Dr James ELLIS

[MyMissyJ]

Dr James Ellis was a surgeon in the Royal Navy. He had 5 trips to Australia as Surgeon Superintendent on Convict ships including 'Diana' and 'Westmoreland'. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons any rate in 1813. He married Elizabeth Fuzzey at Bromley by licence c 1822. Children of the marriage were Edwin James, Alfred, James Fuzzey, Amelia and Emily. James married Eliza in Australia in the late 1830's. He appears to have remained married to Elizabeth. He died in London about 1863. I would like to track down his date and place of birth and his parents.
Thanks
Missy

[jeeb]

Hi Missy,
There does appear to be a further child to the ones you listed:-

Elizabeth dau of James & Elizabeth Ellis bap. 20 June 1823 Bromley Kent.

Jeremy

[MyMissyJ]

Thanks Jeremy,
I forgot to add Elizabeth to the list of James and Elizabeth's children. She never married and she assisted her mother in running a boarding house in Brighton. Elizabeth predeceased her mother. Edwin and Alfred and his wife nee Mary Randall. both emigrated to Australia, James Fuzzey married Elizabeth Pentland, Emily married a Mr Crisford and Amelia married George Kunz also sometimes listed as King. Edwin married Hannah Ellis in Australia.
James and Elizabeth, his wife are our brick walls as they seem to just appear out of nowhere. Thank you too for my welcome to the site, some interesting pieces to read and also nice to find the answers to some questions in other peoples' replies.
Missy

[blue eyes]

According to the 1861 census Elizabeth Ellis lodging housekeeper is a widow so James died before 1863.

[jeeb]

Hi Missy,
The 1861 census also tells you that Elizabeth Ellis (nee Fussey) was born in Hastings. This is where she is in 1861 and as Blue Eyes has quite rightly stated is already referred to as widow. It would also appear from the 1861 census that Amelia was born in 1838. What proof do you have that James 'married' Eliza in Australia in the late 1830's, are you sure it is the same man?
It seems odd I cannot locate the family on either the 1841 or 1851 censuses despite a fairly extensive search.

Jeremy

[MyMissyJ]

James was married on the 22nd of August 1822 at St Peter and St Paul Bromley by special licence. He and Elizabeth also owned the Plough Inn at Bromley and we have a copy of the indentures for this. James died 17th April 1863 at 7 Belgrade Street Pimlico London Uk. This information is taken from his death certificate, his will in which he left his worldly goods to his 2nd wife Eliza and from his naval records. He was buried on the 19th April 1863. We also have a letter from the Royal College of Surgeons which give us the dates he obtained his membership of the College but they have no other records of him. He owned land in NSW and had a medical practice in Yass NSW and also practised for a time in Sydney. We have Newspaper records in Yass and various other records that link all the James as being the one person. I also have copies of a couple of his ship's journals and the signatures on all of them are so similar as to suggest also that the documents were all written by the same hand.
Missy

[MyMissyJ]

James wife was Elizabeth Fuzzey not Fussey as evidenced by her marriage lines and also that down through at least 4 generations a one of the sons has been
given the name of Fuzzey as part of his baptismal names. I have found Alfred on the 1851 Census. He was then married to Mary Randall and his young brother James was also living with them. I have never been able to find Elizabeth Amelia and Emily, James or Edwin in 1851. Edwin and James may have been at sea or in Australia at the time.

[MyMissyJ]

We have 11 day old twins in the house at present so our lives are a bit 'fuzzy' and totally disjointed. We have a copy of James' Australian Marriage certificate but there seem to have been no children born into this relationship and we suspect that it was a bigamous marriage. He seems to have kept Eliza in Australia and continued his relationship with Elizabeth each time he returned to England although he may have taken Eliza with him on his final trip home and that is why Elizabeth then designated herself as a widow. Each record that we have in which Elizabeth has to give her birthplace she gives a different place and it seems that she actually may have been born in Devon although this is unconfirmed. We also have copies of all his available naval records.

[Geoffers]

James was married on the 22nd of August 1822 at St Peter and St Paul Bromley by special licence.

Was by any chance his dad the bondsman on the licence allegation?

Did he go to university?

[jeeb]

Hi Missy,
This is a fascinating story of a double life. Imagine all those 'trips' to Australia which would have taken months each time. Have you found James in 1861 or any record of Eliza after the death of James? Apart from the 1861 census where have you found documentation of Elizabeth's birthplace? It sounds like James probably spent the majority of his last twenty years in Australia but why would he return to England 'to die'? This story has me totally intrigued.

Jeremy

[MyMissyJ]

After James became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons he served 17 years and three months in the Royal Navy as assistant surgeon then acting surgeon and finally surgeon, He requested details of his service in 1837 . He had several trips as Surgeon superintendent and the convict ships he sailed on up until then were the Westmoreland, Bengal Merchant, Diana,and Hooghley.
Extract from 'Doctors in Yass'
'Dr James Ellis had been a Naval Officer of some ability and standing. He practised in Yass for some years until about the late 1850's. He erected a small stone building as a residence and surgery on the corner of Dutton and Rossi streets named Crona. On leaving Yass he returned to the Naval Base.'
I would have to look out my copy of the indenture to see who signed it. We have a lot of paper work from both Australia and England for James. My task is to find out more about his early years. His story is fascinating though and one of his ideas that i really enjoyed reading about was when he suggested to the Admiralty that the way to keep the convict women under control on the long voyages to Australia was not to shave the heads of the recalcitrant ones as this only encouraged them to get the other women to misbehave so that they would also have their heads shaved, but rather to put casks of old rags on board the ships and then the women could spend their time gainfully employed in making patchwork. The patchwork could then be made into clothes for the convicts !!! The mind boggles at the thought of the convicts running around in Patchwork rather than the broad arrow.

[jeeb]

James wife was Elizabeth Fuzzey not Fussey as evidenced by her marriage lines

Hi Missy,
I'm loving this story and you seem to have been fortunate in what you have found. I suppose the marriage of James to Eliza doesn't mention a father's name does it?

With regards to Elizabeth being 'Fuzzey' on her marriage bond, that does not mean she will be necessarily baptised as Fuzzey. Fuzzey spelt in that form is very uncommon and there are no occurances where it is spelt Fuzzey at all in 1841 and only one in 1851 censuses. It is just as likely Elizabeth will be baptised under the far more common form of spelling for the name, ie Fussey. Spelling was not well established in the late 18th century and names were spelt phonetically.

How old was James Ellis when he died in 1863?

Jeremy

[MyMissyJ]

Have not found university for James. Suspect that his birth date may be wrong as he he would have been quite young in 1813 to be made a member of the Royal College of Surgeons as this is the earliest record we have of him. He was supposedly aa63 but this is definitely wrong. Elizabeth would have been listed as Ellis in the 1841 Census as she was married in the 1820's and we know that she had a brother named James Fuzzey who married Elizabeth Ellot. Her daughter Elizabeth would have also been listed as Ellis as the young Eizabeth never married. She may have been working as a servant in Kent in 1841.

[Lisle]

Hello Missy
James Ellis RN, surgeon, married Eliza Anne Macdonald 23 Feb 1835, Sydney, NSW. She was a daughter of Capt (George) Macdonald, 17th Regt (exchanged from 68th Regt) who was Guard Captain on "Bengal Merchant", arrived Sydney 30 Jan 1835. James Ellis was Surgeon Superintendent on the same voyage.
Capt Macdonald's wife Sarah (surname unknown) & 8 children travelled with him. Eliza Anne's siblings that I have traced are; Isabella m Henry O'Brien; Charlotte m Hon. Leopold Fane De Salis, son of the 4th Count De Salis; Robert m Sarah Beit; Sarah m Herbert Castelman Jeffreys; Julia m Rev. Arthur Earle Welby, son of 2nd Bt; Colin m Mary Emma Brown; Amelia m Robert Dundas Octavius Fergusson, son of 4th Bt.
Capt Macdonald was 'of Morar', Scotland & died NSW 25 Oct 1853; I have his Will; one witness was Rev.Welby. Amelia granted administration as her mother (executrix) died before the Will was proved. Regards Lisle

[Kerrywood]

Welcome to the BG forums, Lisle.

It's excellent to see a connection being made in this way. :smile5:

Since this thread was begun, the medical journals of some of the RN Surgeons who served on the convict ships have been catalogued online by the National Archives.

You may already be aware of this. If not, you may like to look at the catalogue entries for the convict ships Waterloo (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=5039003&CATLN=6&Highlight=%2CJOURNAL%2CJAMES%2CELLIS&accessmethod=0) and Westmoreland (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=5039009&CATLN=6&Highlight=%2CJOURNAL%2CJAMES%2CELLIS&accessmethod=0). There may also be others listed in the catalogue.

As you are both in Australia, access to the documents themselves is obviously difficult. But clicking Ordering and Viewing options will show you how to obtain copies from the National Archives, should you wish to do so.

[Lisle]

Thank you Kerrywood - I will do as you suggested. There may have been 2xJames Ellis, RN surgeons, possibly even father & son. It's difficult to imagine Dr James Ellis getting away with a bigamous marriage given that his marriage to Eliza Anne Macdonald appeared in newspapers & the Asiatic Journal. The Macdonald family's connections were substantial so if he already had a wife, he would have been unmasked pretty quickly.
Regards
Lisle

[MyMissyJ]

Hello Lisle,
Thank you for the information. I already have all the information about Eliza including the fact that she and James returned to England where he died leaving her as executrix of his will and leaving his very small estate to her. She married again to another Naval Medical man, John Stirling, who was much nearer to her own age, but who also predeceased her and again leaving her all that he had. Eliza herself also died in England. James was very good at hiding his tracks and we have long suspected that he was older than he said he was but have never been able to find a place of birth, date or parents for him. We think that he may have been born in Ireland. James did have a son James Fuzzey Ellis but he married and remained in England with his wife and child and was not involved with the navy. We have the lives of James' 3 sons and his 3 daughters well documented. His 2 older sons came to Australia, one brought his wife and 2 sons with him and the other who was my grandma's father married in Australia. The children did not seem to know too much about their father and that is understandable as he spent so much time in Australia. His eldest daughter remained with her mother at their boarding house in Brighton until her death.
If you like to e-mail me at - daffylil(at)hotmail.com - I would like to hear from you. I have a copy of James' journal from the Diana and have read the other journals that are available.
Dene