Robert Ellyson

Major Robert Ellyson ( 1615/20–1671) was a legislator, lawyer, military officer, and physician who served as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses representing the electoral constituency of James City County from 1655 to 1656 and from 1660 to 1665. An emigrant from Scotland to Maryland, Ellyson was selected sheriff of St. Mary's County, investigated the Richard Ingle uprising, and served as a physician in Kent County. By 1646, he had moved to York County, Virginia and began practicing law. In 1655, he was elected a burgess for James City County and appointed a justice of Gloucester County in 1657. An officer in the Virginia militia, accepted various local positions and was re-elected as a burgess in subsequent sessions. By the 1660s, he had patented hundreds of acres on the Virginia Peninsula. Ellyson died about 1671 in James City County. Background Ellyson's origins are disputed. While he may have been born between 1615 and 1620 in Lanarkshire, Scotland, neither this date range, precise location, nor his parentage have been confirmed. Ellyson's descendant, Elizabeth Allison Ervin, claimed in her family bible in the late 18th century that he was the son of Robert Allison and Sarah (née Spence) Allison, although the validity of this claim is questioned. Ervin also asserts that Ellyson's paternal grandparents were John Allison and Ellin (née Hamilton) Allison, and that following their marriage they emigrated from Lanark to Virginia prior to 1625. While a John Ellison arrived in the colony aboard the Prosperous and his wife, Ellin, on the Charitie about 1623, a familial connection to Robert Ellyson has not been verified.