. His father's family made their wealth from sugar estates in the Colony of Jamaica, and they owned over 1,000 slaves.[1]

He was educated at Eton College between 1811 and 1814, and commissioned into the 9th Regiment of Light Dragoons in 1817. On 4 October 1821 Ellis purchased a captaincy in the 76th Regiment of Foot.

He stood for the Seaford constituency, a seat controlled by his father, in the 1826 general election.[2] He was returned as the Member of Parliament alongside fellow Tory John Fitzgerald. Ellis vacated the seat to allow George Canning to hold the seat in April 1827; when Canning died four months later, Ellis resumed the seat. He rarely attended the House of Commons and focused on his military career, being promoted to lieutenant-colonel in the 60th Royal Rifles in December 1828. Ellis voted for Catholic emancipation in March 1829.[3]

He died in Jamaica in August 1841 while in the command of the 2nd Battalion of his regiment.[4]

He married Mary Frances Thurlow Cunynghame, daughter of Col. Sir David Cunynghame of Milncraig, 5th Baronet and Maria Thurlow, on 25 June 1828. They had two sons, and three daughters:

Notes and References

  1. Barry Higman, Montpelier (Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 1998), p. 61.
  2. D.R. Fisher, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1820–1832 (Cambridge University Press, 2009) http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/ellis-augustus-1800-1841 (Accessed 20 March 2015)
  3. D.R. Fisher, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1820–1832 (Cambridge University Press, 2009) http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/ellis-augustus-1800-1841 (Accessed 20 March 2015)
  4. Barry Higman, Montpelier (Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 1998), p. 55.