George Ellis senior

Owner of Green Castle in St Mary, Jamaica. Died in 1753, three months before the birth of his son George junior. Married to Charlotte Long, sister of the historian Edward Long. His brother John Ellis senior inherited George's property as heir-at-law as George's will made no mention of posthumous children. Erroneously given in his son's entry in the ODNB as 'member of the house of assembly of St George, Grenada, West Indies'. Feurtado has George Ellis as Member of Assembly for St George, Jamaica, in 1751.

George Ellis of St Mary, Esquire. Estate probated in Jamaica in 1754. Slave-ownership at probate: 536 of whom 302 were listed as male and 234 as female. 107 were listed as boys, girls or children. Total value of estate at probate: £30,347.24 Jamaican currency of which £21,249 currency was the value of enslaved people. Estate valuation included £0 currency cash, £2,353 currency debts and £1,076.18 currency plate.

George Ellis, deceased was listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owner of 3568 acres of land in St Catherine, 1630 acres in St George, 2379 acres in St Mary, 1120 acres in St John and 940 acres in St Thomas-in-the-Vale, total 9637 acres.

Kathleen Mary Butler, The Economics of Emancipation (Chapel Hill, 1995) pp. 49-50.

J. M. Rigg, ‘Ellis, George (1753–1815)’, rev. Rebecca Mills, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.

W. A. Fuertado, Official and Other Personages of Jamaica from 1655 to 1790 Compiled from Various Sources (1896), transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/b/bfeurtado08.htm.

Trevor Burnard, Database of Jamaican inventories, 1674-1784.

'A List of landholders in the Island of Jamaica together with the number of acres each person possessed taken from the quit rent books in the year 1754', TNA CO 142/31 transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Samples2/1754lead.htm.

We are grateful to Mary Cornelius for her assistance with compiling this entry.