Edward Ellice (MP for St Andrews)
Edward Ellice the Younger (19 August 1810 – 2 August 1880) was a British Liberal Party politician and landowner.
Life
[edit]He was the eldest son of Edward Ellice, from his first marriage to Hannah Althea Grey, the youngest sister of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey.[1] The Ellice family was English by descent, and had settled in Aberdeenshire in the mid-17th century.[2] Edward Ellice was born in London in 1810[3] and was educated at Eton College (1823–1836) and at Trinity College, Cambridge.[1] He matriculated at the University of Cambridge on the 6 June 1828 and in 1831 was awarded a master of arts degree.[3]
In 1832, he was appointed as Private Secretary to John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham for his diplomatic mission to Russia.[3] Lord Durham was a close friend and a relative of Ellice's father, having married the Earl Grey's second daughter.[3] Ellice was an unsuccessful candidate for Inverness Burghs in the 1835 general election, but was elected to represent Huddersfield in a May 1837 by-election. In the general election that year he was elected to represent St Andrews Burghs, a seat he held until 1880.[3]
Ellice continued as Durham's private secretary during his term as Governor-General of the Province of Canada; whilst he was working in Canada, his wife Katherine and her sister were captured for six days during the Rebellions of 1837–1838.[2]
He remained a backbencher throughout his political career, taking special interest in the reform of the Scottish Poor Laws.[3] He supported the idea of "clearance", but viewed indiscriminate forcible eviction of the peasantry as "cruel and indefensible".[3]
He was offered a peerage by William Gladstone in 1869, but declined the offer,[4] and retired from Parliament in early 1880, shortly before his death aged 69.[3]
Ellice married the diarist Katherine Jane Balfour, daughter of General Balfour of Balbirnie, in 1834. She accompanied him to Russia and Canada.[2] Following her death in 1864, he married in 1867 Eliza Stewart, daughter of Thomas Campbell Hagart of Bantaskine, widow of Alexander Spiers of Elderslie.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Ellice, Edward (ELY828E)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ a b c K. D. Reynolds, ‘Ellice , Katherine Jane [Janie] (1813–1864)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 19 June 2017
- ^ a b c d e f g h Spain, Jonathan (30 May 2013). "Ellice, Edward (1810-1880), landowner and politician". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8651. Retrieved 27 January 2019. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ a b Debrett's House of Commons, 1870
- Oliver & Boyd's new Edinburgh almanac and national repository for the year 1850. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh, 1850
- Jonathan Spain, "Ellice, Edward (1810–1880)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 accessed 11 July 2006
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
External links
[edit]- 1810 births
- 1880 deaths
- People educated at Eton College
- Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies
- UK MPs 1835–1837
- UK MPs 1837–1841
- UK MPs 1841–1847
- UK MPs 1847–1852
- UK MPs 1852–1857
- UK MPs 1857–1859
- UK MPs 1859–1865
- UK MPs 1865–1868
- UK MPs 1868–1874
- UK MPs 1874–1880
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Fife constituencies
- 19th-century Scottish politicians
- Ellice family