John Ellis, F. R. S. Eighteenth century naturalist and Royal Agent to West Florida

Abstract

In 1754 John Ellis was elected to the Royal Society. During the next twenty two years, he won the Copley Prize in 1768, was elected to the Council in 1769, and published over thirty essays and monographs on natural history. In doing this Ellis laid the foundation of one area of zoology with his studies of zoophytes; published on the preservation of seeds and the natural history of coffee; and reported on new plants and insects. Furthermore his papers, containing correspondence with well over one hundred different people, provide a clearer picture o f the interrelationships which operated in the warp and woof of eighteenth century English and colonial science. Ellis was also a merchant in the Irish linen trade; a lobbyest at Westminster for the Irish Linen Board; the Royal Agent for West Florida, and the Colonial Agent for Dominica.