Born in 1829, Ellis was the fifth son of Joseph Ellis, owner of the
Star and Garter Hotel in Petersham,
Richmond, Surrey (now London) from 1830 to 1847. He set up his family in
Byfleet, living for many years at Petersham House/Place (built in High Road 1859, its surviving front block is 15 High Road, used as
Lloyds Bank and a risk consultancy). After a fire there, Ellis organised Byfleet's first fire brigade. He equipped three of his market/domestic gardeners – the Place had attached 17 acres – with three lengths of hose and an obsolete manual pump, put on wheels, kept in a potting shed. He was a banking executive, auctioneer and estate agent, as well as holding local government posts including alderman of Broad Street Ward, 1872–1909,
Sheriff of London and Middlesex, 1874–75, 553rd
Lord Mayor of London, 1881–82, and mayor of Richmond, 1890–91. He was also a magistrate (Justice of the Peace); Governor of the Irish Society, 1882–94, governor of various hospitals and High Sheriff of Surrey, 1899–1900. When that area was abolished he was nominated for and won the
1885 general election and that of the next year for the inceptive
Kingston upon Thames seat which took in Richmond but retired in 1892. Hansard records 20 contributions of his, making some each year to 1891 inclusive. On 6 June 1882 he was made a
baronet, of Byfleet in the County of Surrey, and of
Hertford Street, Mayfair, in the County of Middlesex, a title which became extinct on his death. He later became the
Borough of Richmond's first Mayor, and purchased the site for Richmond's
first town hall. In 1899 he was appointed
High Sheriff of Surrey for the year. He remarried in 1903, to Marian Bailey. He was appointed Director of Alliance Bank, 1880, then its Chairman, 1883–86; and served years as Chairman of Emanuel Hospital to 1909. ==Death and legacy==