By birth and education a Virginian and through residence from 1813 to 1825 an Alabaman jurist, Richard Ellis was claimed by Texas in 1836, when as president of the Constitutional Convention and as a member of the Congress of the young republic he steered the helm of state through troubled waters. Nurtured in the culture of the Old South and practiced in the application of law, he exercised courage, vision, and leadership on behalf of Texas. He was born February 14, 1781, and died December 20, 1846.