ELLYS, William (d.1611), of Bristol.

Ellys was one of the Bristol MPs who saw through the House a bill for the erection of a hospital for orphans and the poor. He may have attended committees concerning forestallers (7 Nov.), cloth (18 Nov.), a bill concerning merchant adventurers of Bristol (28 Nov.), Newport bridge (29 Nov.), and bread (13 Jan. 1598), to which the burgesses of Bristol were appointed. His trade was presumably to Spain and Portugal, for he was named in the grant of incorporation to the merchants trading to these countries made by James I in 1605. He was also one of the four Bristol merchants named as assistants to the new company. His will, made on 12 May 1610, was proved by his son Philip on 15 Mar. following. He left £10 to the poor of Bristol and £10 to those of Bideford, where he was born.D’Ewes, 552, 558, 564, 565, 571; S. Seyer, Mems. of Bristol, i. 255; CSP Dom. 1598-1601, p. 187; HMC Hatfield, ix. 139, 325; Recs. Merchant Venturers of Bristol, ed. McGrath (Bristol Rec. Soc. xvii), 2-3, PCC 20 Wood.