Charles Ellis, 1st Baron Seaford

Charles Rose Ellis, 1st Baron Seaford(19 December 1771 – 9 July 1845) was a British politician, planter and peer.^[1]

John Ellis and Charles' early life[edit]

Charles was the second son of John Ellis ofJamaica,who acquired a significant amount of wealth from sugar andslaveryat a number of estates, includingMontpelier, JamaicainSaint James Parish,the Newry plantation inSt Mary,and the Palm estate inSt Thomas-in-the-Vale.When John's brother George died young, he ran his estates on behalf of his young nephew, George Rose Ellis. However, the youngerGeorge Ellis (poet)would later complain to his maternal uncle,Edward Long,about John's avarice.^[2]

Across his six Jamaican estates, John owned over 1,200 slaves, and he was ranked among the top one percent of wealthysugar plantersin Jamaica. In 1782, John and his wife Elizabeth boarded a ship from Jamaica to England, but the ship was lost at sea, and Charles inherited his father's wealthy properties in Jamaica.^[3]

Career as a sugar planter[edit]

George Rose Ellis married Anne, the daughter ofSir Peter Parker, 1st Baronet,but George died without issue in 1815, and his property passed to Charles. Charles was educated atChrist Church, Oxford,and he became an absentee planter based in England.^[4]Charles inherited the Montpelier estate, while his older brother, also named John, inherited their father's properties in the parishes of St Mary and St George.^[5]

John married another daughter of Parker, named Antoinette, but died heavily in debt in 1832, and his properties were acquired by Charles.^[6]When the British government emancipated the slaves in the 1830s, Charles was compensated for his liberated slaves to the tune of over £18,000.^[7]

Political career[edit]

Charles Ellis was elected to theHouse of CommonsforHeytesburyin 1793, a seat he held until 1796, and then representedSeafordfrom 1796 to 1806 and from 1812 to 1826 andEast Grinsteadfrom 1807 to 1812. In 1826 he was raised to the peerage asBaron Seaford,of Seaford in theCounty of Sussex.

In theParliament of the United Kingdom,Ellis was a prominent defender ofslavery in the West Indies plantations.^[8]He was for many years considered to be the head ofWest India Interest,the lobby of planters and merchants in the British parliament who opposed theabolitionists.^[9]

Ellis served as his colleague and friend Foreign SecretaryGeorge Canning's second in hisduelwith Secretary of State for War and the ColoniesViscount Castlereaghin 1809. The duel occurred because both Canning and Castlereagh wished to succeed theDuke of PortlandasPrime Ministerand because Castlereagh blamed Canning for his impending dismissal from theWar Office.After two rounds in which Canning was wounded and Castlereagh was grazed by a bullet, Ellis and Castlereagh's second theEarl of Yarmouthintervened to stop a third round.^[10]

Emancipation and imported labour[edit]

In 1832, Ellis was in Jamaica during a slave rebellion led bySamuel Sharpe,theBaptist Warresulted in Ellis suffering losses on hissugar plantationsto the tune of about £41,000.^[11]Lord Seaford left Jamaica for Britain in the middle of 1834, just before the Apprenticeship period was implemented following the emancipation of the slaves.^[12]

According to theLegacies of British Slave-Ownershipat theUniversity College London,Seaford was awarded compensation in the aftermath of theSlavery Abolition Act 1833with theSlave Compensation Act 1837.^[13]

Seaford was awarded over £18,000 compensation for the emancipation of 146 enslaved people on Shettlewood Pen, 70 in Crawle Pen, 153 in Caymanas, 276 in New Montpelier, and 373 in Old Montpelier. A total of 1,018 enslaved people were freed from Seaford's estates.^[14]

Lord Seaford was not convinced that the Apprenticeship would work, and he was a great believer in encouraging white European immigration to Jamaica. To this end, he donated land from his Montpelier estate, which was used to create a village for recently arrived German immigrants, calledSeaford Town, Jamaicaafter him.^[15]

Death and legacy[edit]

Lord Seaford died 9 July 1845. He had married the Hon. Elizabeth Catherine Caroline Hervey, daughter ofJohn Hervey, Lord Hervey,eldest son ofFrederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol,in 1798. She died in January 1803, aged 22. They had 2 sons and a daughter.^[16]

In 1803 their four-year-old son and heirCharlessucceeded his great-grandfather Lord Bristol as sixthBaron Howard de Walden.Their second son was the army officerAugustus Frederick Ellis.

There is a memorial inSt George's Church, Esherfor Charles and his second wife, Louisa, who died 1877.

References[edit]

^"ELLIS, Charles Rose (1771-1845), of Claremont, Esher, Surr".History of Parliament Online.Retrieved31 May2016.
^Barry Higman,Montpelier(Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 1998), pp. 22-5.
^Barry Higman,Montpelier(Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 1998), pp. 22-5.
^Higman,Montpelier,p. 24.
^Higman,Montpelier,p. 29.
^Higman,Montpelier,p. 31.
^Higman,Montpelier,p. 53.
^Taylor, Michael (2014). "Conservative Political Economy and the Problem of Colonial Slavery, 1823–1833".The Historical Journal.57(4): 982.doi:10.1017/S0018246X14000089.S2CID 161584587.
^Higman,Montpelier,p. 32.
^Campbell, John (2010).Pistols at Dawn: Two Hundred Years of Political Rivalry from Pitt and Fox to Blair and Brown.Internet Archive. London: Vintage. pp. 71–73.ISBN 978-1-84595-091-0.
^Higman,Montpelier,p. 35.
^Higman,Montpelier,p. 55.
^"Charles Rose Ellis, Lord Seaford".University College London.Retrieved 20 March 2019.
^"Charles Rose Ellis, Lord Seaford".University College London.Retrieved 15 September 2021.
^Higman,Montpelier,p. 55.
^Higman,Montpelier,p. 31.

Stephen, Leslie,ed. (1889)."Ellis, Charles Rose".Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 17. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Kidd, Charles, ed. (1903).Debrett's peerage, baronetage, knightage, and companionage.London: Dean and son. p. 486.
Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages^{[self-published source]}^{[better source needed]}
Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
Lundy, Darryl."FAQ".The Peerage.^{[unreliable source]}

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by William Eden The Earl of Barrymore	Member of Parliament for Heytesbury 1793–1796 With:William Eden1793 The Viscount Clifden1793–96	Succeeded by The Viscount Clifden Sir John Leicester
Preceded by John Tarleton Richard Paul Jodrell	Member of Parliament for Seaford 1796–1800 With:George Ellis	Parliament of Great Britainabolished
Parliament of the United Kingdom
New parliament	Member of Parliament for Seaford 1801–1806 With:George Ellisto 1802 Richard Joseph Sullivan1802–06 John Leach1806	Succeeded by John Leach George Hibbert
Preceded by Sir Henry Strachey Daniel Giles	Member of Parliament for East Grinstead 1807–1812 With:Sir Nathaniel Holland1807–12 Richard Wellesley1812 George William Gunning1812 Nicholas Vansittart1812	Succeeded by George William Gunning James Stephen
Preceded by John Leach George Hibbert	Member of Parliament for Seaford 1812–1826 With:John Leach1812–16 Sir Charles Cockerell1816–18 George Watson-Taylor1818–20 George Agar-Ellis1820–26	Succeeded by John Fitzgerald Augustus Frederick Ellis
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baron Seaford 1826–1845	Succeeded by Charles Augustus Ellis

[1] "ELLIS, Charles Rose (1771-1845), of Claremont, Esher, Surr".History of Parliament Online.Retrieved31 May2016.

[2] Barry Higman,Montpelier(Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 1998), pp. 22-5.

[3] Barry Higman,Montpelier(Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 1998), pp. 22-5.

[4] Higman,Montpelier,p. 24.

[5] Higman,Montpelier,p. 29.

[6] Higman,Montpelier,p. 31.

[7] Higman,Montpelier,p. 53.

[8] Taylor, Michael (2014). "Conservative Political Economy and the Problem of Colonial Slavery, 1823–1833".The Historical Journal.57(4): 982.doi:10.1017/S0018246X14000089.S2CID 161584587.

[9] Higman,Montpelier,p. 32.

[10] Campbell, John (2010).Pistols at Dawn: Two Hundred Years of Political Rivalry from Pitt and Fox to Blair and Brown.Internet Archive. London: Vintage. pp. 71–73.ISBN 978-1-84595-091-0.

[11] Higman,Montpelier,p. 35.

[12] Higman,Montpelier,p. 55.

[13] "Charles Rose Ellis, Lord Seaford".University College London.Retrieved 20 March 2019.

[14] "Charles Rose Ellis, Lord Seaford".University College London.Retrieved 15 September 2021.

[15] Higman,Montpelier,p. 55.

[16] Higman,Montpelier,p. 31.

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