ELLIS, Andrew (c.1624-72), of Mold, Flint

Ellis’s family had been settled in the parish of Bangor-on-Dee since the late thirteenth century, and his great-grandfather had acted as standard bearer to Owain Glyndwr, the Welsh rebel, a century later.13Arch. Cambr. (1890), 107. In 1587 Humphrey Ellis of Althrey, Andrew Ellis’s grandfather, was included in one of the heralds’ pedigrees.14M.P. Siddons, The Development of Welsh Heraldry (4 vols, Aberystwyth,1991-2006), ii. 144. Andrew Ellis seems to have played no part in the first civil war. In July 1646 he was one of the three securities accepted by the committee for compounding for the royalist 7th earl of Derby’s estate, which suggests that he had had some role to play in its management, presumably in Flintshire.15CCC 247. By April 1650, Ellis was associated with the gathered church at Wrexham under the spiritual leadership of Morgan Llwyd; one of Llwyd’s leading lay associates, Daniel Lloyd, was party to one of the deeds drawn up by Ellis and his father.16NLW, Plymouth MSS 1736-7. In June that year he was appointed steward of Derby’s sequestered estate in Flintshire, on the county committee’s recommendation.17CCC 253. With Sir John Trevor* and George Twisleton* he went on to purchase the earl’s properties in north Wales, taking the manor of Mold as his share.18LJ xi. 91b. In the meantime, Ellis was establishing himself as a figure in the region’s administration. He was appointed to the commission of association for north Wales (Aug. 1648) and as commissioner of sequestration in the area (Aug. 1649) and for propagation of the gospel in Wales (Feb. 1650).19A. and O. There is no evidence that he was notably active in the latter commission, however. In August 1650 he was commissioned a captain in a troop of the north Wales militia, and ordered to garrison Hawarden Castle.20CSP Dom. 1650, pp. 270, 508. In March 1651 he was added to the north Wales militia commissions, and immediately afterwards drew attention to the need to reinforce Chirk Castle and to ensure its garrison was properly paid.21CSP Dom. 1651, pp. 102, 105. Some of the soldiers he paid at Chirk received their money from Sir Thomas Myddelton22Chirk Castle Accounts 1605-1666 comp. W.M. Myddelton (1908), 31.. It was to him, and John Eyton of Leeswood, that his first cousin, Sir Thomas Hanmer*, leased Hanmer on 1 Sept. 1651.23J. Hanmer, Par. and Fam. of Hanmer (1877), 85, 87, 95. He was in London in December 1651, an inefficient messenger between Llwyd and his correspondents in the metropolis; and it was through Ellis, in July 1652, that the Independent minister Peter Sterry sent Llwyd one of his sermons.24NLW MS 11439D, ff. 9, 40-1. Ellis was appointed a commissioner for poor prisoners in Flintshire in December 1653.25A. and O. That year, in August, pre-nuptial deeds were drawn up for the marriage between Ellis and Frances, daughter of James Fiennes*, who was related by marriage to George Twisleton, and at this point Ellis’s father was evidently still living. He must have died soon afterwards.26NLW Plymouth MSS 1742-3; CP; Collins, Peerage vii. 24.

Ellis was returned for Flintshire, with John Trevor*, in 1654. He made no mark on the records of the House in this, his only Parliament. In December 1655 Major-general James Berry* nominated him as sheriff for the county, and although Ellis was not eventually chosen for that position he became custos rotulorum the following year, and in June 1657 was named to the county assessment commission.27TSP iv. 287; A. and O. In May 1656, a dispute between Ellis and the Presbyterian minister, Robert Fogg, over a pew in Bangor-on-Dee church, was submitted to arbitration.28NLW, Plymouth MS 902. Ellis continued to serve as a local commissioner after the fall of the protectorate, in September 1659 he was active as sequestrator of the property of delinquents in Denbighshire and Flintshire.29CCC 751.

After the restoration of the monarchy, Ellis’s property transactions came back to haunt him. His title to the manor of Mold was impugned when the 8th earl of Derby sought the recovery of his family estate and on 14 June 1660 his rents were frozen.30HMC 6th Rep. 149. In July the Lords reported that Ellis had been culpable in setting aside the tenants’ pre-emptive rights after sequestration, and with his co-purchasers had pocketed his share of £9,000 redemption money paid them by John Glynne*, thereby defrauding the earl, who had received only a token sum from Glynne. Ellis’s father-in-law petitioned on his behalf, but the earl of Derby’s estate bill proceeded in 1661 to discount his, Sir John Trevor’s and Twisleton’s claims, despite their petition to be heard at the bar of the House.31LJ xi. 91b-92a; HMC 7th Rep. 118, 146; CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 291. The bill was, however, denied royal assent in 1662. Ellis languished in Flintshire until, on 24 June 1667, he was appointed as his deputy by Sir Henry Bennet†, 1st Baron Arlington, the postmaster-general.32CSP Dom. 1667, p. 228. He was soon busy intercepting suspect mail, remaining active up to the time of his death in July 1672.33CSP Dom. 1672, pp. 282, 387. Ellis left an only daughter, Cicely, whose first husband was Sir Richard Langley, son of John Langley*; her second was her cousin, William Fiennes, son, of John Fiennes*. She died childless in 1715.34CP xi. 489n.