Life

Ellis was born in Melidan, Flintshire

Flintshire

Flintshire is a county in north-east Wales. It borders Denbighshire, Wrexham and the English county of Cheshire. It is named after the historic county of Flintshire, which had notably different borders...

, in North Wales. He was educated at Jesus College, Oxford

Jesus College, Oxford

Jesus College is one of the colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship Street, Cornmarket Street and Market Street...

, matriculating

Matriculation

Matriculation, in the broadest sense, means to be registered or added to a list, from the Latin matricula – little list. In Scottish heraldry, for instance, a matriculation is a registration of armorial bearings...

 on 5 February 1728 at the age of 16. He obtained his B.A.

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree in 1731, and a B.D.

Bachelor of Divinity

In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology or, rarely, religious studies....

 degree in 1741. He was a Fellow of the college from 1731 to 1761, becoming Senior Fellow. In 1737, the college appointed him as curate

Curate

A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...

 of the church in Holyhead

Holyhead

Holyhead is the largest town in the county of Anglesey in the North Wales. It is also a major port adjacent to the Irish Sea serving Ireland....

, Anglesey

Anglesey

Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...

, where he was a supporter of the schools of Griffith Jones

Griffith Jones (Llanddowror)

Griffith Jones was a minister of the Church of England famous for his work in organising circulating schools in Wales. His name is usually associated with that of Llanddowror, Carmarthenshire....

, making efforts to see that the schools were regarded by the local people as Anglican rather than Methodist or Dissenting

Dissenter

The term dissenter , labels one who disagrees in matters of opinion, belief, etc. In the social and religious history of England and Wales, however, it refers particularly to a member of a religious body who has, for one reason or another, separated from the Established Church.Originally, the term...

 views. He published a warning against schism

Schism (religion)

A schism , from Greek σχίσμα, skhísma , is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization or movement religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a break of communion between two sections of Christianity that were previously a single body, or to a division within...

 in 1746, , and asked John Wesley

John Wesley

John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...

 (who visited Holyhead in March 1748) to make it clear that Wesley was advising Methodists not to leave the Church

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

. This led to Wesley's A Word to a Methodist, which Ellis translated into Welsh

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

 and had printed in Dublin as .

Ellis helped to promote the 1746 SPCK edition of the Welsh Bible

Welsh Bible

Bible translations into Welsh have existed since at least the 15th century, but the most widely used translation of the Bible into Welsh for several centuries was the 1588 translation by William Morgan, as revised in 1620...

, having earlier suggested that Richard Morris

Richard Morris (folklorist)

Richard Morris was a Welsh folklorist, a younger brother of Lewis Morris.Morris was born in Anglesey, one of four notable brothers whose surviving correspondence is a valuable record of the time. He went to work in London as a clerk and court interpreter. In 1757, he became Chief Clerk to the...

 be asked to supervise its production. He was a corresponding member of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion

Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion

The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion was founded in 1751 as a literary society devoted to the preservation of the Welsh language. It was founded by two brothers, Lewis Morris and Richard Morris, natives of Anglesey...

, set up by the Morris brothers. In 1759, Jesus College appointed him to the parish of Nutfield, Surrey

Nutfield, Surrey

Nutfield is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge district of Surrey. It has a population of 2,728The village lay within the Reigate hundred....

and his increased stipend meant that he could then afford to resign his fellowship and marry (which he did in 1762, having two children). Ellis died on 23 February 1792 in Nutfield at the age of 80.