Family and Education

b. 1569, 1st s. of Thomas Ellis of Wyham by Jane, da. of John Hutchinson of Owthorpe, Notts. educ. Christ’s, Camb. 1586; G. Inn 1589, called. m. Jane (d.1661), da. of Gabriel Armstrong of Wishall, Notts., 9s. 5da. suc. fa. 1605. Kntd. 1617.

Offices Held

Ancient, G. Inn 1608, bencher 1618; member, council in the north July 1616-d.

Biography

Ellis was a lawyer whose family was seated at Wyham, eight miles south of Grimsby. He was fined £100 in May 1615 for refusing to read at Gray’s Inn and again in November 1616, by which time he had become a law member of the council in the north and was presumably out of London. He was eventually called to the bench of the inn to take his place ‘according to his antiquity’. By 1612 he was living at Grantham. He died in September 1627, at Wyham. His will, dated 13 July 1625, was proved at Lincoln on 5 Jan. 1628. Apart from the manor and advowson of Wyham, his inquisition post mortem shows that he owned the manor and advowson of Conisholme, and land in Ludborough, Ludney, Great Ponton, North and South Somercotes. He was buried at Grantham and was succeeded by his son Thomas. A younger son, William, was MP for Boston in 1640, solicitor-general during the Cromwellian period, and later a judge.

Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. l), 324-5; Reid, Council of the North, 497; PCC 76 Hayes; C66/1468; HMC 14th Rep. VIII, 219; Lincs. Wills ed. Maddison, ii. 78; DNB.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: R.C.G.

Notes