{{Short description|English Whig politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}} '''Sir Richard Ellys''' (1688?–1742), of Nocton, Lincolnshire and Bolton Street, Piccadilly, Westminster, was an English Whig politician who sat in the English House of Commons and British House of Commons between 1701 and 1734. He was a bibliophile and theological writer.
==Early life== Ellys was the eldest son of Sir William Ellys, 2nd Baronet of Wyham and grandson of Sir Thomas Ellys, 1st Baronet (created 1660). His mother was Isabella, daughter of Richard Hampden, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and granddaughter of John Hampden.<ref name=Cokayne3>{{Citation| editor-last=Cokayne| editor-first=George Edward |year=1903 | title= Complete Baronetage volume 3 (1649–1664) | url= https://archive.org/details/cu31924092524390/page/n89 | volume=3| location=Exeter | publisher=William Pollard and Co| access-date = 22 April 2019}}</ref> Ellys, who was born about 1688, was educated abroad, probably in Holland.
==Career== Ellys was elected Member of Parliament for Grantham at the second general election of 1701 and was returned unopposed in 1702. He stood aside at the 1705 general election, making way for the Marquess of Granby.<ref name = HOP>{{cite web| url = https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/ellys-richard-1683-1742| title= ELLYS, Richard (1683–1742), of Nocton, Lincs. and Bolton Street, Piccadilly, Westminster| publisher= History of Parliament Online (1690–1715)| access-date = 7 September 2018}}</ref> He was elected as Whig MP for Boston, Lincolnshire at a by-election on 7 December 1719 and was elected again in the general elections of 1722 and 1727.<ref name = HOP2>{{cite web| url = https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/ellys-richard-1674-1742 | title=ELLYS, Richard (c.1674-1742), of Nocton, Lincs. | publisher= History of Parliament Online (1715–1754)| access-date = 7 September 2018}}</ref> Also in 1727 he succeeded his father, who died on 6 October, in the baronetcy and his estate of Nocton, Lincolnshire.<ref name=Cokayne3/>
==Later life== Ellys held strong religious opinions. He had been an Arminian, but was a decided Calvinist in 1730, and when living in London (Bolton Street, Piccadilly) he was a member of Edmund Calamy's congregation; and after Calamy's death of Thomas Bradbury's. He maintained his family's traditional hospitality. His father had kept open house at Nocton for all comers, and every day twelve dishes were prepared whether or not any guests came; Ellys allowed £800 per year to maintain the custom.
Ellys died on 21 February 1742 and the baronetcy became extinct.<ref name=Cokayne3/>
==Scholar== Throughout his life he corresponded with continental scholars, by whom he was much esteemed, as evidenced by Gronovius's dedication to Ellys of his edition of Ælian's ''Varia Historia'', and the Wetsteins' edition of Johann Caspar Suicer's ''Thesaurus Ecclesiasticus'', to which he had contributed the use of a manuscript. He was especially intimate with Michel Maittaire, who, in his ''Senilis'', addressed several pieces of Latin verse to him.<ref>{{ODNBweb|id=8729|title=Ellys, Sir Richard|first1=Michael|last1=Honeybone|first2=Yvonne|last2=Lewis}}</ref>
His learning took the direction of biblical criticism and bore fruit in his ''Fortuita Sacra; quibus subjicitur Commentarius de Cymbalis'' (Rotterdam, 1727). The first part is a critical commentary in Latin on doubtful passages in the Greek Testament, and the second a treatise on cymbals, also in Latin. He befriended Thomas Boston, whose treatise on Hebrew accents, ''Tractatus Stigmato-logicus'', was dedicated to him.
After leaving politics Ellys devoted himself to antiquarian research and amassed at Nocton a fine library. On 24 June 1742 an account of this library and some curiosities lately added to it formed the day's transactions of the Gentlemen's Society at Spalding, of which Ellys had been elected a member on 12 March 1729. Ellys's library was moved from Nocton to Blickling Hall in Norfolk.
==Family== Ellys was twice married: first to Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of Sir Edwin Hussey, bart.; and, secondly, to Sarah, daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Gould, who outlived him, and, remarrying 19 December 1745 with Sir Francis Dashwood, died Lady Despencer on 19 January 1769.<ref name=HOP/> By neither wife, however, did he have issue, and the disposition of his property excited interest. Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, in his satire ''Peter and my Lord Quidam'', says that the chief competitors for his inheritance were 'Horace,' i.e. Horatio Walpole who wrote a Latin ode in Ellys's honour and gave him his portrait, and Hampden, i.e. Richard Hampden, who had married Ellys's sister. On the death of Ellys it was found that his estates were entailed on his second wife, and after her death or marriage on the families of Hobart and Trevor, in to whose possession they ultimately passed. His cousin, William Strode of Barnington, Somerset, was heir-at-law and contested the will in the Court of Chancery; but without effect.
==References== {{reflist}} *{{cite DNB|wstitle=Ellys, Richard}}
;Attribution {{DNB|wstitle=Ellys, Richard}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|en}} {{s-bef | before = Thomas Baptist Manners | before2 = Sir William Ellys }} {{s-title | title = Member of Parliament for Grantham | years = 1701–1705 | with = Sir William Ellys }} {{s-aft | after = Marquess of Granby | after2 = Sir William Ellys }} {{s-par|gb}} {{s-bef | before = Henry Heron | before2 = Richard Wynn }} {{s-title | title = Member of Parliament for Boston | years = 1719–1734 | with = Henry Heron | with2 = Henry Pacey | with3 = The Lord Coleraine }} {{s-aft | after = Albemarle Bertie | after2 = Richard Fydell }} {{S-reg|en-bt}} {{S-bef| before= William Ellys }} {{S-ttl| title=Baronet<br />'''(of Wyham)'''| years=1727–1742 }} {{s-non|reason=Extinct }}
{{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellys, Richard}} Category:1680s births Category:1742 deaths Category:18th-century English Christian theologians Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of England Category:Nobility from Lincolnshire Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Category:Whig (British political party) MPs for English constituencies Category:British MPs 1722–1727 Category:British MPs 1727–1734 Category:English MPs 1702–1705 Category:English MPs 1701–1702 Category:18th-century English antiquarians