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Charles Rose Ellis, 1st Baron Seaford (19 December 1771 – 1 July 1845) was a British politician.^[1]

John Ellis and Charles' early life

Charles was the second son of John Ellis of Jamaica, who acquired a significant amount of wealth from sugar and slavery at a number of estates, including Montpelier, Jamaica in the parish of St James, the Newry plantation in St Mary, 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) would later complain to his maternal uncle, Edward Long, about John's avarice.^[2]

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.^[3]

Career as a sugar planter

George Rose Ellis married Anne, the daughter of Sir Peter Parker, 1st Baronet, but George died without issue in 1815, and his property passed to Charles. Charles was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and he became an absentee planter based in England.^[4] 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.^[5]

John married another daughter of Parker, named Antoinette, but died heavily in debt in 1832, and his properties were acquired by Charles.^[6] When the British government emancipated the slaves in the 1830s, Charles was compensated for his liberated slaves to the tune of over £16.000.^[7]

Political career

Charles Ellis was elected to the House of Commons for Heytesbury in 1793, a seat he held until 1796, and then represented Seaford from 1796 to 1806 and from 1812 to 1826 and East Grinstead from 1807 to 1812. In 1826 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Seaford, of Seaford in the County of Sussex.

In parliament, Ellis was a prominent defender of slavery in the West Indies plantations.^[8] 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.^[9]

Emancipation and imported labour

In 1832, Ellis was in Jamaica during a slave rebellion led by Samuel Sharpe, the Baptist War resulted in Ellis suffering losses on his sugar plantations to the tune of about £41,000.^[10] Lord Seaford left Jamaica for Britain in the middle of 1834, just before the Apprenticeship period was implemented following the emancipation of the slaves.^[11]

According to the Legacies of British Slave-Ownership at the University College London, Seaford was awarded a payment as a slave trader in the aftermath of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 with the Slave Compensation Act 1837. The British Government took out a £15 million loan (worth £1.8 billion in 2024^[12]) with interest from Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Moses Montefiore which was subsequently paid off by the British taxpayers (ending in 2015). Seaford was associated with five different claims, he owned 1018 slaves in Jamaica and received a £18,124 payment at the time (worth £2.17 million in 2024^[12]).^[13]

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.^[14]

Death and legacy

Lord Seaford died in July 1845. He had married the Hon. Elizabeth Catherine Caroline Hervey, daughter of John Hervey, Lord Hervey, eldest son of Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, in 1798. She died in January 1803, aged 22. They had 2 sons and a daughter.^[15]

In 1798 their four-year-old son and heir Charles succeeded his great-grandfather Lord Bristol as sixth Baron Howard de Walden. Their second son was the army officer Augustus Frederick Ellis.

References

^ "ELLIS, Charles Rose (1771-1845), of Claremont, Esher, Surr". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
^ Barry Higman, Montpelier (Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 1998), pp. 22-5.
^ Barry Higman, Montpelier (Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 1998), pp. 22-5.
^ Higman, Montpelier, p. 24.
^ Higman, Montpelier, p. 29.
^ Higman, Montpelier, p. 31.
^ Higman, Montpelier, p. 53.
^ Taylor, Michael (2014). "Conservative Political Economy and the Problem of Colonial Slavery, 1823–1833". The Historical Journal. 57 (4): 982. doi:10.1017/S0018246X14000089. S2CID 161584587.
^ Higman, Montpelier, p. 32.
^ HIgman, Montpelier, p. 35.
^ Higman, Montpelier, p. 55.
^ ^a ^b UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
^ "Charles Rose Ellis, Lord Seaford". University College London. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
^ Higman, Montpelier, p. 55.
^ Higman, Montpelier, p. 31.

Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1889). "Ellis, Charles Rose" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 17. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990, ^{[page needed]}
Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages ^{[self-published source]} ^{[better source needed]}
Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
Lundy, Darryl. "FAQ". The Peerage.^{[unreliable source]}

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by William Eden The Earl of Barrymore	Member of Parliament for Heytesbury 1793–1796 With: William Eden 1793 The Viscount Clifden 1793–96	Succeeded by The Viscount Clifden Sir John Leicester
Preceded by John Tarleton Richard Paul Jodrell	Member of Parliament for Seaford 1796–1800 With: George Ellis	Succeeded by (Parliament of Great Britain abolished)
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by (self in Parliament of Great Britain)	Member of Parliament for Seaford 1801–1806 With: George Ellis to 1802 Richard Joseph Sullivan 1802–06 John Leach 1806	Succeeded by John Leach George Hibbert
Preceded by Sir Henry Strachey Daniel Giles	Member of Parliament for East Grinstead 1807–1812 With: Sir Nathaniel Holland 1807–12 Richard Wellesley 1812 George William Gunning 1812 Nicholas Vansittart 1812	Succeeded by George William Gunning James Stephen
Preceded by John Leach George Hibbert	Member of Parliament for Seaford 1812–1826 With: John Leach 1812–16 Sir Charles Cockerell 1816–18 George Watson-Taylor 1818–20 George Agar-Ellis 1820–26	Succeeded by John Fitzgerald Augustus Frederick Ellis
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baron Seaford 1826–1845	Succeeded by Charles Augustus Ellis

[1] "ELLIS, Charles Rose (1771-1845), of Claremont, Esher, Surr". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 31 May 2016.

[2] Barry Higman, Montpelier (Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 1998), pp. 22-5.

[3] Barry Higman, Montpelier (Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 1998), pp. 22-5.

[4] Higman, Montpelier, p. 24.

[5] Higman, Montpelier, p. 29.

[6] Higman, Montpelier, p. 31.

[7] Higman, Montpelier, p. 53.

[8] Taylor, Michael (2014). "Conservative Political Economy and the Problem of Colonial Slavery, 1823–1833". The Historical Journal. 57 (4): 982. doi:10.1017/S0018246X14000089. S2CID 161584587.

[9] Higman, Montpelier, p. 32.

[10] HIgman, Montpelier, p. 35.

[11] Higman, Montpelier, p. 55.

[inflation-UK-12] UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 7 May 2024.

[13] "Charles Rose Ellis, Lord Seaford". University College London. Retrieved 20 March 2019.

[14] Higman, Montpelier, p. 55.

[15] Higman, Montpelier, p. 31.

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 [[Category:British slave owners]]
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