Richard Ellis

Richard Ellis (November 6, 1792) was an early Anglo-American settler of the Mississippi River valley. He was the namesake of Ellis Cliffs, Mississippi.

Biography One account puts Richard Ellis in Mississippi as early as 1772, after he had first settled in Louisiana. According to Edith Wyatt Moore, he first settled in what is now Pointe Coupee Parish in 1772 on a Spanish land grant. His daughter Jane Ellis was married to George Rapalje "in the province prior to 1772." Rapalje was a British soldier "probably stationed at the fort in Baton Rouge, as Sir William Dunbar mentions him several times in his diary written while living near Baton Rouge between the years 1776 and 1780. This clearly demonstrates that George Rapalje was not an English veteran of the Revolution, but a Provincial trooper stationed in British territory." Ellis settled near the White Cliffs, so-called because of their resemblance to the White Cliffs of Dover in England. When Richard Ellis died he owned of land and had a household of 97 people, presumably predominantly slaves. His real property included "800 arpents on Buffalo Creek, b. by lands of Mr. Chabot, Homochitto River and said creek, with small house, four cabins and a barn 16 ft. square; 1050 arpents at White Cliffs, 5 leagues from Natchez, b. by Daniel Clark, Anthony Hutchins and Don Philip Trevino; 1600 arpents b. by Daniel Clark, and vacant lands; 800 arpents at Buffalo Creek, b. by Jesse Carter and Mrs. Farar; 600 arpents at St. Catherine's Creek b. by Abner Green and vacant lands, 900 arpents in Villa Gayoso District, b. by Daniel Perry; 200 arpents in Villa Gayoso, b. by said Richard Ellis". Another account states that more than 150 enslaved people were named in Ellis' will, from which "we perceive that Ellis founded one of our earliest fortunes".

The Ellis family became part of the Natchez nabob class and remained influential in Mississippi until the civil war and beyond. According to D. Clayton James in Antebellum Natchez (1968), "The leadership of the [ Adams County] gentry changed little from 1799 to 1860. Throughout the era such clans as the Ellises, Dunbars, Hutchinses, Farrars, Bislands, and Brandons stood pre-eminent in landholdings, slave ownership, and social prestige."

Personal life Richard Ellis was married in 1754 to Mary Cocke, a sister of future Tennessee governor and Cocke County, Tennessee namesake William Alexander Cocke. Mary Cocke and Richard Ellis were said to have had seven children.

Jane Ellis (d. 1823) m. George Rapalje (d. ) m. Margaret Gaillard (a daughter of Tacitus Gaillard) Anna Ellis, possibly called "Nancy" m. Thomas Butler The Laurel Hill house was built near where a "previous French dwelling" had stood. Under Mercer and Young, the house had a secret staircase, a "Swiss chalet" in the garden that served as a billiard room, and a chapel with a rose window was constructed nearby. He also painted a mourning portrait of Benjamin Young's sister Elizabeth Henrietta Young with her friend and relative, the late Anna Elizabeth Mercer. The main house at Laurel Hill burned in 1967. Several outbuildings, including a brick kitchen, barns, and storage buildings, and the more remote chapel building, survived the fire.