William Elliot of Wells

Who was William Elliot of Wells?

William Elliot of Wells was an army officer, courtier, and Member of Parliament during the reign of George II.

The son of William Elliot of Wells, the younger William was christened 17 January 1696 at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster. Around 1720, he stood as legal guardian to Granville Elliott, the infant son of his elder sister Charlotte Elliot and her recently deceased husband Roger Elliott. He entered the army in 1722 as a cornet in the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, and in the following year joined Charles Churchill's Regiment of Dragoons as a captain. While serving under Col. Churchill, Elliot witnessed the will of Churchill's mistress, the celebrated actress Anne Oldfield, and was one of the pallbearers at her funeral in 1730.

Elliot inherited his father's estate of Wells, in Roxburghshire, in 1728.

In 1737, Elliot was commissioned as major of the 2nd Troop of Horse Grenadier Guards, of which he was made lieutenant-colonel in 1741. He fought at both Dettingen and Fontenoy, but resigned his commission in 1746. His eldest sister's son, George Augustus Eliott, was one of his subordinate officers in the 2nd Troop of Horse Grenadier Guards.