University of Virginia Library

The name of Ellis appears at an early day in connection with the
Colony of Virginia. David Ellis came out in the second supply of emigrants
from England, and was one of the men sent by Captain Smith to
build a house for King Powhatan at his favourite seat, Werowocomico, on
York River. John Ellis was one of the grantees in the second charter
of the Virginia Company.

My immediate family is of Welsh extraction, and my descent traced to
John Ellis, who settled on Peters's Creek, a branch of Tuckahoe Creek,
in Henrico county. He was born in the year 1661, and he appears at
Varina, the county seat of Henrico, October 1, 1683. His wife was
named Susannah, and their children were John, William, Thomas, Henry,
James, Joseph, Mary, and Charles.

John, the eldest son, married Elizabeth Ware, a relation of Baldwin
and Ware Rockett, seafaring men, who owned the property in the city of
Richmond since called "Rocketts'." He was a magistrate and sheriff of
Henrico. His eldest son, who was also named John, inherited the family
residence, and lived in it during his life. It still belongs to the family of
one of his grand-daughters, who married John Bowles, of Louisa county.
The land on which it is situated was patented to William Glover, April
28, 1691, and by him sold to John Ellis (the first named) for two thousand
pounds of tobacco.

William, the second son, lived to be eighty-three years of age, and
died leaving four sons and four daughters. One of his grandsons, William
Burton Ellis, who married Elizabeth West, is still living on Tuckahoe, in
the seventy-sixth year of his age.

Thomas, the third son, was inspector of tobacco at Shockoe Warehouse,
and owned the coal-property since known as the "Edgehill Pits."
He married Elizabeth Patterson, by whom he had two sons and three
daughters, all of whom married and have left families.

Henry, the fourth son, never married. He died in the year 1768.

James, the fifth son, married, but died without issue.

Joseph, the sixth son, married Elizabeth Perkins and raised a very
numerous family. He has a grandson, Daniel Ellis, born May 2, 1774,
now living near Watkinsville, in Goochland county. The Ellises at this
day on Tuckahoe Creek are principally the descendants of Joseph Ellis.
His will, dated 11th June, 1785, is proved in court January 7, 1793.
His wife died about the year 1798.

Mary, the seventh child and only daughter, married John Smith, who
owned the fine farm now belonging to Mr. Robert Edmond, of Richmond,
called "Strawberry Hill."

Charles, the seventh son, (my great-grandfather,) was born in Henrico
county in the year 1719, was married, by the Rev. William Stith,
to Susannah Harding, daughter of Thomas Harding and Mary Giles, in
the year 1739, and had issue two sons and eight daughters. He removed
with his family to the county of Amherst, then the county of Albemarle,
in the year 1754, and settled the original seat of the Ellises in that county,
since called "Red Hill," on the waters of Pedlar River. He died
May 4, 1759, and was buried in the family burying-ground at Red Hill.
His widow lived to the ninety-fifth year of her age, and was buried by
his side. The children of Charles Ellis and Susannah Harding were

Hannah, Edith, Susannah, Josiah, Mary Ann, Charles, Sarah, Bethena,
Elizabeth, and Rosanna.

Hannah married William Haynes.

Edith married Devereux Gilliam.

Susannah married Isaac Wright.

Josiah married Jane Shelton.

Mary Ann married Peter Carter.

Charles married—first, Elizabeth Waters, secondly, Sarah Tucker.

Sarah married John Harrison.

Bethena married Thomas Leftwich.

Elizabeth married William Gilliam.

Rosanna married Charles Davis.

Josiah, (my grandfather,) above named, inherited the "Red Hill"
estate, and lived and died there. His wife—a daughter of Richard
Shelton—was born September 1, 1747. They were married on the
3d of April, 1766, and had issue John, Nancy, Charles, Richard Shelton,
Josiah, Mary Wright, Thomas Harding, Jane Shelton, Lewis, Joshua
Shelton, and Powhatan.

I fear that I shall be able to communicate
very little in regard to the church on Pedlar. Your uncle Richard was
one of the old-school, true Virginia gentlemen,—hospitable, unaffected,
polite, courteous,—and as regardful of the rights and feelings of a servant
as he was of the most favoured and distinguished that visited his house
I had not been in his house five minutes before I felt it to be what he
and his delightful family ever afterward made it to me,—a home. I,
however, experienced at their hands only what every clergyman of our
Church who has been connected with the parish experienced.

Your uncle's hospitality was not, however, the most captivating trait of
his character. The most captivating trait in his character was his simple-hearted
piety and devotion to the Church. His devotion was the same
when the ways of our Zion mourned, and when none came to her solemn
feasts, and when her sanctuaries in his neighbourhood were levelled by
the stranger and the spoiler. I think he told me that the first time the
services of our Church were held in the Pedlar neighbourhood after the
Revolution, the people met in a tobacco-house, and that many aged persons
who had been accustomed to our services in their youth, when the
clergyman repeated the sentences and exhortation, stood up and wept like
children, big tears coursing their way down their cheeks in spite of every
effort to restrain them. The confession following was made, by every one
whose feelings did not stifle utterance, with a voice tremulous with emetion.

Many an aged heart remembered and returned to its first love.
The meeting in that tobacco-house was the beginning of the resuscitation
of the church on Pedlar. Your uncle was the foremost and the most
liberal in the effort at resuscitation. He gave largely—as he did to the
end of life—both of his substance and of his time to the accomplishment
of the object. He succeeded, but not without overcoming strong
opposition. He applied, for a contribution toward building a church, to a
good Christian man in the neighbourhood, who had been a soldier of the
Revolution, to whom the old veteran replied, the fire of '76 flashing in his
eye and speaking in the tones of his voice, "No! I drew my sword once
to put that church down; and, if necessary, I will draw it again to keep
it down." No one doubted either the old soldier's honesty or piety. And
his reply only revealed the feelings in the minds of many in regard to
the Episcopal Church. Their prejudices were as honestly as they were
warmly entertained, and nothing but the unbounded confidence they had
in the patriotism as well as piety of your uncle softened them. That
confidence did soften them, first to tolerate, then to admire, and then to
sustain, the Church whose cause he advocated. I am persuaded that the
resuscitation of the church on Pedlar was owing altogether to the personal
influence of your uncle; and what he was so instrumental in resuscitating
he afterwards sustained with a liberality that was bounded only by
his means, and a devotion that ended only with his life. His daughter
Emily, who became a member of the Church while I was rector of the
parish, was as like to her father in her devotion to the Church as a child
could be like to a parent. Both she and her most excellent husband, David
H. Tapscott, manifested the same fervid and hallowed spirit of devotion
in their piety, as well as lively and liberal interest in the advancement
of the Church. It grieves me to think that the Church on earth has lost
three such faithful soldiers and servants. And I should be doing violence
to my feelings if I did not speak of Mrs. Ellis, though a decided Presbyterian,
in the same way. If I had been her own son she could hardly
have treated me with more kindness. And she had been, I learned,
equally kind to all the pastors of her husband. Indeed, I cannot think
of any member of the family but with feelings of affectionate regard. I
regret that my narrative is so limited and meagre: I hope, however, that
it may not be altogether useless to you in accomplishing what you desire
for Bishop Meade's Letters.