Powhatan Ellis (1790-1863)

Powhatan Ellis was born in Amherst County, Virginia and was named for the father of Pocahontas, from whom the family claimed descent. He was a student at Washington Academy and then at Dickinson as a member of the class of 1810. The College has no record of his graduation, however.

He studied law at the College of William and Mary, 1813-1814, and took up a practice in Lynchburg. He served as a lieutenant of volunteers during the War of 1812 but saw no action. By 1815 he had formed a friendship with Andrew Jackson who introduced him to friends in the Mississippi Territory. Relocating to the territory in 1816 as it entered statehood, these friendships made Ellis well- connected, and in 1818 he was appointed to the state Supreme Court. He served in the U.S. Senate for a few months from September 1825 to January 1826 as a replacement but failed to secure the permanent seat. However, he did serve a full term as U. S. Senator between 1827 and 1832. He was then appointed as federal judge of the district of Mississippi by President Jackson. Four years later, Jackson sent Ellis to Mexico City in the highly sensitive position of charge d'affaires; he served as minister plenipotentiary to Mexico under President Van Buren until 1842 when he returned to Mississippi.

Powhatan Ellis married Eliza Rebecca Winn in February 1831, and the couple had a son and a daughter. Later in life, Ellis returned to Virginia and lived in Richmond, where he died on March 13, 1863.