789 



ELLIS, WILLIAM. 



ELLISTON, ROBERT WILLIAM. 



770 



with the progress of Christian missions in the Sandwich and South 

 Sea Islands, became officially connected with the London Missionary 

 Society in 1815. In November of that year Mr. Ellis married Miss 

 Mary Mercy, a young lady who, under deep religious convictions, had 

 been led to offer herself for missionary work before she became 

 acquainted with her future husband and fellow-labourer. In Decem- 

 ber 1815 Mr. and Mrs. Ellis embarked at Portsmouth, and finally sailed 

 from Spithead on January 23rd, 1816. The vessel in which they took 

 their passage visited New South Wales and New Zealand, called at 

 Tahiti, and reached the island of Eimco about thirteen months after 

 leaving England. From this period till October 1824, Mr. and Mrs. 

 Ellis were constantly and zealously engaged in promoting the instruc- 

 tion and welfare of the natives of Raiatea, Huahine, and other of the 

 South Sea Islands : Mr. Ellis visited in 1822 Hawaii, or Owhyhee, the 

 chief island of the Sandwich group, and in the following year removed 

 his family thither. The result of bis acquaintance with the condition 

 of the islands and the character of the population, he has given in a 

 work of great interest, entitled ' Polynesian Researches.' Among 

 other works brought out by the missionaries for the benefit of the 

 natives, in 1823, a small book of hymns, in the native language, for use 

 in religious worship, was prepared under Mr. Ellis's superintendence, 

 and i rinted at the mission press at Oahu. 



The health of Mra. Ellis having become seriously affected, her 

 husband found It necessary to leave the scene of their labours, and in 

 October 1821 they set sail on board the 'Russell,' an American ship, 

 and arrived at New Bedford, Massachusetts, in March 1825. The 

 owners of the vessel declined remuneration for the passage, and by 

 numerous persons in Boston and the neighbourhood Mr. Ellis and his 

 family were treated with much kindness. During his residence in 

 America he took part in public meetings on behalf of the missionary 

 cause, the more readily that he bad been on terms of cordial friendship 

 with Mr. Stewart and other American missionaries at Honolulu, the 

 capital of the Sandwich Islands. Mr. and Mrs. Ellis arrived in London 

 in August 1825. Mrs. Ellis experienced occasional intervals of im- 

 provement in the state of her health, and her husband was occupied 

 in connection with the business of the London Missionary Society at 

 home. Mrs. Ellis died on January 18th, 1835. Mr. Ellis subsequently 

 married Miss Sarah Stickney, a lady known as the author of several 

 useful works on female education and the promotion of social im- 

 provement. Of these may be named ' The Women of England,' 

 ' The Mothers of England,' and ' The Daughters of England ; ' ' Family 

 Secrets, or How to Make Home Happy ; ' ' A Voice from the Vintage,' 

 and other works bearing on the Temperance Reformation. Mr. Ellis 

 being in poor health, and suffering from depression of spirits, paid a 

 vi.-it to Pau, accompanied by his wife, and the result of their resi- 

 dence there was published for the information of other excursionists, 

 under the title of 'Summer and Winter in the Pyrenees.' They have 

 since resided at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, where Mrs. Ellis has con- 

 ducted an educational establishment for females. Among the more 

 important of Mr. Ellis's productions may be named a ' History of 

 Madagascar/ published in 2 vols. 8vo, in 1S39, prepared by him from 

 information received from the missionaries and from government 

 official documents. The state of affairs in Madagascar having been 

 muuli improved of late, and the profession of the Christian religion 

 being now tolerated in that island, Mr. Ellis, who is in improved 

 health, has recently proceeded to Madagascar on a mission of obser- 

 vation for the London Missionary Society. Among his other works 

 are' Narrative of a Tour through Owhyhee,' 1826; 'History of the 

 London Missionary Society,' and ' A Vindication of the South Sea Mis- 

 sions from the Misrepresentations of M. von Kotzebue,' 1831 : ' Village 

 Lectures on Popery,' 1851 ; and an interesting memoir of the first 

 Mrs. Ellis, published in 1835. 



* ELLIS, WILLIAM, claims a place in this work, not merely as 

 a writer on Social Science, but as having been the means of intro- 

 ducing it into schools as an important branch of elementary educa- 

 tion. He wag born in the vicinity of London in 1800. The sou of a 

 gentleman engaged in commercial pursuit*, he was early placed in a 

 mercantile office, and soon acquired such a position among commercial 

 men, that, at the age of twenty -six, he was appointed manager of a 

 marine insurance office a post he has ever since held, the office under 

 bis management having become one of the most successful establish- 

 ments of its kind in the metropolis. But commercial pursuits did not 

 at any time entirely engross his thoughts. His attention was in early 

 life drawn to the subject of political economy by the circumstance of 

 his copying for Mr. Tooke (who was a friend of his father) the manu- 

 script of his work on Prices ; and it was for Mr. Ellis a fortunate cir- 

 cumstance that, while involved in the difficulties which that mass of 

 facU was sure to present to a young inquirer, he found no less able 

 a guide than the late James Mill, under whose advice he prosecuted 

 the study with great ardour and with corresponding success. And 

 here perhaps it may be worth while to call attention to one fact in 

 Mr. Ellis' s history, which, besides exercising probably a very powerful 

 influence in the moulding of his opinions, both on literary and political 

 subjects, has certainly impressed a marked character upon his educa- 

 tional efforts. His study of economic science in early life, like hia 

 teaching of it in hi* riper years, was not a thing of books merely. 

 Not undervaluing books, yet not content to rest his belief on authority 

 as tuch, he investigated fur himself, and so conducts his lessons that 



the boys do really investigate for themselves. The conclusions of the 

 writers on political economy were iu his hands propositions for inves- 

 tigation. He tried them against the phenomena of industrial life, as 

 his daily commercial experience gave him opportunity ; and the know- 

 ledge so gained has rendered him one of the discoverers in the science, 

 as well as perhaps one of its most zealous and able advocates. And 

 when we call to mind the great social changes of the present century, 

 it will not be difficult to understand how large the field, and how im- 

 portant the subjects on which Mr. Ellis's observation has been exer- 

 cised. In his boyhood Mr. Tooke put him iu possession of all that 

 was then understood of Bank restriction acts and a depreciated currency. 

 Since then he has seen our currency, as at present established, assailed 

 in every panic from that of 1825 to that of 1848; and during the 

 same period there have passed under his scrutiny all the great strikes 

 by which workmen have been deluded into the ho:ie of alleviat- 

 ing the sufferings incident to insufficient wages. These evils in- 

 duced Mr. Ellis to make some attempt at removing them ; and 

 further impelled, it may be, by the kindly feelings towards children 

 which form a prominent feature in his character, he determined, if 

 possible, to introduce into schools such instruction as should send 

 boys into the world furnished with intelligent thoughts upon all the 

 great questions relating to industrial life. With this view he began in 

 1846 a series of lessons to the elder boys of a British school to which 

 for some years previously he had been accustomed to render assist- 

 ance ; and about the same time he also gathered round him a group 

 of schoolmasters with whom he went over the course of inquiry which 

 will be found in his ' Progressive Lessons ; ' and these ' Lessons ' will 

 also furnish a good illustration of the mode of teaching adopted. The 

 boys had no tasks to learn by rote, but the whole of the subjects 

 brought before them, with the exception of things merely technical 

 and arbitrary, were, so to speak, developed by the boys themselves, 

 they being guided in their inquiries of course by the questions of the 

 teacher. Thus these lessons came to be something more than the 

 mere teaching of dry academical political economy. They assumed in 

 fact the character of moral lessons. For, thus taught, not only do 

 children learn as a matter of fact about what is going on as the every- 

 day work of industrial life, but they are continually invited to inves- 

 tigate what ought to be the rule of conduct of those who are engaged 

 both in production and distribution. Not only, for example, would 

 children learn the fact that the merchant does buy iu the cheapest 

 and sell in the dearest market, but the questions would come, ' Ought 

 he to buy in the cheapest market ?' ' Ought he to sell in the dearest 

 market ? ' ' Why ? or why not ? ' And such questioning, as may easily 

 be perceived, when managed by a competent teacher, tends to a high 

 order of mental and moral training. 



Having thus " satisfied himself that social science may be made 

 attractive to intelligent boys . . . and feeling certain that the habits 

 of reflection and self examination, which its study calls forth, cannot 

 fail to impart a useful bias to their character and conduct in after- 

 life," Mr. Ellis proceeded to establish schools in which instruction in 

 social science should be a leading feature. The Birkbeck schools are 

 all his, and, with the exception of the one in the London Mechanics 

 Institute, they have been established, and one of the largest of them 

 erected, wholly at his expense. Besides these, there are many schools 

 about the country that have been influenced by his books or his 

 teaching; and his views have found, or are finding, acceptance with 

 all the leading educationalists of the day. 



As supplementary to his ' Lessons,' and to assist teachers in giving 

 similar lessons, Mr. Ellis prepared a series of elementary works on 

 social science. Of these the principal are the ' Outlines of Social 



the Arrangements of Social Life ;' and ' Progressive Lessons in Social 

 Science.' The most recent of these introductory works, the ' Pheno- 

 mena of Industrial Life," edited by the Dean of Hereford, might be 

 taken as an epitome of what Mr. Ellis has taught and is teaching 

 as social science. He has also written 'Education as a Means of 

 preventing Destitution," and some other pamphlets, besides contributing 

 some articles to the ' Westminster Review.' 



ELLISTON, ROBERT WILLIAM, was born in Bloomsbury, Lon- 

 don, on the 7th of April 1774. His father was a watchmaker, one of 

 whose brothers was Master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. 

 Young Elliston was placed at .St. Paul's School, where he distinguished 

 himself by recitations : but, when he was the fourth boy, he ran away 

 from school, became for a few weeks a lottery-clerk at Bath, and in 

 that town, in April 1791, appeared on the stage for the first time, per- 

 sonating a very humble character in ' Richard the Third.' He then 

 obtained an engagement in the company of Tate Wilkinson at York : 

 but, soon becoming tired of playing petty parts, he obtained through 

 his uncle a reconciliation with his family, and returned home. But 

 the truant disposition was invincible. In the season of 1793 he played 

 regularly at Bath, undertaking characters of all sorts : and in 1796 he 

 married Miss Rundall, a teacher of dancing there. In June of that 

 year he made his first appearance on a London stage, playing at the 

 Haymarket, in the same evening, the part of Octavian, and that of 

 Vapour in the farce of ' My Grandmother.' After occasional appear- 

 ances in that theatre, and a temporary engagement at Covent-Gardon 



