Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ellis, John (1789-1862)
ELLIS, JOHN (1789–1862), member of parliament and railway chairman, was born in 1789 at Sharman's Lodge, near Leicester, where his father, Joseph Ellis, was a farmer. From 1807 to 1847 he was a very successful farmer at Beaumont Leys, also near Leicester. During the latter part of that time he had also a business in Leicester. In 1830 he made the acquaintance of George Stephenson, and afterwards took a prominent part in promoting the Leicester and Swannington railway. In 1836 he gave important evidence before a select committee of the House of Commons on agricultural distress. He was member of parliament for the borough of Leicester from 1848 until 1852, when he retired. From 1849 to 1858 he was chairman of the Midland railway. Throughout life he was a liberal in politics. He came of an old quaker family, still well known around Leicester, of which borough he was an alderman. He was also a justice of the peace for the county, and was prominently connected with many public matters, both of a local and general nature. He died at Balgrave, near Leicester, on 26 Oct. 1862.
[Private information; also Charlotte Ellis's Sketch of one Branch of the Ellis Family (Leicester, privately printed).]