Sir William Ellis (1609–1680) was an English lawyer, judge and politician who sat in 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. ...

at various times between 1640 and 1679, and supported the

Parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...

cause in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

Life

Ellis was second son of Sir Thomas Ellis of

Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...

, Lincolnshire. He was educated at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

, graduating B.A. in 1627. Having entered

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

on 6 November 1627 he was called to the bar on 9 February 1634. He represented

Boston, Lincolnshire Boston is a market town and inland port in the borough of the same name in the county of Lincolnshire, England. Boston is north of London, north-east of Peterborough, east of Nottingham, south-east of Lincoln, south-southeast of Hull ...

, in the

Short parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on the 20th of February 1640 and sat from 13th of April to the 5th of May 1640. It was so called because of its short life of only three weeks. Aft ...

of 1640, and also in the

Long parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

. After

Pride's Purge Pride's Purge is the name commonly given to an event that took place on 6 December 1648, when soldiers prevented members of Parliament considered hostile to the New Model Army from entering the House of Commons of England. Despite defeat in the ...

Ellis was readmitted to the House of Commons on 4 June 1649. On 24 May 1654 he was appointed solicitor-general. Shortly afterwards he was elected an ancient of his inn. As solicitor-general he took part in the prosecution of those involved in the

Gerard's conspiracy In what has become known as Gerard's conspiracy, a group of Royalists conspired to assassinate England's Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell in May 1654. It was discovered before an assassination attempt could be made and the Protectorate arrested abo ...

John Gerard John Gerard (also John Gerarde, c. 1545–1612) was an English herbalist with a large garden in Holborn, now part of London. His 1,484-page illustrated ''Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes'', first published in 1597, became a popular gard ...

Peter Vowell Peter Vowell (died 10 July 1654) was an English schoolteacher and a Cavalier, Royalist who was found guilty of high treason for his part in Gerard's conspiracy, a plot to assassinate Oliver Cromwell, and hanged. Biography In May 1654 Vowell, Summe ...

, and Summerset Fox on the charge of corresponding with Charles Stuart and conspiring to assassinate the

Lord Protector Lord Protector (plural: ''Lords Protector'') was a title that has been used in British constitutional law for the head of state. It was also a particular title for the British heads of state in respect to the established church. It was sometimes ...

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...

. The trial took place in June 1654. Gerard and Vowell pleaded innocent. They were convicted and sentenced to death. Gerard was beheaded and Vowell was hanged (Fox pleaded guilty and was sentenced to transportation). The same year Ellis was again returned to Parliament for Boston, and in 1656 for

. He was a member of the committee appointed to frame statutes for

Durham College Durham College of Applied Arts and Technology is located in the Durham Region The Regional Municipality of Durham (), informally referred to as Durham Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada. Located east of Toronto a ...

in March 1656. In June 1658 he was engaged in the prosecution of John Hewett and

John Mordaunt John Mordaunt may refer to: *John Mordaunt (speaker) (d. 1504), Tudor politician and Speaker of the House of Commons *John Mordaunt, 1st Baron Mordaunt (d. 1562) *John Mordaunt, 2nd Baron Mordaunt (1508–1571) *John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborou ...

, charged with levying war against the Protector. Hewett was found guilty and Mordaunt acquitted. He was created a baronet by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell on or soon after 31 May 1658. The baronetcy passed into oblivion at the

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in May 1660 and unlike some others was not renewed. Ellis continued in the office of solicitor-general under the second Lord Protector

Richard Cromwell Richard Cromwell (4 October 162612 July 1712) was an English statesman who was the second and last Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and son of the first Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. On his father's death ...

. At the election in January 1658-9 for the

Third Protectorate Parliament The Third Protectorate Parliament sat for one session, from 27 January 1659 until 22 April 1659, with Chaloner Chute and Thomas Bampfylde as the Speakers of the House of Commons. It was a bicameral Parliament, with an Upper House having a powe ...

he retained his seat for Grantham. In the debate on the competency of the Scottish members he spoke at length in support of their claims (18 March 1659). Re-elected for Grantham in 1660, Ellis was excluded from the house on the score of his opinions. In autumn 1664 he was appointed reader at Gray's Inn, of which he had been elected a bencher in 1659; on 26 August 1669 he took the degree of

serjeant-at-law A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writ ...

, and on 10 April 1671 he was advanced to the rank of king's Serjeant and knighted. He was raised to the bench in 1673, taking his seat in the

Court of Common Pleas A court of common pleas is a common kind of court structure found in various common law jurisdictions. The form originated with the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, which was created to permit individuals to press civil grievances against one ...

on the first day of Hilary term. The only case of public interest which came before him was that of Barnardiston v. Swaine, an election case. Ellis was removed in 1676, without reason assigned, but reinstated on 5 May 1679, having been returned to parliament for Boston in the preceding February. He sat as one of the judges at the last of the major

Popish Plot The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy invented by Titus Oates that between 1678 and 1681 gripped the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in anti-Catholic hysteria. Oates alleged that there was an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate C ...

trials, when

Lionel Anderson Lionel Anderson, alias Munson (died 1710) was an English Dominican priest, who was falsely accused of treason during the Popish Plot, which was the fabrication of the notorious anti-Catholic informer Titus Oates. He was convicted of treason on the ...

and six other

Catholic priests The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...

were tried on the capital charge of acting as priests in England, contrary to the statute of 1585. In contrast to previous Plot trials, the proceedings were conducted in a courteous and civilized fashion, and though the priests were found guilty and sentenced to death, they were all reprieved. He died on 3 December 1680 at his chambers in

Serjeants' Inn Serjeant's Inn (formerly Serjeants' Inn) was the legal inn of the Serjeants-at-Law in London. Originally there were two separate societies of Serjeants-at-law: the Fleet Street inn dated from 1443 and the Chancery Lane inn dated from 1416. In 17 ...

.According to Sir Thomas Ray Raymond, "grandaevus senectute, viz. aetat. 71." His arms are emblazoned in the bay window of Gray's Inn Hall .

Notes

References

* * ;Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, William 1609 births 1680 deaths 17th-century English judges Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 Justices of the Common Pleas Knights Bachelor People from Lincoln, England Serjeants-at-law (England) Members of Gray's Inn