Richard Ellis (February 14, 1781 – December 20, 1846) was an American planter, lawyer, and jurist. In 1836 he presided over the Texas Convention, and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence.

Ellis was born and raised in Virginia, a settled in Alabama before moving to Texas. He was a member of Alabama’s state constitutional convention in 1818, and an Associate Justice of the Alabama State Supreme Court (1819-1826).

Ellis settled in Texas in 1834, establishing a planation in what is now Bowie County. In 1836 he was unanimously elected president of the Texas Convention that declared independence. He also held the convention together of the additional time needed to draft her first Constitution. He then served the Republic of Texas as a Senator from 1836 to 1840.

Richard died in Bowie County, but in 1929 he and his wife Mary were reinterred in the State Cemetery at Austin, Texas.

External link

• Ellis’ biography in Handbook of Texas Online at the University of Texas