He became a partner in the North West Company, and during the struggle with Lord Selkirk he played an important part.

Ellice was a co-owner of eight sugar estates in Grenada, British Guiana, Tobago and Antigua.

His brother General Robert Ellice married Eliza Courtney; one of their grandsons became his son's heir in 1880.

On returning from Canada in 1838, Ellice bought the estate of Glenquoich in Lochaber,[6] and built a lodge on the shores of Loch Quoich designed by Inverness architect Alexander Ross.

In the summer and autumn months he entertained a wide range of guests there, including artists, writers, statesmen and diplomats.

In the 1840s Ellice was also a shooting tenant on Sir George Macpherson Grant's Invereshie estate in Badenoch.

Over a seven year period his sporting yields there were 14,560 grouse, 810 ptarmigan and 146 blackcock, plus woodcock, partridge, teal, snipe and mountain hares.