George James Welbore Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover

Later 1st Baron Dover. Politician and writer.

National Gallery Trustee (1827–1833).

Agar-Ellis was the only son of Henry Agar-Ellis, 2nd Viscount Clifden, and Lady Caroline, daughter of George Spencer, 4th Duke of Malborough. He was a Whig politician, holding the seats of Heytesbury from 1818, Seaford from 1820 to 1826, Ludgershall from 1826 to 1830 and Okehampton from 1830 to 1831. On 1 July 1823 he proposed to the House of Commons that it purchase Angerstein’s (q.v.) collection to form the National Gallery, and he was among the first group of trustees appointed in 1824.

As a Member of Parliament Agar-Ellis was a mild abolitionist. He was one of the vice-presidents of the committee of the Anti-Slavery Society, formed in 1823, of which William Wilberforce was president. (Anti-Slavery Monthly Reporter, 3, June 1829 - December 1830 [online], London 1831, Internet Archive <https://archive.org/details/antislaverymonth2930maca> accessed 27 May 2021, 268.) The Proceedings of the First Anniversary Meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society, 25 June 1824, reported his speech after the report had been read: ‘The Honorable Agar Ellis said, that he had heard with very great pleasure, in common with the whole of this large assembly, the Report, which had just been so well read; and he hoped, and indeed he sincerely believed, that the endeavours of this Society in the cause of freedom and humanity were likely to be from day to day productive of fresh benefits.… He felt most deeply interested in the proceedings of this Society, and earnestly hoped and trusted that its endeavours would be crowned with the complete success which they deserved.’ (Report of the Committee of the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Dominion read at the General Meeting of the Society held on 25th day of June 1824, together with an account of the Proceedings which took place at that meeting [online], London 1824, Hathi Trust <https://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89083428953> accessed 27 May 2021, 45.)

He presented anti-slavery petitions on 15 March 1824, and next day attended the debate on Canning’s ‘very ingenious plan for amelioration of the condition of the slaves’. He attended a public meeting on amelioration, where ‘we talked a good deal, but arranged nothing’, on 1 May 1824. (D. R. Fisher, ‘AGAR ELLIS, Hon. George James Welbore (1797-1833), of 8 Spring Gardens, Mdx’, in History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History [online], London, 1964 -, 1820-1832 <https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/agar-ellis-hon-george-1797-1833> accessed 7 December 2020.)

No known connections with slavery.

Agar-Ellis was a mild abolitionist as an MP. He was reported in 1824 ‘going to a meeting of slave trade abolitionists at Wilberforce’s lodgings in Downing Street’. He presented anti-slavery petitions on 15 March 1824, and the next day attended the debate on Canning’s ‘very ingenious plan for amelioration of the condition of the slaves’. He attended a public meeting on amelioration, where ‘we talked a good deal, but arranged nothing’, on 1 May 1824. (D. R. Fisher, ‘AGAR ELLIS, Hon. George James Welbore (1797-1833), of 8 Spring Gardens, Mdx’, in History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History [online], London, 1964 -, 1820-1832 <https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/agar-ellis-hon-george-1797-1833>, accessed 7 December 2020.)

A. Aspinall, 'AGAR ELLIS, Hon. George James Welbore (1797-1833)', in History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History, London 1964-, 1790-1820, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/agar-ellis-hon-george-james-welbore-1797-1833
Checked and found — Item on publisher's website

G. F. R. Barker and H. C. G. Matthew, 'Ellis, George James Welbore Agar-, first Baron Dover', in C. Matthew et al. (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford 1992-, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/8693
Checked and found — Item on publisher's website

D. R. Fisher, 'AGAR ELLIS, Hon. George James Welbore (1797-1833), of 8 Spring Gardens, Mdx', in History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History, London 1964-, 1820-1832, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/agar-ellis-hon-george-1797-1833
Checked and found — Item on publisher's website

J. Turner et al. (eds), Grove Art Online, Oxford 1998-, https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/
Checked and not found — Item on publisher's website

UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership, London 2020, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/
Checked and not found — Item on publisher's website