in 1807, in the operations on the coast of Portugal in 1808, and in the Baltic cruise of 1809. In September 1815 he commissioned the Superb of 78 guns, and commanded her in the bombardment of Algiers, on 27 Aug. 1816, when he was wounded. He afterwards, together with the other captains engaged, was nominated a companion of the Bath, and by the king of the Netherlands a knight of the order of William of the Netherlands (C.W.N.) The Superb was paid off in October 1818, and Ekins had no further service afloat; though he became in course of seniority rear-admiral on 12 Aug. 1819, vice-admiral 22 July 1830, and admiral 23 Nov. 1841; and was made a K.C.B. on 8 June 1831, a G.C.B. on 7 April 1852. He died in London on 2 July 1855. He married, in 1800, a daughter of T. Parlby of Stonehall, Devonshire.
Ekins was the author of 'Naval Battles of Great Britain from the Accession of the illustrious House of Hanover to the Battle of Navarin reviewed' (4to, 1824; 2nd edit. 1828); an interesting and useful work, though its value is lessened by the introduction of much hearsay criticism and by the total want of all reference to foreign authorities. The diagrams, too, drawn from the official despatches, which are generally vague and frequently inaccurate, are often more remarkable for the fancy than for the correctness of their delineations. He wrote also a pamphlet on the round stern controversy in the form of a letter to Sir Robert Seppings (8vo, 20 pp. 1824).
[Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biog. ii. (vol. i. pt. ii.) 764; O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict.; Gent. Mag. (1855), new ser. xliv. 315.]
EKINS, JEFFERY, D.D. (d. 1791), dean of Carlisle, was a native of Barton-Seagrave, Northamptonshire, of which parish his father, the Rev. Jeffery Ekins, M.A., was rector. He received his education at Eton, whence in 1749 he was elected to King's College, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship (Welch, Alumni Eton. p. 338). He graduated B.A. in 1755 and M.A. in 1758 (Cantabrigienses Graduati, 1787, p. 129). On leaving the university he became one of the assistant-masters of Eton school, where he was tutor to Frederick Howard, earl of Carlisle (Jesse, G, Selwyn and his Contemporaries, iii. 220). Subsequently he was chaplain to the Earl of Carlisle when lord-lieutenant of Ireland. He was inducted to the rectory of Quainton, Buckinghamshire, 30 March 1761, on the presentation of his father (Lipscombe, Bucks, 1. 422). In 1775, resigning Quainton, he was instituted to the rectory of Morpeth, Northumberland, on the presentation of the Earl of Carlisle; in February 1777 he was instituted to the rectory of Sedgefield, Durham; in 1781 he was created D.D. at Cambridge; and in 1782 he was installed dean of Carlisle, on the advancement of Dr. Thomas Percy to the see of Dromore (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, iii. 248). He died at Parson's Green on 20 Nov. 1791, and was buried in Fulham Church.
He married in 1766 Anne, daughter of Philip Baker, esq. of Colston, Wiltshire, and sister of the wife of his brother, John Ekins, dean of Salisbury. His son. Admiral Sir Charles Ekins, is separately noticed.
His works are: 1. 'Florio; or the Pursuit of Happiness,' a drama, manuscript. 2. A manuscript poem upon 'Dreams,' which had great merit. 3. 'The Loves of Medea and Jason; a poem in three books translated from the Greek of Apollonius Rhodius's Argonautics,' London, 1771, 4to, 2nd edit. 1772, 8vo. 4. 'Poems,' London, 1810, 8vo, pp. 134, including the preceding work and a number of 'Miscellaneous Pieces.' Only sixty copies were printed of this collection (Martin, Privately Printed Books, 2nd edit. p. 190).
In early life he was the most intimate companion of Richard Cumberland, who says of him: 'My friend Jeffery was in my family, as I was in his, an inmate ever welcome; his genius was quick and brilliant, his temper sweet, and his nature mild and gentle in the extreme: I lived with him as a brother; we never had the slightest jar; nor can I recollect a moment in our lives that ever gave occasion of offence to either' (Memoirs, i. 124).
[Faulkner's Fulham, pp. 74, 75, 302; Hodgson s Northumberland, vol. ii. pt. ii. pp. 394, 527; Gent. Mag. vol. lxi. pt. ii. pp. 1070, 1239, 1240, vol. lxxxiii. pt. i. p. 557, 'Nichols's lllustr. of Lit. viii. 191, 267; Lempriere's Univ. Biog.; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Lysons's Environs, ii. 369, 393; Addit. MS. 5868, f. 19 b.]
ELCHIES, Lord. [See Grant, Patrick, 1690–1754.]
ELD, GEORGE (1791–1862), antiquary, was born in Coventry in 1791. He carried on business successively as a miller, a silk dealer, and a dyer; he was also for twenty years editor of the 'Coventry Standard.' He was the last mayor of Coventry (1834–5) before the passing of the Municipal Reform Act, and, besides filling other public offices, an alderman of the reformed corporation till his death. During his mayoralty he restored the interior of the mayoresses parlour — an architectural relic of the fourteenth century — and throughout his life he rendered valuable service in preserving and stimulating public appreciation of the antiquities of his native
