Researching Thomas Ellis

Ellis was the son of Thomas Flower Ellis. Born in Walthamstow, he was educated in Hackney and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1818, and was elected a fellow in 1819. He was a brilliant scholar, though only a senior optime in the mathematical tripos.

He became a member of Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar in February 1824, and for some years went the northern circuit. Here he first became acquainted with Thomas Babington Macaulay, and he remained Macaulay's close friend until his death. So attached were they, that when Macaulay went to India, Ellis wrote to him that, "next to his wife, he was the person for whom he felt the most thorough attachment, and in whom he placed the most unlimited confidence". In later life they visited the continent together every autumn, and he was an executor of Macaulay's will. After his friend died the light seemed to have gone out of Ellis's life, but he occupied himself in preparing for publication the posthumous collection of Macaulay's essays, in 1831 he was a commissioner under the Reform Act 1831 to determine the boundaries of parliamentary boroughs in Wales. In early life he enjoyed a considerable practice.

He was till his death Attorney-General for the Duchy of Lancaster, and had "Palatine silk"; and in 1839 he succeeded Armstrong as Recorder of Leeds. He was, about 1830, a contributor to the Edinburgh Review, was a member of the Useful Knowledge Society, and revised several of its publications. He is best known as part author of three excellent series of law reports: Adolphus and Ellis, 1835–1842; Ellis and Blackburn, 1853–1858 (the co-author was Colin Blackburn, the future Law Lord); and Ellis and Ellis, published after his death. He was a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and elected in 1847 a fellow of the Royal Society.

He died at his house, 15 Bedford Place, Russell Square, on 5 April 1861. His wife died in March 1839; and he had two children, Francis and Marian. Robert Leslie Ellis was his cousin.