John Ellis (1789–1862), of Beaumont Leys and Belgrave Hall in Leicester,[2] was an English Quaker, a noted Liberal reformer and an accomplished businessman.

The GWR declined to increase their offer, and the Gloucester companies turned back to Ellis.

[4] John Ellis died in 1862 at Belgrave Hall[2] and was survived by a son, Edward Shipley Ellis, from his first marriage to Martha Shipley (d:1817); his second wife Priscilla Evans, and their three sons and six daughters.

[5] A grandson, also John Ellis, who lived 1841 to 1910, married into the Rowntree family (a prominent Quaker family), and became a Liberal politician and from 1905 to 1907 served as under-secretary of state for India in the Campbell-Bannerman administration.

Two great-granddaughters, Marian (Baroness Parmoor) and Edith Ellis were active anti-war campaigners at the time of the First World War.