Ellis
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Ellis Genealogy
Elis (from the Greek Elias and the biblical Elijah) was a popular medieval name, having been adopted by some early saints. It became in Old English Elys or Elis and then Ellis. In Wales this surname seems to have absorbed forms derived from the Welsh personal name Elisedd, meaning one who is kindly and benevolent.
Ellis developed from an early time as a surname in North Wales and in the West Ridings of Yorkshire.
Wales. The Welsh patronymical style, such as Ellis ap Griffith, first applied. The name was mainly to be found in Merioneth (present day Gwynedd). This rural part of Wales became a hotbed first of nonconformity and then of nascent nationalism. The farmer Rowland Ellis, a convert to Quakerism, left Dolgellau for Pennsylvania with a hundred like-minded enthusiasts in 1686. They settled in Bryn Mawr, named after his farmhouse in Dolgellau and now a famous women's college. Other Quaker Ellises left for Pennsylvania in 1690 and 1707. Land evictions were the problem in the nineteenth century. Tom Ellis, the son of an evicted Bala tenant, was elected MP in 1886 on a nationalist program at the tender age of 27. Sadly he died young before his promise could be fulfilled.
England. The Yorkshire Ellises were equally as numerous. Sir John Ellis built Kiddal Hall near Barwick in the late fourteenth century and it stayed with the family for nearly four hundred years. There were clusters of Ellises in Halifax and elsewhere in the West Ridings.
A Quaker Ellis community established itself in Rotherham and later, further south and in a more substantial way, in Leicester. Starting as farmers, branches of this family in Leicester moved into a variety of merchant and banking businesses. John Ellis began the Leicester and Swimmington railway in the 1840's and became an MP and mayor of the borough. Less monetary-minded were a Quaker couple from Bradford, James and Mary Ellis, who moved to the west coast of Ireland at the time of the potato famine and embarked on a Quaker relief program for the people of Letterfrack.
There was as well an early Quaker Ellis community in Cornwall near St. Just. The Ellis name was to be found from the 1620's in Penzance and Redruth and in the Scilly Isles.
Ireland. Ellis appeared as Elys in Dublin in 1283 and has recurred frequently in Irish records in subsequent centuries in Dublin, Cork, and in various parts of Ulster. Patrick Ellis from Dublin was one of the first English settlers in South Africa, arriving there with British troops when they occupied the Cape in 1795. An earlier rover was Henry Ellis, from an English family in Monaghan County, who became a slave trader and was appointed governor of the British American colony of Georgia in 1757.
Canada. Ellises from Ireland were early immigrants into Newfoundland, from the 1790's. The town of Elliston is named after the Rev. William Ellis, a Methodist missionary from County Down. William Ellis ran a construction business in St. John's and helped rebuild the town after a devastating fire in 1892. He was appointed mayor of St. John's in 1910. Edward and Mary Ellis were early settlers in Puislinch township southwest of Toronto. Edward donated the land for the Ellis Methodist chapel that was built there in 1861.
There were a number of Ellises who headed west as the nineteenth century proceeded; such as Robert and Eliza who homesteaded near Fort Walsh in Saskatchewan in 1885; and Thomas and Sarah who moved to Calgary in 1886 and then onto Nanaimo in British Columbia in 1894.
America. Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the arrival point for immigrants to America in the late nineteenth century. The name was nothing special. A New York tradesman, Samuel Ellis, had bought the uninhabited island in the 1770's and gave it his name. But he resold the island thirty years later.
There were Ellis arrivals there or elsewhere on the East Coast from England, Wales, and Ireland. Edward Ellis had arrived in Virginia in 1636. His descendants settled in Tennessee and North Carolina. Daniel Ellis of Tennessee spun his Civil War stories into a popular book, The Thrilling Adventures of Daniel Ellis, that was published in 1867. Other Ellises moved onto Texas. In fact, by the twentieth century, the state of Texas had the largest number of Ellises in the United States.
Richard Ellis had left Virginia for Texas in 1834 while it was still part of Mexico. He set up his cotton plantation in Bowie County, attended the Texas convention in 1836, and was the one who signed the Texas Declaration of Indeprendence. William Ellis ran his sugar plantation in what is now Sugar Land before the Civil War on slave labor and after the war on convict labor. Later arrivals included MG Ellis, who started a cattle business in north Fort Worth, and James Ellis, who was a property developer in south Dallas at the turn of the century.
Caribbean. John Ellis was an early settler in Jamaica, having arrived there from Wrexham in the 1670's. The Ellises became one of Jamaica's leading planter families (until the nineteenth century when their estates were saddled with debts). The Ellis name has lived on in Jamaica - with Alton Ellis, the godfather of Rocksteady, and Hortense Ellis, who is acclaimed as Jamaica's First Lady of Songs.
Select Ellis Miscellany
Select Ellis Names
Sir John Ellis was the forebear of the Yotkshire Ellises in Kiddal Hall.
Rowland Ellis led the Welsh Quaker migration to Pennsylvania in the 1680's.
Richard Ellis was the signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836.
John Ellis was a prominent Quaker businessman in Leicester.
William Ellis was an early nineteenth century missionary in Hawaii and Madagascar.
William Webb Ellis was the Victorian clergyman often credited with the invention of the game of rugby football while a schoolboy at Rugby School.
Dowel Ellis was the mayor of Johannesburg after whom Ellis Park, South Africa's national rugby stadium, is named.
Peter Ellis is a historian and novelist, best known for his works on Celtic history and culture.
Select Ellises Today
Elis (from the Greek Elias and the biblical Elijah) was a popular medieval name, having been adopted by some early saints. It became in Old English Elys or Elis and then Ellis. In Wales this surname seems to have absorbed forms derived from the Welsh personal name Elisedd, meaning one who is kindly and benevolent.
Ellis developed from an early time as a surname in North Wales and in the West Ridings of Yorkshire.
Select Ellis Resources on The
Internet
- Ellis Families in the West Ridings. Yorkshire Ellis names and families.
- Quakers of Leicester.
Quaker Ellis history in Leicester.
- Calwalader Ellis and Descendants. Ellis from Merionethshire in Wales.
- Ellis Family History. Descendants of Edward Ellis of Virginia.
- Ellis Cousins. Texas-based Ellis discussion forum.
Wales. The Welsh patronymical style, such as Ellis ap Griffith, first applied. The name was mainly to be found in Merioneth (present day Gwynedd). This rural part of Wales became a hotbed first of nonconformity and then of nascent nationalism. The farmer Rowland Ellis, a convert to Quakerism, left Dolgellau for Pennsylvania with a hundred like-minded enthusiasts in 1686. They settled in Bryn Mawr, named after his farmhouse in Dolgellau and now a famous women's college. Other Quaker Ellises left for Pennsylvania in 1690 and 1707. Land evictions were the problem in the nineteenth century. Tom Ellis, the son of an evicted Bala tenant, was elected MP in 1886 on a nationalist program at the tender age of 27. Sadly he died young before his promise could be fulfilled.
England. The Yorkshire Ellises were equally as numerous. Sir John Ellis built Kiddal Hall near Barwick in the late fourteenth century and it stayed with the family for nearly four hundred years. There were clusters of Ellises in Halifax and elsewhere in the West Ridings.
A Quaker Ellis community established itself in Rotherham and later, further south and in a more substantial way, in Leicester. Starting as farmers, branches of this family in Leicester moved into a variety of merchant and banking businesses. John Ellis began the Leicester and Swimmington railway in the 1840's and became an MP and mayor of the borough. Less monetary-minded were a Quaker couple from Bradford, James and Mary Ellis, who moved to the west coast of Ireland at the time of the potato famine and embarked on a Quaker relief program for the people of Letterfrack.
There was as well an early Quaker Ellis community in Cornwall near St. Just. The Ellis name was to be found from the 1620's in Penzance and Redruth and in the Scilly Isles.
Ireland. Ellis appeared as Elys in Dublin in 1283 and has recurred frequently in Irish records in subsequent centuries in Dublin, Cork, and in various parts of Ulster. Patrick Ellis from Dublin was one of the first English settlers in South Africa, arriving there with British troops when they occupied the Cape in 1795. An earlier rover was Henry Ellis, from an English family in Monaghan County, who became a slave trader and was appointed governor of the British American colony of Georgia in 1757.
Canada. Ellises from Ireland were early immigrants into Newfoundland, from the 1790's. The town of Elliston is named after the Rev. William Ellis, a Methodist missionary from County Down. William Ellis ran a construction business in St. John's and helped rebuild the town after a devastating fire in 1892. He was appointed mayor of St. John's in 1910. Edward and Mary Ellis were early settlers in Puislinch township southwest of Toronto. Edward donated the land for the Ellis Methodist chapel that was built there in 1861.
There were a number of Ellises who headed west as the nineteenth century proceeded; such as Robert and Eliza who homesteaded near Fort Walsh in Saskatchewan in 1885; and Thomas and Sarah who moved to Calgary in 1886 and then onto Nanaimo in British Columbia in 1894.
America. Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the arrival point for immigrants to America in the late nineteenth century. The name was nothing special. A New York tradesman, Samuel Ellis, had bought the uninhabited island in the 1770's and gave it his name. But he resold the island thirty years later.
There were Ellis arrivals there or elsewhere on the East Coast from England, Wales, and Ireland. Edward Ellis had arrived in Virginia in 1636. His descendants settled in Tennessee and North Carolina. Daniel Ellis of Tennessee spun his Civil War stories into a popular book, The Thrilling Adventures of Daniel Ellis, that was published in 1867. Other Ellises moved onto Texas. In fact, by the twentieth century, the state of Texas had the largest number of Ellises in the United States.
Richard Ellis had left Virginia for Texas in 1834 while it was still part of Mexico. He set up his cotton plantation in Bowie County, attended the Texas convention in 1836, and was the one who signed the Texas Declaration of Indeprendence. William Ellis ran his sugar plantation in what is now Sugar Land before the Civil War on slave labor and after the war on convict labor. Later arrivals included MG Ellis, who started a cattle business in north Fort Worth, and James Ellis, who was a property developer in south Dallas at the turn of the century.
Caribbean. John Ellis was an early settler in Jamaica, having arrived there from Wrexham in the 1670's. The Ellises became one of Jamaica's leading planter families (until the nineteenth century when their estates were saddled with debts). The Ellis name has lived on in Jamaica - with Alton Ellis, the godfather of Rocksteady, and Hortense Ellis, who is acclaimed as Jamaica's First Lady of Songs.
Select Ellis Miscellany
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further stories and accounts:
Select Ellis Names
Sir John Ellis was the forebear of the Yotkshire Ellises in Kiddal Hall.
Rowland Ellis led the Welsh Quaker migration to Pennsylvania in the 1680's.
Richard Ellis was the signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836.
John Ellis was a prominent Quaker businessman in Leicester.
William Ellis was an early nineteenth century missionary in Hawaii and Madagascar.
William Webb Ellis was the Victorian clergyman often credited with the invention of the game of rugby football while a schoolboy at Rugby School.
Dowel Ellis was the mayor of Johannesburg after whom Ellis Park, South Africa's national rugby stadium, is named.
Peter Ellis is a historian and novelist, best known for his works on Celtic history and culture.
Select Ellises Today
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