Edward Ellice (Scottish politician)

Edward Ellice, the younger (August 19, 1810 – August 2, 1880) was a Scottish Liberal Party politician.

He was the eldest son of Edward Ellice, from his first marriage to Hannah Althea Grey, the youngest sister of Earl Grey, and was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge.[1] In 1832, he was appointed as Private Secretary to Lord Durham for his diplomatic mission to Russia.

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.

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 was briefly captured during the Rebellions of 1837. He remained a backbencher throughout his political career, taking special interest in the reform of the Poor Laws. He supported the idea of "clearance", but viewed indiscriminate forcible eviction of the peasantry as "cruel and indefensible" (Spain, 2004).

He was offered a peerage by William Gladstone in 1869, but declined the offer[2], and retired from Parliament in early 1880, shortly before his death.

Ellice married Katherine Balfour, daughter of General Balfour of Balbirnie, in 1834. Following her death in 1864, he married in 1867 Eliza Stewart, daughter of Thomas Campbell Hagart of Bantaskine, widow of Alexander Spiers of Elderslie.[3]

References

  1. ^ Ellice, Edward in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
  2. ^ Debrett's House of Commons, 1870
  3. ^ 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

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
John Blackburne
Member of Parliament for Huddersfield
1837
Succeeded by
William Rookes Crompton Stansfield
Preceded by
Andrew Johnston
Member of Parliament for St Andrews Burghs
18371880
Succeeded by
Stephen Williamson