Charles Rose Ellis, 1st Baron Seaford, by Richard Cosway

Charles Rose Ellis, 1st Baron Seaford (19 December 1771 – 9 July 1845) was a British politician, sugar planter, and slave holder.

John Ellis and Charles' early life

Charles was the second son of John Ellis of

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

, who acquired a significant amount of wealth from sugar and

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

at a number of estates, including

Montpelier, Jamaica Montpelier is a village located in Saint James Parish, Jamaica, approximately 15 minutes away from the parish's capital Montego Bay. Landmarks *Montpelier railway station Montpelier railway station is on the Severn Beach Line and serv ...

in Saint James Parish, the Newry plantation in

St Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

, and the Palm estate in St 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 younger

George Ellis (poet) George Ellis FSARigg and Mills (19 December 1753 – 10 April 1815) was a Jamaican-born English antiquary, satirical poet and Member of Parliament. He is best known for his ''Specimens of the Early English Poets'' and ''Specimens of Early E ...

would later complain to his maternal uncle,

Edward Long Edward Long (23 August 1734 – 13 March 1813) was an English-born British colonial administrator, slave owner and historian, and author of a highly controversial work, ''The History of Jamaica'' (1774). He was a polemic defender of slavery. Li ...

, about John's avarice. Across his six Jamaican estates, John owned over 1,200 slaves, and he was ranked among the top one percent of wealthy sugar planters in 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.

Career as a sugar planter

George Rose Ellis married Anne, the daughter of

Sir Peter Parker, 1st Baronet Admiral of the Fleet Sir Peter Parker, 1st Baronet (1721 – 21 December 1811) was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer, he was deployed with a squadron under Admiral Edward Vernon to the West Indies at the start of the War of Jenkins' E ...

, but George died without issue in 1815, and his property passed to Charles. Charles was educated at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

, and he became an absentee planter based in England. 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. John married another daughter of Parker, named Antoinette, but died heavily in debt in 1832, and his properties were acquired by Charles. When the British government emancipated the slaves in the 1830s, Charles was compensated for his liberated slaves to the tune of over £18,000.

Political career

Charles Ellis was elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

for

Heytesbury Heytesbury is a village (formerly considered to be a town) and a civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village lies on the north bank of the Wylye, about southeast of the town of Warminster. The civil parish includes most of the small neigh ...

in 1793, a seat he held until 1796, and then represented Seaford from 1796 to 1806 and from 1812 to 1826 and

East Grinstead East Grinstead is a town in West Sussex, England, near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders, south of London, northeast of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Situated in the extreme northeast of the county, the civ ...

from 1807 to 1812. In 1826 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Seaford, of Seaford in the

County of Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. In the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

, Ellis was a prominent defender of slavery in the West Indies plantations. He was for many years considered to be the head of West India Interest, the lobby of planters and merchants in the British parliament who opposed the

abolitionists Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The Britis ...

. Ellis served as his colleague and friend Foreign Secretary

George Canning George Canning (11 April 17708 August 1827) was a British Tory statesman. He held various senior cabinet positions under numerous prime ministers, including two important terms as Foreign Secretary, finally becoming Prime Minister of the Unit ...

's second in his

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon Code duello, rules. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the r ...

with Secretary of State for War and the Colonies

Viscount Castlereagh A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judici ...

in 1809. The duel occurred because both Canning and Castlereagh wished to succeed the

Duke of Portland Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

and because Castlereagh blamed Canning for his impending dismissal from the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

. After two rounds in which Canning was wounded and Castlereagh was grazed by a bullet, Ellis and Castlereagh's second the

Earl of Yarmouth Earl of Yarmouth is a title that has been created three times in British history, once in the Peerage of England and twice in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1679 in favour of the politician and ...

intervened to stop a third round.

Emancipation and imported labour

In 1832, Ellis was in Jamaica during a slave rebellion led by

Samuel Sharpe Samuel Sharpe, or Sharp (1801 – 23 May 1832), also known as Sam Sharpe, was an enslaved Jamaican who was the leader of the widespread 1831–32 Baptist War slave rebellion (also known as the Christmas Rebellion) in Jamaica. He was proclaim ...

, the

Baptist War The Baptist War, also known as the Sam Sharp Rebellion, the Christmas Rebellion, the Christmas Uprising and the Great Jamaican Slave Revolt of 1831–32, was an eleven-day rebellion that started on 25 December 1831 and involved up to 60,000 of th ...

resulted in Ellis suffering losses on his

sugar plantations A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

to the tune of about £41,000. Lord Seaford left Jamaica for Britain in the middle of 1834, just before the Apprenticeship period was implemented following the emancipation of the slaves. According to the '' Legacies of British Slave-Ownership'' at the

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, Seaford was awarded compensation in the aftermath of the

Slavery Abolition Act 1833 The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. IV c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provided for the gradual abolition of slavery in most parts of the British Empire. It was passed by Earl Grey's reforming administrati ...

with the

Slave Compensation Act 1837 The Slave Compensation Act 1837 (1 & 2 Vict. c. 3) was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom, signed into law on 23 December 1837. It authorised the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt to compensate slave owners in the Briti ...

. 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. 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, called Seaford Town, Jamaica after him.

Death and legacy

Lord Seaford died 9 July 1845. He had married the Hon. Elizabeth Catherine Caroline Hervey, daughter of

John Hervey, Lord Hervey Captain John Augustus Hervey, Lord Hervey, RN (1 January 1757 – 10 January 1796) was a British diplomat.Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol Frederick Augustus Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, (1 August 1730 – 8 July 1803), was an 18th-century Anglican prelate. Elected Bishop of Cloyne in 1767 and translated to the see of Derry in 1768, Hervey served as Lord Bishop of Derry unti ...

, in 1798. She died in January 1803, aged 22. They had 2 sons and a daughter.Higman, ''Montpelier'', p. 31. In 1803 their four-year-old son and heir

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

succeeded his great-grandfather Lord Bristol as sixth

Baron Howard de Walden Baron Howard de Walden is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created by writ of summons in 1597 by Queen Elizabeth I for Admiral Lord Thomas Howard, a younger son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, by his second wife, the Honourabl ...

. Their second son was the army officer Augustus Frederick Ellis.

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Charles Seaford, Charles Rose Ellis, 1st Baron Seaford, Charles Rose Ellis, 1st Baron Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Seaford Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1790–1796 British MPs 1796–1800 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1801–1802 UK MPs 1802–1806 UK MPs 1806–1807 UK MPs 1807–1812 UK MPs 1812–1818 UK MPs 1818–1820 UK MPs 1820–1826 UK MPs who were granted peerages British slave owners Recipients of payments from the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 Peers of the United Kingdom created by George IV