(c.1721 - 1806), explorer, colonial governor, s. of Francis Ellis of Monoghan; author of A Voyage to Hudson's Bay [1746 - 7] ... for Discovering the North-West Passage [1748]; FRS 1749; gov. of Georgia 1758 - 61 and Nova Scotia 1761 - 3.
- 1746
1764 - 5 Florence (Nov. 1764), Naples (Jan. 1765), Genoa (Dec. 1765)
1771 - 2 Rome (Easter 1771), Pisa, Leghorn ( - 22 Apr. 1772)
1793 - 5 Pisa (Nov. 1793, Mar. 1794, Jan. 1795)
Henry Ellis had just returned from Italy in 1746 when he joined an expedition in search of the north-west passage (DNB).
On retirement from his colonial governorships, as 'a gentleman of uncommon talents, and considerable fortune', Ellis was in the habit of wintering abroad, 'in the South of France, or in Italy; mostly at Marseilles'.1 Thus he was in Florence with Horace Mann in November 1764; Edward Gibbon saw him in Naples in January 1765, and James Boswell met him in Genoa in December 1765.2 'Il Governatore Cliss - inglese' was staying near the Piazza di Spagna in Rome at Easter 1771,3 and in 1772 came from Pisa to Leghorn whence he sailed on the 22nd for Marseilles and London.4 He was in Pisa in November 1793, March 1794 and January 1795.5
1. Gardenstone, 1:100 - 1. Voltaire, no.70. 2. Martin jnl.MSS (8 Nov. 1764). Gibbon Letters, 1:190. Boswell, Italy, 238 (1 - 9 Dec. 1765). 3. AVR SA, S.Andrea delle Fratte, 1771. Gazz.Tosc. 4. Diario Ordinario, 8 May 1772. Gazz.Tosc. 5. Broadlands MSS (Ct. Rumford, 29 Nov. 1793). Bentham jnl.MSS (23 Mar. 1794). Cochrane jnl.MSS (7 Jan. 1795).