Sir Henry Ellis, KCB, PC (1 September 1788 – 28 September 1855) was a British diplomat and politician.

Life

He was an illegitimate son of

Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire, (6 May 17604 February 1816), styled Lord Hobart from 1793 to 1804, was a British Tory politician. Life Buckinghamshire was born at Hampden House, the son of George Hobart, 3rd Earl of Buckinghamshire ...

. In his career he served for six years in the civil service of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

; and in the

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...

he held the post of private secretary to the president of the board of control. In 1814 he was sent to Persia as minister plenipotentiary ad interim, and returned from that country in the following year, having successfully negotiated a treaty of peace. In 1816 Ellis accompanied William Pitt Amherst, 2nd Baron Amherst on his embassy to China, in the capacity of third commissioner. On their return from China in , Amherst and Ellis were wrecked off

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

. They were forced to make for

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

in an open boat, and reached

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

after a voyage of several hundred miles. They went back to rescue the other survivors, in the Indiaman . Ellis reported that an impression could be produced at

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

only by a knowledge of the military strength of the United Kingdom. Ellis's financial situation worsened after his father's death in 1816. He took a job as deputy colonial secretary in the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

in 1819, and was elected Member of Parliament for in 1820, as a Tory. The two positions proved incompatible, and after some delay his defeated opponent

William Augustus Johnson Lieutenant-General William Augustus Johnson (15 October 1777, in Kenilworth – 26 October 1863, in Witham, Lincolnshire) was an English soldier and Member of Parliament. He was the eldest son of Church of England clergyman the Rev. Robert Augustu ...

had Ellis removed from parliament, in 1821. Ellis was commissioner of customs 1824–5,

clerk of the pells The Pell Office was a department of the Exchequer in which the receipts and payments were entered upon two rolls of parchment, the one called the ''introitta'', which was the record of monies received, and the other the ''exitus'', or the record of ...

from 1825 until the abolition of the post in 1834, and commissioner of the board of control 1830–5. In 1831, He was also appointed to serve on the

Government Commission upon Emigration The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

, which was wound up in 1832. In July 1835 Ellis was appointed ambassador to Persia, but gave up that appointment in November of the following year. He was despatched on a special mission to Brazil in August 1842, and at the close of 1848 he was appointed by the British government to attend the conference at

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

on the affairs of Italy. Ellis was made a privy councillor in 1832, and in 1848 was created a K.C.B. On his retirement from the diplomatic service he was awarded a pension of £1,400 per annum, together with a second pension for the abolished office of clerk of the pells. He died at

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, on 28 September 1855.

Works

Ellis published in 1817 an authorised narrative of the journey and transactions of the Amherst embassy. In 1830 he issued a ''Series of Letters on the East India Question'', addressed to the members of the two houses of parliament.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Henry British diplomats Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath People educated at Harrow School British East India Company civil servants 1788 births 1855 deaths Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom