Bonaventure Giffard, of the ancient Roman Catholic family of the Giffards of Chillington, Staffordshire, appointed Vicar-Apostolic of the Midland District, 1688. Like Bishop Leyburn, on the breaking out of the revolution, he was committed to the Tower, but was soon released, and on the condition of always making the place of his abode known to the government, he passed the remainder of his days unmolested. On the death of Bishop Leyburn in 1703, he was removed to the London, or southern district, where he died March 12, 1734, aged ninety. There is a good portrait of Bishop Giffard at the Roman Catholic College of Old Hall Green in Hertfordshire. Philip Ellis, third son of Rev. John Ellis, Rector of Waddesden, Bucks, by his wife Susanna Welbore, whilst a pupil in Westminster School, was called to the Catholic faith, and to the grace of religion, in St. Gregory's Convent, Douay, where he made his profession, 30th November, 1670, æt. eighteen. After duly qualifying himself for the ministry, he was sent to labour in the English vineyard. His great abilities recommended him to the notice of King James II., who appointed him one of his chaplains and preachers; and when Innocent XI., on 30th January, 1688, signified his wish that his majesty would nominate three fit subjects to fill the newly constituted vicariats, midland, northern, and western (for Dr. John Leyburn, Bishop of Adrumetum, during the last three years had governed the whole of England), Father Ellis, then thirty-six years of age, was selected for the western vicariat, and was consecrated bishop on Sunday, 6th May, 1688, at St. James's, where the king had established a convent of fourteen Benedictine monks, by the title of Aureliopolis. In the second week of July, the new prelate confirmed a considerable number of youths, some of them recent converts, in the new chapel of the Savoy. (_Ellis Correspondence_, vol. ii. p. 62.) In his letter (ibid. p. 145.) to his brother John, dated from St. James's, 26th August, 1688, he describes the uneasiness of the court at the preparations making in Holland by the Prince of {243} Orange. We doubt if this vicar-apostolic attempted to visit his diocese; for, on the breaking out of the revolution at London in the ensuing November, he was apprehended and committed to Newgate (Macaulay's _History_, vol. ii. p. 563.), yet he was soon restored to liberty. Foreseeing but faint hope of serving the cause of religion in such turbulent times, he left England for the court of his exiled sovereign at St. Germains, and, after staying some time, obtained permission to visit the Eternal City. In 1693 Pope Innocent XII. made him an assistant prelate; and on the feast of St. Louis, six years later, he sung the high mass at Rome, in the French church, before many cardinals, invited and received by the Cardinal de Bouillon. The Prince of Monacho, ambassador of France, being then incognito, assisted in a tribune. Resigning his western