Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ellice, Edward (1810-1880)
ELLICE, EDWARD, the younger (1810–1880), politician, only son of the Right Hon. Edward Ellice [q. v.], and of his first wife, Lady Hannah Althea Bettesworth, sister of the second Earl Grey, was born in London 19 Aug. 1810. He was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was admitted M.A., without previous degree, as eldest grandson of Earl Grey (Grace), 2 May 1831. In 1832 he went to Russia in the diplomatic service as private secretary to Lord Durham, and in 1838 in the same capacity to Canada. In 1834 he married Catharine Jane, daughter of General Balfour of Balbirnie, who died in 1864. He subsequently married Eliza Stewart, widow of Alexander Speirs of Elderslie, and daughter of T. C. Hagart of Bantaskine. At the general election of 1834 he contested Inverness, and was defeated by a tory candidate, but was elected member for Huddersfield in 1836, and when that parliament was dissolved he stood for St. Andrews burghs, was returned by a majority of twenty-nine, and represented the constituency for forty-two years. Throughout this long career he was a consistent supporter of the liberal politics with which he entered parliament. He supported the abolition of the corn laws and of the navigation laws, and on every occasion maintained the principles of free trade. He gave important aid in the reform of the Scotch poor law and lunacy law, opposed the Maynooth grant, and advocated the disestablishment of the Irish church. In 1865 he published 'The State of the Highlands in 1854,' a pamphlet containing several of his letters to Lord Palmerston on the oppressive method of administering the poor law in the highlands then existing. In 1859 he was attacked in many newspapers (Daily News, 24 Jan. 1859) for a proposal that there should be some nominated members in the House of Commons. Having felt a growing want of confidence in Mr. Gladstone, then the leader of the liberal party, he was much astonished when on the morning of 13 Nov. 1869 a letter arrived from that minister, proposing that he should be added to the peerage of the United Kingdom 'as a genuine tribute,' wrote Mr. Gladstone, 'to your character, position, and public services.' He declined the proposed honour. In 1873 he gave long and valuable evidence before a roval commission on the state of the highlands as regards deer, sheep, wire fencing, and the game laws. On 4 Nov. 1879 he published a farewell address to his constituents, and soon after retired from parliament. In the following June he was ill, but his health improved, and he sailed in July for a cruise in his yacht Ita.
He died on board off Portland during the night of 2 Aug. 1880, and was buried at Tor-na-cairidhon Lochgarry, Inverness-shire. Early in life he bought with the money left to him by his mother the estate of Glenquoich, Inverness-shire, and some years later he acquired from Lord Ward the adjoining estate of Glengarry. He loved the highlands, and at Invergarry on Loch Oich built a house of extraordinary comfort in a situation which combined all the beauties of mountain, water, and woods. He did all in his power to improve the dwellings of his tenantry, and by planting, fencing, and road-making did much for their comfort. He knew personally every one who lived on his estates, and had great influence with them. When he first went to live at Glenquoich, a freebooter of the Rob Roy type haunted the district, and had a little stronghold on an island in Loch Quoich, which still bears his name. This highlander called on the new proprietor, and sticking his dirk in the table defiantly declared that to be his title to his island. The freebooter soon came to like Ellice, and lived in amity with him till other neighbours, less willing to miss a sheep now and then, stormed the stronghold and placed the highland robber in durance at Fort William. Though Ellice had clear and definite opinions upon all the great political movements of his time, his active political life was engaged chiefly with measures of practical importance, and he consequently occupied a less prominent position as a public man than perhaps might have been his had he chosen party politics for the field of his ambition. His portrait by Richmond is at Invergarry.
[Conolly's Biog. Dict. of Eminent Men of Fife, 1866; Fife Herald, August 1880; Scotsman, August 1880; family papers.]