Sunday, April 08, 2012

Question from Jessica - Lady Eleanor Howard De Walden

I have been doing some research on my family tree, and have been lucky enough to find a fairly complete tree done by another family member.

My oldest direct ancestors on this tree are John Ellis, and Lady Eleanor Howard De Walden. This is seven generations back.

I was quite intrigued by the history of the name Howard De Walden, by in all my research I could not find any mention of Lady Eleanor Howard De Walden.

By my calculations, she was probably alive during the 1600s.

The only information I have is that she was married to John Ellis, with whom she had one daughter, Ellen Ellis. Ellen Ellis married George Jackson, but the name Ellis has been popular in my family ever since.

Any information on her or John Ellis, and particularly the family tree, would be greatly appreciated.

I also sincerely apologize if I have gotten the time period wrong (therefore making this question irrelevant for this site).

1 comment:

Marilyn R said...

Hi Jessica,

You have probably seen the following references, but if not I hope they are useful.

I have online access to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) through my library and am sending part of the entry for the first Ellis associated with the Howard de Walden title. If it’s of any help ask Lara for my email address and I’ll send the rest. There is no mention of a Lady Eleanor de Walden

Ellis, Charles Rose, first Baron Seaford (1771-1845), politician, was the second son of John Ellis, of an old Jamaican family, and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of John Pallmer, also of Jamaica. He was born on 19 December 1771, and, having inherited a large West Indian property worth £20,000 p.a. on his father's death (at sea) in 1782, was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, for a year from 1789 but took no degree. He was there a favourite of Dean Jackson and the friend of C. J. Canning. He entered the House of Commons in March 1793, when barely of age, as MP for Heytesbury, paying £3500 to W. P. A'Court for the seat (HoP, Commons). He was not a brilliant speaker, being content to support Pitt unobtrusively and without expectation of office. In 1796 he bought both the Wareham and the Seaford constituencies, but chose to sit for the latter. On 2 August 1798 Ellis married Elizabeth Catherine Caroline Clifton, only daughter and heir of John, Lord Hervey. About the same period he purchased the estate of Claremont in Surrey, where he entertained lavishly, and he was re-elected for Seaford in 1802. His wife died of consumption at Nice on 21 January 1803, and on 8 July of that year his infant son, Charles Augustus Ellis, succeeded his maternal great-grandfather, Frederick Hervey, earl of Bristol and bishop of Derry, in the ancient barony of Howard de Walden.

If you have access through a library to ‘Complete Peerage’ there will be a section on Howard de Walden, they are an offshoot of the famous Howard family, and one of the last Lords Howard de Walden was actually an editor of some of the volumes.

I wouldn’t normally refer anybody to Wikipedia, but in this case the entry might be helpful with the Hervey, Ellis and Scott-Ellis connections.