Ellington, Nathan

Born: 1805-05-31 Russell County, Virginia

Died: 1855-10-27 Coles County, Illinois

Ellington was an early settler of Coles County, Illinois. He was a schoolteacher in Charleston, and from 1831 to 1847 he served as county clerk and county recorder. From 1836 to 1855, Ellington served as clerk of the Coles County Circuit Court, a venue in which Abraham Lincoln regularly practiced law. In an infamous case, Ellington was murdered by his intoxicated son-in-law, who was later extrajudicially lynched by an angry mob.

The History of Coles County, Illinois (Chicago: Wm. Le Baron, Jr., 1879), 246-48, 283-84, 298; Gravestone, Old City Cemetery, Charleston, IL; For Lincoln's cases in Coles County, search "Coles County Circuit Court," Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org.